Multidisciplinary Design Team Research Articles

Evidence-Based Design of Elementary and Secondary Schools: A Responsive Approach to Creating Learning Environments

314 Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 22 No. 1 (Spring 2012) ISSN: 1546-2250 Evidence-Based Design of Elementary and Secondary Schools: A Responsive Approach to Creating Learning Environments Lippman, Peter C. (2010). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons; 337 pages. $85.00. ISBN 9780470289105. Evidence-Based Design of Elementary and Secondary Schools is a book written for design professionals that links research-based principles to theories, methods, and best practices for learning space design. It is intended to address the needs of 21st -century students and educators. The author, Peter Lippman, is a school design specialist. He worked as a senior architectural staff member at JCL Architecture in New York City and served as chair for the New York chapter of the AIA Committee on Architecture for Education. Lippman shares his thorough knowledge of programming, planning, and design for learning spaces through dense, scholarly writing that should prove valuable for design and educational professionals, as well as researchers interested in the relationship between pedagogy and the built form of educational environments. The scope and organization of this book also make it an excellent candidate for a course textbook in upper-level undergraduate or graduate architectural studies. Evidence-based design is an integrative process of designing that is transforming the way that architecture and related design disciplines are taught, practiced, and evaluated (Dickinson and Marsden 2009). While it has not yet been widely adopted by the design professions, evidence-based design has greatly influenced the field of healthcare design (Malkin 2008). This is due in part because the very definition of evidence-based design was evolved from evidence-based medicine (Hamilton and Watkins 2009). The Center for Health Design (CHD) defines evidence-based design as “the deliberate attempt to base building decisions on the best available research evidence with the goal of improving outcomes and of continuing to monitor the success or failure for subsequent 315 decision making” (Ulrich et al. 2004). Evidence-based design typically occurs during the pre-design phase, and again during postoccupancy evaluation and is distinguished from traditional architectural design by the use of multidisciplinary design teams and the application of scientific methods to the design process (Hamilton and Watkins 2009). Current thinking in the field emphasizes the collaborative and participatory nature of this process. Architects have long based their designs on some forms of evidence, such as building codes, historical precedents, personal experiences, “best practice” examples, and tacit knowledge (Dickinson and Marsden 2009; Hamilton and Watkins 2009; Schon 1983). Yet the profession has been lacking a research tradition based on empirical investigation. Lippman proposes to fill this gap with a “responsive” approach to design that is user-centric, sitespecific , and grounded in scientific qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. His book is organized into ten chapters that oscillate between detailed procedural descriptions about architectural practices, broad themes linking evidence from learning science to the formal organization of learning spaces and school buildings, and case examples of learning spaces and schools. The first three chapters provide readers with foundational knowledge and practical strategies for incorporating empirical evidence in the design of learning spaces. Chapter 1 situates evidence-based design within an historical overview of architectural theory and practice in the 20th century. Chapter 2 examines the relationship between learning environments and student-teacher behaviors and introduces Lippman’s responsive approach to design. He describes responsive design as being grounded in knowledge of historical precedents, current scholarly literature on learning theory, and an understanding of the role of technology in the learning process. A responsive approach also assumes that the learner is an active agent who acquires knowledge in an environment that stimulates inquiry and fosters social interaction. Chapter 3 provides an overview of data collection techniques and research methodologies and their application to architectural programming and commissioning phases. 316 Chapters 5, 6, and 7 address learning theories, knowledge acquisition, and pedagogy with respect to learning space design. Chapter 5 provides an overview of significant learning theories such as behaviorism, social constructivism, and multiple intelligences. Chapter 6 considers the role of information technology in knowledge acquisition and suggests that learning space definitions include alternative environments facilitated by the Internet and social media. Chapter 7 examines the Reggio Emilia, Montessori, and...

