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1. Identification of designer search strategies and their effects on performance outcomes in pair parameter design tasks

   Avsar, Alkim Z.; Grogan, Paul T. (August 2023, International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference)

   Understanding design processes and behaviors are important for building more effective design outcomes. During design tasks, teams exhibit sequences of actions that form strategies. This paper investigates patterns of design actions to identify successful design strategies in paired parameter design tasks. The paper uses secondary data from a design experiment in which each pair completes a series of simplified cooperative parameter design tasks to minimize completion time. Analysis of 192 task observations uses principal component analysis to identify design strategies and regression analysis to evaluate their impacts on performance outcomes. Results show that the design strategy of short average action time, small average action size, and low action variation significantly decreases completion time. Discussion of results suggests smaller and more frequent actions provide more rapid feedback about each action to improve communication and understanding between pairs, leading to more efficient design processes. Results show that task order and the number of variables also significantly contribute to performance outcomes, which aligns with past literature. Results also show a negative relationship between lower English ability, experience level, and team performance outcomes. The discussion suggests that lower English ability can be a barrier to communication between pairs, and a lower experience level can decrease the ability to create effective strategies. 

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2. Evaluating the Effect of Project Frame on Communicative Patterns in Capstone Design Pitches

   https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2022-91229  

   Link, Samantha; Krishnakumar, Sandeep; Menold, Jessica (August 2022, American Society of Mechanical Engineers)

   Effective communication is an integral part of engineering design and leads to successful design outcomes. While there have been extensive calls to equip novice designers with effective communication skills, there is only a limited body of work that has attempted to characterize the communication patterns of novice designers, particularly when engaging with external audiences. This work seeks to characterize how the project type, or the nature of design problem, shapes the communicative patterns of novice designers when communicating design outcomes to external audiences. Presentations of design solutions from 46 teams were collected at the end of a semester-long capstone design program. These presentations were then characterized as industry- and human-centered projects. Analysis was conducted using topic modeling and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count analysis to identify differences in linguistic patterns of novice designers between the two project types. Contrary to prior findings, no significant differences were found, implying that the communication patterns of novice designers are not affected by the type of project (or design problem being solved). 

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3. DECOMPOSITION AND RECOMPOSITION STRATEGIES OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING DESIGN TEAMS

   https://doi.org/10.1017/pds.2021.87  

   Milovanovic, Julie; Gero, John; Becker, Kurt (August 2021, Proceedings of the Design Society)

   Abstract Designers faced with complex design problems use decomposition strategies to tackle manageable sub-problems. Recomposition strategies aims at synthesizing sub-solutions into a unique design proposal. Design theory describes the design process as a combination of decomposition and recomposition strategies. In this paper, we explore dynamic patterns of decomposition and recomposition strategies of design teams. Data were collected from 9 teams of professional engineers. Using protocol analysis, we examined the dominance of decomposition and recomposition strategies over time and the correlations between each strategy and design processes such as analysis, synthesis, evaluation. We expected decomposition strategies to peak early in the design process and decay overtime. Instead, teams maintain decomposition and recomposition strategies consistently during the design process. We observed fast iteration of both strategies over a one hour-long design session. The research presented provides an empirical foundation to model the behaviour of professional engineering teams, and first insights to refine theoretical understanding of the use decomposition and recomposition strategies in design practice. 

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4. NOVICE DESIGNERS' USE OF PROTOTYPES AS COMMUNICATION TOOLS

   https://doi.org/10.1017/pds.2021.489  

   Krishnakumar, Sandeep; Lauff, Carlye; McComb, Christopher; Berdanier, Catherine; Menold, Jessica (August 2021, Proceedings of the Design Society)

   Abstract Prototypes are critical design artifacts, and recent studies have established the ability of prototypes to facilitate communication. However, prior work suggests that novice designers often fail to perceive prototypes as effective communication tools, and struggle to rationalize design decisions made during prototyping tasks. To understand the interactions between communication and prototypes, design pitches from 40 undergraduate engineering design teams were collected and qualitatively analysed. Our findings suggest that students used prototypes to explain and persuade, aligning with prior studies of design practitioners. The results also suggest that students tend to use prototypes to justify design decisions and adverse outcomes. Future work will seek to understand novice designers’ use of prototypes as communication tools in further depth. Ultimately, this work will inform the creation of pedagogical strategies to provide students with the skills needed to effectively communicate design solutions and intent. 

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5. Does It Translate? A Case Study of Conceptual Design Outcomes With U.S. and Moroccan Students

   https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2020-22623  

   Peng, Aoran; Menold, Jessica; Miller, Scarlett R. (August 2020, ASME 2020 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   High globalization in the world today results in the involvement of multi-discipline, multi-cultural teams, as well as the entrance of more economic powers in the market. Effective innovation strategies are critical if emerging markets plan to become economic players in this increasingly connected global market. The current work compares the design processes of designers from emerging and established markets to understand how design methods are applied across culture. Specifically, the design decisions of designers from Morocco, one of the four leading economic power in Africa, and the U.S. are investigated. Concept generation and selection are the focus of the current study as they are critical steps in the design process that can determine project outcomes. Previous studies have identified three factors, ownership bias, gender, and idea goodness as influential during concept selection. The effect of these three factors on designers in the United States is well established. The current study expands upon previous findings to examine the influence of these factors across two cultures — U.S. and Morocco. The results of this study, although preliminary, found that U.S. students had a higher idea fluency than Morocco students. It also found a significant difference in idea fluency between genders in the U.S. but not in Morocco. In addition, it was found that overall, participants exhibited ownership bias toward ideas with high goodness. 

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