Philip Cash

Conceptual Design. Interpretations, Mindset and Models

Maximisingreader insights into the theory, models, methods and fundamental reasoning of design, this book addresses design activities in industrial settings, as well as the actors involved. This approach offers readers a new understanding of design activities and related functions, properties and dispositions. Presenting a design mindset that seeks to empower students, researchers, and practitioners alike, it features a strong focus on how designers create new concepts to be developed into products, and how they generate new business and satisfy human needs. Employing a multi-faceted perspective, the book supplies the reader with a comprehensive worldviewof design in the form of a proposed model that will empower their activities as student, researcher or practitioner. We draw the reader into the core role ofdesign conceptualisationfor society, for the development of industry, for users and buyers of products, and for citizens in relation to public systems. The book also features original contributions related to exploration,conceptualisationand product synthesis. Exploring both the power and limitations of formal design process models, methods, and tools viewed in the light of human ingenuity and cognition, the book develops a unique design mindset that adds human understanding to the list of methods and tools essential to design. This insight is distilled into useful mindset heuristics included throughout the book

Prototyping with your hands: the many roles of gesture in the communication of design concepts

ABSTRACT There is an on-going focus exploring the use of gesture in design situations; however, there are still significant questions as to how this is related to the understanding and communication of design concepts. This work explores the use of gesture through observing and video-coding four teams of engineering graduates during an ideation session. This was used to detail the relationship between the function behaviour structure elements and individual gestures as well as to identify archetypal gesture sequences – compound reflective, compound directed one-way, mirroring, and modification. Gesture sequences occurred at critical periods during the design session, such as idea evolution and developing shared understanding. They are used to act out design concepts, repeat and learn from sequences, and establish shared understanding. Finally, a number of implications are identified for both researchers and those seeking to support practice.

A foundational observation method for studying design situations

Observational studies of designers play an important role in engineering design research, yet there is currently no accepted standard approach for comparing, combining, or contrasting studies. Consequentially, reuse, reanalysis, replication, and aggregation of data are limited and the potential impact of individual studies is severely constrained. This paper begins to address this issue by introducing and developing a foundational method for observational design research to improve replicability, reuse, and overall comparability of empirical studies. A three-step foundational method is proposed that covers capture, coding, and analysis. The capture step defines overall and situational context as well as multiple capture streams, generating a broad data-set that can be examined from multiple perspectives. The coding step employs a multi-level approach that seeks to minimise workload while describing both detailed and high-level information. The analysis step builds on the multi-level approach to provide for a flexible yet standardised examination of the data-set. The overall approach is introduced theoretically and illustrated using a comparison of an industrial study and an experimental study. Finally, it is argued that the proposed method promotes rigour, reliability, and standardisation; and could provide one means for improving comparison and aggregation, ultimately increasing impact in academia and practice.

Experimental design research : Approaches, perspectives, applications

This book presents a new, multidisciplinary perspective on and paradigm for integrative experimental design research. It addresses various perspectives on methods, analysis and overall research app ...

A dynamic approach to real-time performance measurement in design projects

ABSTRACT Recent developments in engineering design management point to the need for more dynamic, fine-grain measurement approaches able to deal with multi-dimensional, cross-level process performance in product design. Thus, this paper proposes a new approach to the measurement and management of individual and teamwork performance in engineering design projects. This integrates multiple, previously disparate, aspects of design management and performance measurement theory in a single framework. Further, a fully realised performance measurement approach is developed, which complements existing management strategies. This framework is synthesised from an extensive review and illustrated via an in-depth case study. As such, this work contributes to performance measurement theory in engineering design and has significant implications for both engineering design research and industry.

Supporting the development of shared understanding in distributed design teams

ABSTRACT Distributed teams are an increasingly common feature of engineering design work. One key factor in the success of these teams is the development of short- and longer-term shared understanding. A lack of shared understanding has been recognized as a significant challenge, particularly in the context of globally distributed engineering activities. A major antecedent for shared understanding is question asking and feedback. Building on question-asking theory this work uses a quasi-experimental study to test the impact of questioning support on homogeneous and heterogeneous teams. The results show significant improvement in shared understanding for both team types (27% improvement for heterogeneous and 16% for homogeneous), as well as substantial differences in how this improvement is perceived. This extends theoretical insight on the development of shared understanding and contributes one of few empirical studies directly comparing homogeneous and heterogeneous teams in the engineering design context. This has implications for how distributed teams can be more effectively supported in practice, as well as how shared understanding can be facilitated in engineering design.

An Introduction to Experimental Design Research

Design research brings together influences from the whole gamut of social, psychological, and more technical sciences to create a tradition of empirical study stretching back over 50 years (Horvath 2004; Cross 2007). A growing part of this empirical tradition is experimental, which has gained in importance as the field has matured. As in other evolving disciplines, e.g. behavioural psychology, this maturation brings with it ever-greater scientific and methodological demands (Reiser 1939; Dorst 2008). In particular, the experimental paradigm holds distinct and significant challenges for the modern design researcher. Thus, this book brings together leading researchers from across design research in order to provide the reader with a foundation in experimental design research; an appreciation of possible experimental perspectives; and insight into how experiments can be used to build robust and significant scientific knowledge. This chapter sets the stage for these discussions by introducing experimental design research, outlining the various types of experimental approach, and explaining the role of this book in the wider methodological context.

The Design Process

The third element in the design machinery can be seen as part of the staging, but has such a major role that it needs its own treatment here in this chapter and further detailing in Chaps. 6– 10. Understanding and mastering an effective sequence of activities normally leads to a preferred, explicit design process as part of practice. In this chapter we highlight what really influences the composition of a process fitted for the actual task, context, and organization. We emphasize its dependency on human thinking and the artefacts’ nature, its role in supporting and managing the design activity, and its shaping into procedure. Our proposal for a design process, the Encapsulation Design Model, is a guide to understanding design’s nature, a framework for creating a fitted procedure, and a backbone for the application of models, approaches, and methods.

Product Life Synthesis

Product Life Synthesis is not only determined by the design activity but also by the context in which the product is deployed. This type of synthesis also takes place during the product’s lifecycle activities where life systems are established and utilized. In this last design phase, we identify three key influences from the finalized product development activity: need satisfaction and new business are established, and the product’s manufacture and utilization leads to environmental impacts. When these are better than earlier effects, we have innovation. Understanding innovation has its roots in understanding lifecycle conditions. In this chapter, we focus on these effects and how designers are able to influence them

Change, Development, and Conceptualization: Setting the Scene

From a design perspective, our society is a result of the incremental development of numerous societal systems into a complex web over thousands of years. Societal and human demands are met by our efforts to develop new knowledge and technologies, and deploy these in products and systems. Our focus here is on this transition into products and systems via more or less industrialized design processes. In exploring this we take an ‘onion peeling’ approach to gradually dig down from the fundamental nature of developing societal systems to our final focus on conceptualization and design. We explore how the creation of influential, sustainable, and valuable products requires the designer to empathically and technically understand the wider societal context and consequences of their actions. Thus, we close this chapter by outlining the designer’s role and challenges in this context, mirrored by what we see as the role of this book.