Using a semiotic classification to characterise objects involved in collaborative design

This paper addresses the problem of expression and sharing of domain-specific constraints and knowledge in engineering design. Pierce’s theory of signs allows understanding why purely graphical 3D CAD systems partially fail to support design teams during design review meetings and more generally during collaborative design episodes. This theory can help us to go further in analysing annotation systems as symbolic systems of signs and we draw a parallel with the 2D standard drawing system, as they have the same semiotic nature. We show that semantic annotations can be considered to improve the semiotic richness in 3D CAD representations. A case study illustrates the need for cooperation support to multidisciplinary design teams. In this paper, we support the idea that future design tools should integrate both symbolic and iconic types of representations so that the designers could freely build shared representations taking advantage of the whole symbolic-iconic spectrum. We propose future developments reconciling the graphical precision of 3D digital models with the semantic richness of symbolic systems of signs.

A Meta-Design Model for Creative Distributed Collaborative Design

As collaboration in creating software systems becomes more complex and frequent among multidisciplinary teams, finding new strategies to support this collaboration becomes crucial. The challenge is to bridge the communication gaps among stakeholders with diverse cultural and professional backgrounds. Moreover, future uses and issues cannot be completely anticipated at design time, and it is necessary to develop open-ended software environments that can be evolved and tailored in opportunistic ways to tackle co-evolution of users and systems. A conceptual meta-design model, the Hive-Mind Space (HMS) model, has been proposed to support multidisciplinary design teams’ collaboration and foster their situated innovation. The model provides localized habitable environments for diverse stakeholders and tools for them to tailor the system, allowing the co-evolution of systems and practices. The authors explore the possibility of utilizing boundary objects within the HMS model to facilitate the communication amongst stakeholders as well as their participation in the creative distributed design process. Two concrete case studies, a factory automation and the Valchiavenna Portal, demonstrate the implementation of the HMS model and provide a possible solution to overcome the complex, evolving and emerging nature of the collaborative design.

Rationale, design, and implementation protocol of an electronic health record integrated clinical prediction rule (iCPR) randomized trial in primary care

BackgroundClinical prediction rules (CPRs) represent well-validated but underutilized evidence-based medicine tools at the point-of-care. To date, an inability to integrate these rules into an electronic health record (EHR) has been a major limitation and we are not aware of a study demonstrating the use of CPR's in an ambulatory EHR setting. The integrated clinical prediction rule (iCPR) trial integrates two CPR's in an EHR and assesses both the usability and the effect on evidence-based practice in the primary care setting.MethodsA multi-disciplinary design team was assembled to develop a prototype iCPR for validated streptococcal pharyngitis and bacterial pneumonia CPRs. The iCPR tool was built as an active Clinical Decision Support (CDS) tool that can be triggered by user action during typical workflow. Using the EHR CDS toolkit, the iCPR risk score calculator was linked to tailored ordered sets, documentation, and patient instructions. The team subsequently conducted two levels of 'real world' usability testing with eight providers per group. Usability data were used to refine and create a production tool. Participating primary care providers (n = 149) were randomized and intervention providers were trained in the use of the new iCPR tool. Rates of iCPR tool triggering in the intervention and control (simulated) groups are monitored and subsequent use of the various components of the iCPR tool among intervention encounters is also tracked. The primary outcome is the difference in antibiotic prescribing rates (strep and pneumonia iCPR's encounters) and chest x-rays (pneumonia iCPR only) between intervention and control providers.DiscussionUsing iterative usability testing and development paired with provider training, the iCPR CDS tool leverages user-centered design principles to overcome pervasive underutilization of EBM and support evidence-based practice at the point-of-care. The ongoing trial will determine if this collaborative process will lead to higher rates of utilization and EBM guided use of antibiotics and chest x-ray's in primary care.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01386047

The role of Game Discourse Analysis and curiosity in creating engaging and effective serious games by implementing a back story and foreshadowing

