Sociolinguistic coordination devices in cross-cultural co-design interactions

The implementation of multi-agents systems aided collaborative and distributed design requires a deeper understanding of the real interactions between actors, inside of the multidisciplinary teams. In this view, it is considered that for the implementation of these systems, it is necessary to observe, model, and analyze this process with finer granularities levels. This study presents an approach of collaborative and distributed design process analysis. The core of this approach is the modeling of interactions between actors during the design process. The approach consists in discerning, from the real interactions and the emergence of concepts, the different characteristic state-problems of the collaborative and distributed design process. The analysis of state-problems, in a real experience of collaborative and distributed design process, shows that their dynamics is rather characterized by the numerous irregular leaps. These leaps, probably unforeseeable, show that the design process is far from harmonious. Indeed, these leaps depend strongly on either the structural causes, as the auto-organization inside the group, or on the human actions, as the creative character of the design process.

In order to solve the consistency and integration about process and process data that is produced in digital product collaborative development, digital collaborative design process model is presented, by detailed analyzing the integration requirement of collaborative design process and data. Based on this model, the CAX/DFX tools which are used in collaborative design are distributed and granule encapsulated by Federal Intelligent Product EnviRonment(FIPER); collaborative design process data produced by CAX/DFX tools is encapsulated based on the logic of Product Data Management (PDM) system’s workflow and is published as Webservice. FIPER is used to realize the collaborative design process flow that uses data Webservice to data exchange between PDM and uses encapsulated CAX/DFX tools to realize the design function. An example which realizes the integration of process design flow of a part is presented at the end of this paper. The collaborative design process flow is used to organize the collaborative process planning and to encapsulate the collaborative design data with Webservice in this example. The realization of this example manifested that the digital collaborative design product model has good practicability and the method of encapsulation for CAX/DFX tools and data Webservice is feasibility.

This study will use quantitative research methods to explore the impact of the creativity and professional background of collaborative design team members on the design process development. Two experiments were carried out. First, First, subjects with different academic backgrounds were selected to participate in the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). According to the test results, the subjects were divided into high, medium and low levels of creativity. Secondly, select 2 subjects at each level and set up a 6 members team to carry out a design task. Then we collect the semantic information in the experimental activities, and encode the data in time series, by structurally representing the data and information in the form of linkography, and analyze the link situation of each node and bring the node link data into the T-code parse algorithm, calculate the complexity, information (information content) and entropy data of every node. Finally, the team members’ performance in the design process is evaluated from multiple dimensions according to the fluctuations and changes of experimental data.The results showed that the level of creativity was positively related to the role of team members in collaborative design activities. In addition, teams with the same background are better than groups with different backgrounds in terms of fluency in the design process, conceptual evolution, and design direction and goals. However, from the development trend of the whole design stage, the team with different backgrounds has great development potential, and its design fluency tends to improve gradually, which is better than those with the same background in design divergence, novelty of design concept and design information implication.This research provides a visual reference for the study of complex design activities, improves the efficiency of design cognitive computing research, and lays a foundation for future design research.KeywordsDesign cognitionDesign processSemantic linkCreativityCollaborative design team

