Development of a tool for building shared representations among industrial designers and engineering designers

Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of multi-disciplinary collaboration in New Product Development (NPD). As such, interactions between industrial designers and engineering designers have become increasingly important. This research project aims to build a shared understanding between the 2 disciplines during NPD. Following empirical research that revealed collaboration-related problem areas, as well as collecting data concerning the use of design representations, a card system was developed to provide information on the role and significance of design representations, leading to joint understanding, improved communication and creation of shared knowledge. When asked in the validation study if the system would foster collaboration, 68.2% of industrial designers and 63.2% of the engineering designers gave a good and excellent rating, indicating that the system could play a significant role towards the support of multidisciplinary teamwork. Despite the importance of inter-disciplinary collaboration, few studies have examined the relationship between industrial design and engineering design.For this study, industrial design encompasses the specification of product form including aesthetic judgement, semantics, user interface and social requirements (IDSA, 2006;Tovey, 1994;Flurscheim, 1983). In contrast, the term engineering design broadly encompasses mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering (Fielden, 1963), all of which employ science-based problem solving methods (Hurst, 1999 Previous research has mainly focused on inter-disciplinary collaboration between engineering design and manufacturing (Beskow, 1997;Ulrich and Eppinger, 2000) and engineering with marketing (Griffin and Hauser, 1996;Shaw and Shaw, 1998). With the exception of Persson and Warell (2003) Standardising the Use of Design RepresentationsDesign representations can be expressed through language, graphic or artefacts (Goel 1995; Goldschmidt, 1997) and they refer to models of the 6 object being symbolised (Palmer, 1987 (Goldschmidt, 1992). In comparing the differences between representations favoured by the 2 disciplines, Veveris (1994) observed that engineering designers used models associated with engineering principles, functional mechanisms, production issues; whereas industrial designers applied representations related to appearance and usability. Despite the various attempts to classify representations by other authors (Tjalve et al. 1979;Ullman, 1988;Tovey, 1989;Evans, 1992;Ferguson, 1992;Goldschmidt, 1992;Veveris, 1994;Kavakli et al., 1998; 7 Cross, 1999;Do et al., 2000;Otto and Wood, 2001;Cain, 2005 Although ambiguous representations possess benefits, their ill-defined nature makes it difficult for engineering designers to comprehend and recognise how they work in relation to a product's technical parameters (Saddler, 2001). It may be difficult for a viewer other than the originator to understand the embodied meaning, context or scale (McGown, et al., 1998). The need for accurate and effective representat...

FATORES RELACIONADOS À INTEGRAÇÃO ENTRE ENGINEERING DESIGN E INDUSTRIAL DESIGN NO DESENVOLVIMENTO DE PRODUTOSErick Hernan Boschilha LastraMestrando no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Design (UFPR) ericklastra@gmail.comAlexandre Vieira Pelegrini, Prof. Dr.Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paranáavpelegrini@utfpr.edu.br

“…Sendo que 3 problemas foram identificados: "conflitos em valores e princípios; diferenças nas representações de design; e diferenças educacionais." (PEI et al, 2010, p.14, tradução nossa).…”

“…A respeito de ferramentas de projeto, similarmente ao exposto anteriormente por Pei et al (2010) sobre representações de design, Brefe (2008, p.171) relata que:…”

Influence of sketch types on distributed design team work

“…Participating designers often come from different educational backgrounds having specialised in different areas and having different approaches to the design work. This can be a source of disharmony and conflict within a group but design representations can enhance collaboration and communication in a team as they overcome the barriers of common language (Pei, Campbell, and Evans 2010). Sketching encourages communication between team participants (Chandrasegaran et al 2014).…”

Real‐time integration of prototypes in the product development process

“…In broad terms, prototypes can be classed into physical or virtual forms. They are created to finalise aesthetics and ergonomics, as well as to test, evaluate and validate the functional and technical aspects of the design (Pei et al, 2010). In a conventional approach, physical prototyping plays a very important role in New Product Development (NPD).…”