A challenge for serious games designers is to integrate learning with entertainment. For this purpose, the generation of curiosity using the foreshadowing/back story technique is promising. To implement this technique we propose the Game Discourse Analysis (GDA) which discerns between information flow (i.e. the sequence of information elements in a chronological order) and game discourse (i.e. the manipulation of the information flow to make the game more engaging and effective). We elaborate on the GDA and describe how two of the authors applied it in order to implement foreshadowing/back story in the game ReMission. The GDA was found to have potential as a communication tool for multidisciplinary design teams. Also, two problems were signaled: (1) creating an information flow is laborious and designers may benefit from automating parts of the GDA; (2) substantial deviations from the optimal information flow by players’ actions may interfere with the intention of the game discourse. Additionally, in an experiment we tested the impact of this GDA supported manipulation on engagement (curiosity) and learning. We found that the GDA-supported foreshadowing/back story yielded more curiosity, but that it did not yield learning.

Demand-Compliant Design

In this paper, we describe, in detail, a design method that assures that the designed product satisfies a set of prescribed demands while, at the same time, providing a concise representation of the design that facilitates communication in multidisciplinary design teams. This Demand Compliant Design (DeCoDe) method was in itself designed to comply with a set of demands. The demands on the method were determined by an analysis of some of the most widely used design methods and from the needs arising in the practice of design for quality. We show several modes of use of the DeCoDe method and illustrate with examples.

(A142) Simulated Evacuation of Three Critical Hospital Departments: A Comparison

BackgroundAccording to the Belgian Hospital Disaster Planning Act, all hospitals are required to have written disaster plans and to routinely conduct annual disaster drills. In 2010, three neighboring hospitals organized independently from each other an evacuation exercise of a critical care department (CCD): two university hospitals of a Dialysis Center and a One-day Surgery Clinic respectively and the military hospital of a Burn Unit.AimTo compare these CCD's evacuation plans and drills and the overall hospital emergency incident response and command system.Methods and ResultsConducting an evacuation exercise in a CCD, moving vulnerable highly dependent people towards an alternative shelter site is challenging, causing an important burden to ongoing medical specialist care, working staff and critical infrastructure. In all three CCD, it was decided to conduct a simulated evacuation exercise following an internal fire, thereby deploying fashioned simulated patients and visitors but bringing into action the regular attending medical, nursing and logistic staff. In each hospital a multidisciplinary design team was launched, consisting of the hospitals disaster preparedness coordinator, the EMS-staff, external emergency incident management and operational engineering experts. The appointed objectives for evaluation were the knowledge of the regular evacuation drills, especially the clearance of an intensive care or an operating room; access to evacuation routes; visibility of safety guidelines; need of specific evacuation equipment for the movement of patients; mission and tasks of the hospital's first response team and the medical incident manager; communication and information flow and the establishment of the hospital's coordination committee.Conclusion1. Simulated hospital evacuation exercises increased the hospital emergency preparedness, awareness and response to disasters within the hospital, in particular in a CCD, otherwise difficult to assess. 2. All three CCD experienced the same challenges and identified similar flaws. 3. A hospital disaster exercise manual might be of valuable help.

Adapting an in‐person patient–caregiver communication intervention to a tailored web‐based format

Interventions that target cancer patients and their caregivers have been shown to improve patient-caregiver communication, support, and emotional well-being. To adapt an in-person communication intervention for cancer patients and caregivers to a web-based format, and to examine the usability and acceptability of the web-based program among representative users. A tailored, interactive web-based communication program for cancer patients and their family caregivers was developed based on an existing in-person, nurse-delivered intervention. The development process involved: (1) building a multidisciplinary team of content and web design experts, (2) combining key components of the in-person intervention with the unique tailoring and interactive features of a web-based platform, and (3) conducting focus groups and usability testing to obtain feedback from representative program users at multiple time points. Four focus groups with 2-3 patient-caregiver pairs per group (n = 22 total participants) and two iterations of usability testing with four patient-caregiver pairs per session (n = 16 total participants) were conducted. Response to the program's structure, design, and content was favorable, even among users who were older or had limited computer and Internet experience. The program received high ratings for ease of use and overall usability (mean System Usability Score of 89.5 out of 100). Many elements of a nurse-delivered patient-caregiver intervention can be successfully adapted to a web-based format. A multidisciplinary design team and an iterative evaluation process with representative users were instrumental in the development of a usable and well-received web-based program.