As we enter the third millennium, many organizations are forced to constantly pursue new strategies to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Examples include offering customers streams of new products and services, as well as continuously seeking to improve productivity, services and the effectiveness of product design, development and manufacturing processes. Consequently, new concepts, approaches and tools are emerging quickly as the globalization trend expands across the world. Product complexity, pressures to reduce production cycle time, the need for stakeholders’ contributions and multinational company as well as consumer requirements create the demand for sophisticated multi-designer collaborative virtual environments where product design can be shared and acted upon (Kunz, Christiansen, Cohen, Jin, & Levitt, 1998; Ragusa & Bochanek, 2001; Anderson, Esser & Interrante, 2003). Thus, researchers and practitioners recognize that collaboration is an essential aspect of contemporary, professional product design and development activities. The design process is collaborative by nature. Collaborative design fosters participation of stakeholders in any form during the design process. The design of a successful product is dependent on integrating information and experiences from a number of different knowledge domains. These domains include consumer (end-user) requirements, industrial designers’ professional design skills as well as manufacturers’ needs. This results in a product that performs at a functional as well as aesthetic level and that can be manufactured by the right process at the right price. End-user involvement is essential to product design, since products that do not achieve consumer satisfaction or meet consumer needs are doomed to fail (Schultz, 2001). Accurate understanding of user needs is an essential aspect in developing commercially successful products (Achilladelis, 1971). Hence, it is very important for industrial designers to gather the end-users’ needs and incorporate them into their designs. The involvement of manufacturers in the initial stages of the domestic product design process can lead to a dramatic reduction in a product’s development lifecycle time, also facilitating the coordination of the purchasing and engineering functions (Bochanek & Ragusa, 2001; Demirbilek, 2001). The increasing complexity of artifacts and the globalization of product development are changing research methodologies and techniques. A prime example of this includes the application of a virtual collaborative design environment (VCDE) for product design and manufacturing. This article focuses on the concept of virtual collaborative design. It describes a research effort to investigate cross-cultural collaboration in product development using online applications for domestic product design. The aim of this research is to investigate issues related to the virtual collaborative design (VCD) process, and to bring an understanding of stakeholder needs during the collaborative design process as well as to improve the relationships between end-users, designers and manufacturers. The article presents findings based on a survey study conducted with four different potential stakeholders: representatives of consumers, software designers, industrial designers and manufacturers.

Product design tends to be more complex and needs the effective cooperation among multidisciplinary designers and engineers. An ideal product design environment, which is both collaborative and intelligent, will be much appreciated. Agent technology is an innovative and promising approach to implementing distributed systems and is becoming popular in various areas of computing in recent years. In this paper, the dynamic nature of collaborative design process and the representation of collaborative design knowledge are presented. In order to model constantly evolving design process and the rationales resulted from collaboration, a Collaborative Product Data Model (CPDM), which extends traditional Product Data Model (PDM), and a constraint-based Collaborative Design Process Model (CDPM) are proposed. These are intended to facilitate the management and coordination of collaborative product design process and knowledge management. A design example is used to illustrate CDPM. While the system is being implemented, the architecture of our agent-based collaborative product design environment based on CPDM and CDPM is described.

How Community College design programs have linked up in developing curriculum and student projects in using collaborative design methods in the classroom. Project / presentation overview www.designcollaborative.org The design of manufactured parts at times requires a team effort. This team effort may also require having to work with other design teams that are separated by a great distance. Getting design and drafting programs to simulate this type of commercial interaction has been traditionally difficult. Our Design program at Sinclair Community College and the Design programs at Ventura College, and College of the Redwoods have teamed up to develop modular curriculum in collaborative design and created a design “out of the box” style project that can be used by any design or drafting course /program to get started in using collaborative design and working with other design programs. The presentation will focus on the development of the original collaborative design curriculum integration concept, how the concept has been implemented into our curriculum, the tools that are involved and how it can easily be placed into any curriculum of a drawing or design class. This presentation will also provide information on our National Science Foundation funded grant for faculty development on collaborative design and rapid prototyping /tooling. Community college and undergraduate faculty will have the opportunity to receive an immersive “hands on” look at applying this “out of the box” collaborative design or rapid prototyping curriculum beginning August 2005 at the campuses of Sinclair community College and Ventura College. This weeklong training program will provide an in depth look at how to integrate collaborative design into a curriculum, provide training in parametric design software and collaborative tools, and participate in a collaborative design process during the weeklong event. There is also a stipend available to help offset travel expenses. Beginning in the summer of 2005 a network of community college design programs will start a design resource bartering network focused on sharing resources that are used in design curriculum. As educational budgets get slashed across the United States every program cannot have the absolute latest tools used in design and rapid prototyping. Team up with other colleges from around the nation to participate in a barter of tools and resources with other design programs.

In a collaborative design process, design activities, people and design tools are connected each other for collaboratively finishing design tasks. A method based on complex network theory is proposed in this paper to analyze the performance of the process. Firstly, the collaborative design process is abstracted as a network named collaborative design network (CDN), and its elements of CDN, such as nodes, edges and weight of edges are defined. Then the topological and physical characteristics of the CDN are defined and analyzed for revealing its performances. Finally, a steam turbine rotor design process is studied as an example to illustrate the feasibility and availability of the proposed method.

