May Bassanino

Intentions, practices and aspirations: Understanding learning in design

Abstract This paper is about learning in design and how can we measure this learning. The work reported here is based on a study of the actual practice of procurement, design and construction of a number of clients who repeatedly commission work of a similar nature. The paper sets out the background of a project entitled LEAF (Learning from Experience—Applying Feedback) which developed a generic model to assist organisations in understanding their situation. The discussion develops the LEAF evaluation model and explains its use describing all its parameters.

Can virtual workspaces enhance team communication and collaboration in design review meetings

The development of software to facilitate collaborative working among project teams has been an active research area for the last two decades. However, the recent impetus in deploying Building Information Models (BIMs) in construction has brought teamwork to the forefront and, therefore, it is important to conduct an in-depth study as to how BIM could be complemented with advances in visualisation and interaction technology to enhance team communication and collaboration. Effective tools that bring critical data and stakeholders together to solve design challenges have the potential to produce optimised solutions, reduce the number of meetings, improve communication and, consequently, delivery times. This paper explores how virtual workspaces supported with advanced visualisation and interaction techniques can enhance team communication and collaboration. It explores the type of communication channels necessary for supporting team collaboration with the use of both public and private workspaces that are essential for supporting individual and team exploration. These features are then implemented and tested using a collaborative design scenario. This research shows that the implementation of direct and indirect communication channels within virtual workspaces can significantly enhance team communication and collaboration. Furthermore, it shows that the use of a private workspace can assist individuals to contribute creatively to team activities.

Solving the Human Problem: Investigation of a Collaboration Culture

It is often acknowledged that group work efficiency can only be achieved if co-workers adopt an adequate group culture. Collaboration should therefore be supported by the right culture, and tools aiming at enhancing collaboration should also facilitate the adoption of this collaboration culture.This paper therefore explores the underlying concepts involved in the creation of a collaboration culture within a team. It follows a formal approach by drawing on motivation, group building and schema theories to identify the core elements of such a culture. This focus on the social psychological enables the justification that collaboration efficiency can only be reached if groups adopt a learning, communicative culture, and develop values such as trust and respect.The conclusion of this paper could be used to assess the efficiency of collaborative tools and to enable the teaching of collaboration.

A Novel Hybrid Engineering Methodology to Enhance Collaboration During the Design and Development of Meta Product Services

Since the Product-Service System (PSS) is accompanied by a paradigm shift towards the sustainability of the production process, it demands an advanced level of collaboration throughout the design and development process. This poses new challenges to enhance collaboration among cross-sectional, multi-disciplinary design teams in order to incorporate a variety of interdisciplinary services in a complex service-oriented system. Therefore, a new collaboration methodology is needed to reduce barriers to collaboration in a cross- organizational structure domain. This research work aims at highlighting the collaboration challenges that Meta-Product design teams face and also proposes a novel methodology to enhance collaboration among multi-disciplinary teams. The proposed methodology is a hybrid engineering model designed by integrating an Information Delivery Manual approach with a traditional software development process along with three interlinked collaboration services.