A Design Pattern Language for Effective Professional Development Programs for Clinicians: A Decade of Design-based Research

Continuing professional development (CPD) for clinicians is necessary for individual health professionals to maintain their professional standards and for the community, who rely on their services for the delivery of evidence-based, cost-effective health services. In the late 1990s, three driving forces for using design-based research in CPD appeared. First, meta-analysis of research evidence indicated that most educational interventions were ineffective in improving clinician performance or changing practice. Secondly, the market requirements of the health industry (i.e. large scale, cost-effective programs, across a wide variety of topics and clinician groups) favoured reproducible designs over ad hoc solutions. Thirdly, emergent internet technologies were attractive candidate solutions, but increased risk compared to face to face CPD. Over ten years of design-based research, the authors have designed, developed, delivered and studied the results of over 200 professional development programs, mostly e-learning. Approximately 12,000 health professionals each year engage. Because the authors, as a multidisciplinary design and delivery team, have had full cycle responsibility, they have had a living laboratory in which to conduct design-based research. Three major design improvement cycles have been completed. Both the design-based research process and the resultant successful design framework will be presented. The framework covers the evidence base, design principles, design patterns and pattern language for designing and implementing professional development, in both online and face to face modes.

Integrated Team Design Process – Successful Stories of Hong Kong MTR Corporation Projects

Achieving design quality with systematic design management is essential for any construction project. This becomes all the more important and difficult for infrastructure projects which are complex in nature and involves several disciplines and multiple stake holders. Normally, the client and the design team including the lead consultant and various specialist sub-consultants work in different places in their respective offices, which normally result in problems such as poor coordination, lack of collaboration, excessive variations, design changes, abortive reworks and unwarranted delays.MTR Corporation sets up integrated multi-disciplinary design teams using the combined resources of MTR Corporation and the consultants working together in an Integrated Team Design Process. Such integrated design team office arrangements include advanced information and communication frameworks as well as electronic project management systems. Also, MTR Corporation through integrated team design develops the design in stages, namely feasibility study, preliminary design and detailed design; thus repeatedly reviewing and improving the design exhausts all possible options and the best and practical design emerges out.This paper also presents some case-study based success stories of effective project management with such integrated design team process from recent MTR projects.

Hold the Phone: Automating Telephone Coordination in Traffic Flow Management

Air Traffic Flow Management is a complex, dynamic domain. Until recently, Federal Aviation Administration Traffic Managers were required to coordinate the implementation of traffic management initiatives through a series of telephone calls. In this paper we describe the development of an automated process, Electronic Coordination, to replace the majority of those calls. We adopted a user-centered multidisciplinary design team methodology to develop the concept and address design challenges. User validation and testing of the concept were integrated into the process and occurred iteratively throughout development. Post deployment user feedback and lessons learned are also discussed.

A New Image for CONTINENTAL AIRLINES

MIRRORING ITS QUALITY performance, by 1990 Continental sought to shift its image from a no-frills, discount carrier to a world-class international airline. This effort, with extensive input from employees and leadership from a multidisciplinary design team, involved projects ranging from the redesign of the logo and plane interiors to new passenger facilities. Notably, the program was so impressive that the courts permitted implementation during a Chapter 11 reorganization.