This work aims at investigating and measuring the impact a collection of design patterns would have on collaborative interaction design processes. An initial case study was conducted involving 18 teams of students in Computer Science. Making use of a collection of design patterns for the design of synchronous applications, they were asked to design the GUI and the interaction process of applications which support synchronous collaboration in activities such as drawing, text editing, game solving, and searching. The results obtained through the case study focused on understanding: a) whether the format and the content of a collection of design patterns are easy to understand for novice designers, b) the strategies novice designers develop in working with a collection of design patterns, and c) the overall impact of using design patterns in collaborative design processes.

Analysis of interaction dynamics in collaborative and distributed design process

In this paper we present Fictional Inquiry, a collaborative Participatory Design technique that provides an approach that allows designers to shape the context of collaborative design activities. Fictional Inquiry allows designers to address specific issues when inquiring into existing use practices, or exploring the future in the collaborative design process. Fictional Inquiry entails bypassing existing socio-cultural structures by creating partially fictional situations, artifacts, and narratives that mediate collaborative design activities. In this paper we present the Fictional Inquiry technique through three cases that highlight the applicability of the technique when staging the design situation, evoking ideas for possible futures, and initiating organizational change. We present a general framework for understanding and staging Fictional Inquiry, and provide an account of how Fictional Inquiry was used in three quite different design situations.

This paper is focus on the collaborative design, which is an important process to enterprise. In a manufacture system, a good method can be captured to model the process of collaborative design. But the present process modeling techniques are not sufficient to model the process, which is are IDEF, UML and ARIS. Colored Petri nets is proposed to model the whole process of the collaborative design. The process of collaborative design is a dynamic process and the colored Petri nets can describe the process. The allocation of task, the conflict resolution and other processes are all expressed in the model. The result suggests that the model is suit to express the process of design and it is good to know the whole process of collaborative design. By doing it, the system can be realized successfully.

Cet article concerne des travailleurs qui souhaitent davantage intégrer le développement durable dans leurs activités et présente deux ateliers d’un dispositif pour soutenir la conception collaborative de nouveaux objets de travail dans ce contexte. Ces ateliers reposent sur : 1) onze Caractéristiques du Développement Durable (CDD) construites à partir de la littérature en ergonomie sur le développement durable, et 2) la volonté d’appréhender le changement comme un processus de conception collaborative qui soutient la projection dans le futur, mobilise les pairs et favorise l’expression des points de vue. Nous analysons l’activité de conception collaborative générée par les ateliers lors d’une journée d’accompagnement d’un collectif d’enseignants-chercheurs en Science du Sport. Les résultats soulignent le rôle décisif des ateliers, et plus particulièrement des CDD, dans la construction d’un sens commun entre les participants et pour favoriser une activité de conception collaborative orientée simultanément vers l’évolution de leurs objets de travail et vers une finalité de développement durable. Les CDD offrent un cadre structurant de la pensée tout en laissant une liberté totale dans le sens et l’interprétation portés à celles-ci puisqu’elles sont suffisamment « larges » pour que les participants se les approprient et les « remettent à leur main ». Les ateliers aident à la mise en réflexion des enjeux du développement durable et favorisent un débat constructif. Nous discutons des limites des ateliers et du dispositif actuels, et de notre étude, avant de conclure sur les perspectives d’appliquer ce dispositif à d’autres collectifs de travailleurs.

Based on the survey of existing research work on collaborative design and on our experiences and work in product growth design theory, a feasible approach—collaborative product growth design method to integrate the genetic engineering methodology, collaborating tools and web based information into the automatic design activity has been proposed in this paper. Firstly, the product growth design strategy and its characteristics are studied based on automation technology in the product structure design. Then, to guarantee a successful transformation and good use of existing product data and related product series on internet, the information exchange model and web based virtual design gene pool model in the process of product growth design are put forward. Finally, the mechanism of the combination of product growth design and collaborative design process are described, and the framework of collaborative design based product growth design system is introduced. Through theoretical study and hard development work interesting and useful results have been obtained.

