Toward an Experiential Design Language: Augmenting Model-based Systems Engineering with Technical Storytelling in Virtual Worlds

Abstract

Systems engineering has made significant strides over the last decade with the advent of Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and the Systems Engineering Markup Language (SysML). These advances have made it possible for collaborative engineering teams to communicate using a common language and share information in the form of digital models rather than hard-to-maintain paper documents. One major advance that needs to occur next is enhancing systems engineering languages to address the needs of all stakeholders especially non-engineers. In this paper, we advance the proposition that recent advances in systems modeling, virtual world building, and technical storytelling are the key enablers of next generation systems engineering and systems engineering languages. To this end, this paper presents an innovative approach for developing an experiential design language that augments existing systems engineering language (i.e., SysML) with new perspectives informed by exploration and storytelling in virtual worlds. This language is intended to allow all stakeholders to understand and collaborate on system designs without having to learn engineering notation, and bring to bear their unique perspectives during collaborative system design. Furthermore, immersive experiences made possible by storytelling in the virtual world can potentially illuminate key system interactions and behaviors, allowing all stakeholders to make meaningful contributions in upfront systems engineering. The benefits and payoffs of the experiential design language are: increased participation of all stakeholders in upfront systems engineering; superior collaboration among stakeholders by allowing them to focus on different system levels and perspectives; and elegant system design by getting the architecture right the first time with minimum structural complexity.