Towards automation of control software: A review of challenges in mechatronic design

Development of mechatronic systems requires collaboration among experts from different design domains. In this paper the authors identify a set of challenges related to the design of mechatronic systems. The challenges are mostly related to integration of design and analysis tools, and automation of current design practices. Addressing these challenges enables the adoption of a concurrent development approach in which the synergetic effects that characterize mechatronic systems are taken into account during design. The main argument is that in order to deal with software development problems for complex mechatronic systems, there is a need to look at system design practices beyond concurrency, i.e., there is a need to consider the complex interdependencies among subsystems and the designers that develop them. A review on current methods and tools is carried out to identify possible solutions proposed in previous works. The purpose is not to make an extensive review, but to show that integration, from different points of view, is a major issue and that increasing the level of abstraction in the description of systems can help to overcome the integration challenges. An increased level of abstraction also forms a basis for addressing other issues in mechatronic product development, which are presented in this work. With that in mind, concepts for an integration framework are proposed. The goal of the framework is to support a multi-disciplinary design team to (almost) automatically generate and verify control software. Based on high-level architectural descriptions, the software generation and verification process can be supported by knowledge-based methods and tools. Other goals are to support communication among engineers, improve reliability of designs, increase reuse of design knowledge, and reduce development time and development costs.

Expert in My Domain; Beginner in Yours

As we seek to develop effective collaboration among multidisciplinary clinical or design teams, we can observe interactions that incorporate differing levels of expertise as they relate to any given topic. Team participants may have deep expertise in their own areas, but varying levels of knowledge or understanding of the other domains represented on the team. Physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and respiratory therapists each have their own areas of specific and detailed expertise, but they may or may not have a useful knowledge or understanding of their colleagues' specialties. Architects, engineers, interior designers, contractors, financiers, and the owner's vice presidents of facilities also have their own areas of specific expertise, and they may or may not have knowledge or a clear understanding of their teammates' specialties. One important aspect of high-performing teams is, of course, the benefit of complementary skill sets among the members; yet there is the possibility that performance could be improved further as team members develop knowledge and understanding in the domains of their colleagues' expertise.The development of specialty and subspecialty expertise occurs in medicine, nursing, and architecture, and no one doubts that this extreme focus on increasingly narrow domains of knowledge has benefitted each field in which it occurs-and that it has served society. The tendency to develop skills and expertise within these narrow silos, however, may hinder understanding and shared knowledge across disciplines. This, in turn, may negatively affect team performance, where shared goals, knowledge, and experience contribute to outcomes.Patricia Benner, RN, PhD, has written about the development of nursing skills across five levels from novice to expert (Benner, 2001). She bases much of her thinking on the Dreyfus Model of Skills Acquisition (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1980). The Dreyfus Model was developed as an Air Force study of pilot skills as applied in crisis situations, and Benner adapted it for clinical skill development. I have found Benner's descriptions of expertise levels derived from the Dreyfus Model to be useful in my own teaching in the graduate design studio where I measure 14 aspects of design skill across the spectrum from novice to expert and ask my students to assess themselves using the same matrix.* Novice: someone first exposed to a subject, but with no meaningful experience;* Advanced beginner: someone who understands the subject on the basis of theory, didactic explanation, and practical book learning, but with only limited experience;* Competent: someone with good understanding of the practical and theoretical knowledge base and enough experience to make reasoned responses to emerging situations;* Proficient: someone with full understanding of the knowledge base and enough experience to allow automatic response to many emerging situations;* Expert: someone with full understanding of the knowledge base and sufficient experience to allow highly nuanced responses to any presenting situation.The Dreyfus Model and Benner's interpretation have helped me better understand how individual expertise can be developed. One of the salient points is the recognition that, for many forms of practice, the acquisition of practical and theoretical knowledge by means of classroom or book learning does not lead to expertise. The development of expertise in practice requires a significant dose of experience to give meaning to book learning and to illustrate how often variance from theory or relatively simplistic book descriptions occurs. Experiential learning is based on the notion that authentic experience will provide more powerful learning and retention than the didactic presentation of concepts (Kolb, 1984). Experienced clinical practitioners and design professionals have more to offer than do well-trained entrants to the field. …

