Designing and assessing everyday objects: Impact of externalisation tools and judges’ backgrounds

Abstract

a b s t r a c tProfessional designers increasingly rely on IT-based systems in the course of their work. It is therefore crucial to know how such systems, especially computer-aided design (CAD) systems, influence both the design process and the final design, compared with the use of manual design methods. The objective of this paper is twofold: to address this issue and to suggest ways of improving IT-based systems specifically developed to support designers' activities. In the first phase of a two-phase study, we investigated how the use of different tools can affect the design process. In the second phase, we conducted two complementary analyses to determine how the use of different tools affects the assessment of final designs, as well as the effect of the judges' backgrounds on their assessments. We began by comparing the activities of two groups of designers: one group working with a CAD system, the other carrying out manual modelling. The results of this first phase revealed significant differences in the designers' activities (changing the viewpoint, switching tools, correcting errors) according to the design method they used. We then asked judges from four different backgrounds (professional designers, design teachers, retailers and users), to assess the final designs according to specific assessment criteria (aesthetics, originality, functionality, marketability). The results of this second phase revealed a significant preference for objects designed with a CAD system. Furthermore, the judges attributed different levels of importance to each of the assessment criteria, depending on their background. This last result underscored differences in the mental models constructed by different groups of audiences involved in product development and marketing. In addition, it allowed us to identify their specific expectations about final designs. Based on the results of our analyses, we suggest ways of improving IT-based systems with a view to integrating design assessment more fully into CAD environments.

Cognitive load management and architectural design outcomes

“…In the field of industrial design, Wojtczuk and Bonnardel (2011) asked a panel of 20 experts to assess creative outcomes (computer mice) according to the criteria of esthetics, originality, functionality, and marketing. In the field of architectural design, Yukhina (2008) submitted participants' proposals to three experts, who rated their compliance with a number of prescribed constraints (12 design criteria), as well as applying criteria of originality, complexity, flexibility, functionality, and sketch quality.…”

“…This iterative process can be described in terms of an exploration-generation -evaluation cycle. It is one that relies heavily on representations, which can be either internal, resulting from cognitive activity, or external, resulting from the designer's action upon the design medium being used (Bilda & Gero, 2008;Goel, 1995;Visser, 2009;Wojtczuk & Bonnardel, 2011). These representations are essential at every stage of the design process, supporting the designer's thought and creativity processes (see Schön, 1987).…”

Toward a situated cognition approach to design

“…To this end, various methods could be combined in order to associate analyses of verbalizations and analyses of how the sketches change all along the design problem solving. Moreover, the final design productions could be assessed by several judges with regard to various criteria (see, for instance, Wojtczuk & Bonnardel, 2011).…”

Impact of project-oriented educational methods on creative design

“…Thus, it would be worthwhile determining whether creativity scores differ were more judges to participate in the design outcome assessment. Moreover, in a previous study, we noted differences between the assessments performed by judges adopting different viewpoints [34], and we could therefore look at whether creativity scores are higher if judges with a different status (i.e., not teachers; for instance, future users or specialists in other areas) are asked to assess design outcomes.…”