“What's the brief?” is an everyday question within the graphic design process. Moreover, the concept and importance of a design brief is overtly understood well beyond design practice itself—especially among stakeholders who work with designers and clients who commission design services. Indeed, a design brief is often an assumed and expected physical or metaphoric artefact for guiding the creative process. When a brief is lacking, incomplete or unclear, it can render an already ambiguous graphic design process and discipline even more fraught with misinterpretation. Nevertheless, even in wider design discourse, there appears to be little research on design briefs and the briefing process (Jones and Askland; Paton and Dorst). It seems astonishing that, even in Peter Phillips’s 2014 edition of Creating the Perfect Design Brief, he feels compelled to comment that “there are still no books available about design briefs” and that the topic is only “vaguely” covered within design education (21). While Phillips’s assertion is debatable if one draws purely from online vernacular sources or professional guides, it is supported by the lack of scholarly attention paid to the design brief. Graphic design briefs are often mentioned within design books, journals, and online sources. However, this article argues that the format, function and use of such briefs are largely assumed and rarely identified and studied. Even within the broader field of design research, the tendency appears to be to default to “the design brief” as an assumed shorthand, supporting Phillips’s argument about the nebulous nature of the topic. As this article contextualises, this is further problematised by insufficient attention cast on graphic design itself as a specific discipline. This article emerges from a wider, multi-stage creative practice study into graphic design practice, that used experimental performative design research methods to investigate graphic designers’ professional relationships with stakeholders (Meron, Strangely). The article engages with specific outcomes from that study that relate to the design brief. The article also explores existing literature and research and argues for academics, the design industry, and educationalists, to focus closer attention on the design brief. It concludes by suggesting that experimental and collaborative design methods offers potential for future research into the design brief. Contextualising the Design Brief It is critical to differentiate the graphic design brief from the operational briefs of architectural design (Blyth and Worthington; Khan) or those used in technical practices such as software development or IT systems design, which have extensive industry-formalised briefing practices and models such as the waterfall system (Petersen et al.) or more modern processes such as Agile (Martin). Software development and other technical design briefs are necessarily more formulaically structured than graphic design briefs. Their requirements are generally empirically and mechanistically located, and often mission-critical. In contrast, the conceptual nature of creative briefs in graphic design creates the potential for them to be arbitrarily interpreted. Even in wider design discourse, there appears to be little consistency about the form that a brief takes. Some sources indicate that a brief only requires one page (Elebute; Nov and Jones) or even a single line of text (Jones and Askland). At other times briefs are described as complex, high-level documents embedded within processes which designers respond to with the aim of producing end products to satisfy clients’ requirements (Ambrose; Patterson and Saville). Ashby and Johnson (40) refer to the design brief as a “solution neutral” statement, the aim being to avoid preconceptions or the narrowing of the creative possibilities of a project. Others describe a consultative (Walsh), collaborative and stakeholder-inclusive process (Phillips). The Scholarly Brief Within scholarly design research, briefs inevitably manifest as an assumed artefact or process within each project; but the reason for their use or antecedents for chosen formats are rarely addressed. For example, in “Creativity in the Design Process” (Dorst and Cross) some elements of the design brief are described. The authors also describe at what stage of the investigation the brief is introduced and present a partial example of the brief. However, there is no explanation of the form of the brief or the reasons behind it. They simply describe it as being typical for the design medium, adding that its use was considered a critical part of addressing the design problem. In a separate study within advertising (Johar et al.), researchers even admit that the omission of crucial elements from the brief—normally present in professional practice—had a detrimental effect on their results. Such examples indicate the importance of briefs for the design process, yet further illustrating the omission of direct engagement with the brief within the research design, methodology, and methods. One exception comes from a study amongst business students (Sadowska and Laffy) that used the design brief as a pedagogical tool and indicates that interaction with, and changes to, elements of a design brief impact the overall learning process of participants, with the brief functioning as a trigger for that process. Such acknowledgement of the agency of a design brief affirms its importance for professional designers (Koslow et al.; Phillips). This use of a brief as a research device informed my use of it as a reflective and motivational conduit when studying graphic designers’ perceptions of stakeholders, and this will be discussed shortly. The Professional Brief Professionally, the brief is a key