Computer-controlled air-conditioning experimental apparatus

A portable experimental setup for demonstrating air-conditioning processes was designed, developed and constructed by a multidisciplinary capstone senior design team. This experimental apparatus is currently being used to demonstrate to undergraduate students air-conditioning processes such as cooling, heating, and humidification. The level of cooling, heating, or humidification is being monitored and controlled using a PC-based control system which consists of LabVIEW and data acquisition unit. This article provides details about the integration of the electrical/electronic component and the control system. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 18: 458–468, 2010; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com; DOI 10.1002/cae.20185

Integrated Team Design Process on MTR LOHAS Park Station Project

For the design development of any project, active and continuous coordination among various disciplines and stakeholders is a key to success. However, the client and consultants of different disciplines normally work in their respective offices and lack active collaboration. In order to address this issue, MTR Corporation is committed to setting up integrated multi-disciplinary design teams using the combined resources of the client and the consultants in a fully serviced Design Team Office. This paper presents a case study on such an integrated team design process adopted by MTR Corporation on the LOHAS Park Station project at the detailed design stage. The multidisciplinary team worked closely together and produced a complete, fully coordinated and cost effective design well within the scheduled time. The integrated team approach was later extended into the construction stage. Benefits such as improved efficiency, increased opportunity for innovation, and the continuous improvement of a quality product ...

Designing in Teams

Twenty-six multidisciplinary student design teams ( n = 128) each built a robot that had to perform a specific task in a design contest. For these teams, an input—process—output framework of team member personality (input), generic and specific design behaviors (process), and contest result and supervisor and team member ratings of the design (output) was researched using correlations. Agreeableness and conscientiousness were positively related to generic design behaviors in both the concept and elaboration phase of the design process. Generic design behaviors were positively related to contest result and team member ratings of the design's technical realization. The conclusions hold implications for design research (multiple process and outcome measures are needed) and practice (attention for personality differences in teams and particular design behaviors in specific design phases foster design outcomes).

Inertially stabilized platform technology Concepts and principles

We introduced some of the basic principles, techniques, and key design issues common to ISPs used in many diverse scientific, military, and commercial applications, and we touched on some of the less intuitive effects that must be dealt with. Many of these effects can influence the initial configuration of the system as well as design details later in the design process. The successful design of an ISP usually requires a multidisciplinary design team. The design of an ISP must often be closely coordinated with that of other major subsystems such as the primary sensor and the optics. The role of the systems engineer in the design process is perhaps the most critical because other members of the team may not be aware of the consequences of many of the effects discussed above. Inertially stabilized platforms (ISPs) are used to stabilize and point a broad array of sensors, cameras, telescopes, and weapon systems.

The use of LabVIEW and data acquisition unit to monitor and control a bench‐top air‐to‐water heat pump

AbstractA bench‐top air‐to‐water heat pump was designed, developed, and constructed by a multidisciplinary capstone senior design team. This experimental apparatus is currently being used to demonstrate to undergraduate students some thermodynamics and heat transfer concepts and principles. A PC‐based control system which consists of LabVIEW and data acquisition (DAQ) unit is employed to monitor and control this experimental laboratory apparatus. This paper provides details about the integration of the electrical/electronic component and the control system. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 16: 83–91, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/cae.20122

Design Team Communication and Design Task Complexity: The Preference for Dialogues

The way in which dialogues and group meetings affect the progress of multidisciplinary architectural design teams can be easily underestimated by managers. This is due to the importance of group meetings to review designs, share information, make decisions and hence progress the design. The aim of this paper is to discuss how design dialogues and design team meetings facilitate team communication. A review of research into design team communication and performance using a project website provides an insight into how design team members used and changed their synchronous and asynchronous communication while adopting the project web. Case studies were used to investigate changes in communication practices affecting team performance due to project web use. Research findings reveal a preference among design team members for dialogue as their favourite communication medium despite the growing use of asynchronous communication by teams. Results are discussed against research findings from communication in design and management team meetings. Implications for design managers, concerned with improving communications and the management of design, are discussed in the light of the research findings.