A Proposition to Capitalize and Share the Logic of Design

Abstract

In collaborative design, an important problem comes from losses of time. The time spent in the clarification of ideas and management of uncertainties often concerns actions or decisions made by other designers during asynchronous work. To act, communicate, capitalize and interact, designers use a certain number of means: drawings, diagrams... called “intermediate objects” (IO). However, if an IO permits the synchronous cooperation inside a group, it is in general not explicit enough for the actors who didn’t contribute to its development. In particular, the logic behind its creation is hard to understand. Today, software enables some annotations to be transferred to the numerical model, but in an unstructured way. We propose here a model for structuring the designer’s act capitalization in structured annotation fields linked to the parts of the numerical model manipulated during these actions. We used an experimental approach. A design experiment has been recorded (here to design an oscillating arm for a motorcycle). We analyzed the object under construction and the actions produced. A coding of these actions was used: design acts. They qualify demands for and propositions of information, solution, evaluation, organization, agreement, and decision. Then, we linked them to the part of the IO under modification. The history is kept, and can be used. The major contribution comes however from the possibility of retracing, for a given solution, the local evolution in order to rebuild the context of its creation. This model representation should contribute to specifying tools to assist distant collaborative design, especially asynchronous design.