method of communication between designers and stakeholders, serving numerous functions including: outlining creative requirements, audience, and project scope; confirming project requirements; and assigning and documenting roles, procedures, methods, and approval processes. The format of design briefs varies from complex multi-page procedural documents (Patterson and Saville; Ambrose) produced by marketing departments and sent to graphic design agencies, to simple statements (Jones and Askland; Elebute) from small to medium-sized businesses. These can be described as the initial proposition of the design brief, with the following interactions comprising the ongoing briefing process. However, research points to many concerns about the lack of adequate briefing information (Koslow, Sasser and Riordan). It has been noted (Murray) that, despite its centrality to graphic design, the briefing process rarely lives up to designers’ expectations or requirements, with the approach itself often haphazard. This reinforces the necessarily adaptive, flexible, and compromise-requiring nature of professional graphic design practice, referred to by design researchers (Cross; Paton and Dorst). However, rather than lauding these adaptive and flexible designer abilities as design attributes, such traits are often perceived by professional practitioners as unequal (Benson and Dresdow), having evolved by the imposition by stakeholders, rather than being embraced by graphic designers as positive designer skill-sets. The Indeterminate Brief With insufficient attention cast on graphic design as a specific scholarly discipline (Walker; Jacobs; Heller, Education), there is even less research on the briefing process within graphic design practice (Cumming). Literature from professional practice on the creation and function of graphic design briefs is often formulaic (Phillips) and fractured. It spans professional design bodies, to templates from mass-market printers (Kwik Kopy), to marketing-driven and brand-development approaches, in-house style guides, and instructional YouTube videos (David). A particularly clear summary comes from Britain’s Design Council. This example describes the importance of a good design brief, its requirements, and carries a broad checklist that includes the company background, project aims, and target audience. It even includes stylistic tips such as “don’t be afraid to use emotive language in a brief if you think it will generate a shared passion about the project” (Design Council). From a subjective perspective, these sources appear to contain sensible professional advice. However, with little scholarly research on the topic, how can we know that, for example, using emotive language best informs the design process? Why might this be helpful and desirable (or otherwise) for designers? These varied approaches highlight the indeterminate treatment of the design brief. Nevertheless, the very existence of such diverse methods communicates a pattern of acknowledgement of the criticality of the brief, as well as the desire, by professional bodies, commentators, and suppliers, to ensure that both designers and stakeholders engage effectively with the briefing process. Thus, with such a pedagogic gap in graphic design discourse, scholarly research into the design brief has the potential to inform vernacular and formal educational resources. Researching the Design Brief The research study from which this article emerges (Meron, Strangely) yielded outcomes from face-to-face interviews with eleven (deidentified) graphic designers about their perceptions of design practice, with particular regard to their professional relationships with other creative stakeholders. The study also surveyed online discussions from graphic design forums and blog posts. This first stage of research uncovered feelings of lacking organisational gravitas, creative ownership, professional confidence, and design legitimacy among the designers in relation to stakeholders. A significant causal factor pointed to practitioners’ perceptions of lacking direct access to and involvement with key sources of creative inspiration and information; one

Purpose To describe the process and outcome of a user and theory informed online intervention for speech pathologists targeting the implementation of intensive and comprehensive aphasia services. Methods The design process followed the eight steps outlined by the Behaviour Change Wheel and incorporated the principles of Integrated Knowledge Translation (IKT). Eight speech pathology researchers and clinicians from four countries (Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland) contributed to three focus groups via videoconference. Results The online platform, Aphasia Nexus: Connecting Evidence to Practice, provides resources, guidance and support for speech pathologists seeking to improve the intensity and comprehensiveness of their aphasia service. A collaborative and iterative design process facilitated the creation of an intervention envisioned by participants. Conclusions The website contains both interactive elements and resource links which have been arranged under the three headings of resources, action and support. The inclusion of multi-national researchers and clinicians benefitted a design process to make implementation more likely. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Theoretically informed implementation interventions aim to change the everyday clinical practice of health workers. An online platform has been developed to support speech pathologists’ implementation of intensive and comprehensive aphasia services. A collaborative design process can be beneficial in creating an intervention that is relevant to research-users and is more likely to be implemented.