Impact of Collaborative Virtual Environments on Design Behaviour

Abstract

Abstract:A collaborative design environment makes assumptions about how the designers communicate and represent their design ideas. These assumptions, including the availability of sketching, 3D modelling, and walking around virtual worlds with avatars, effectively make some actions easier and others more difficult. An analysis of design behaviour in different virtual environments can highlight the impact and benefits of the different tools/environments and their assumptions. This paper reports on a study of three pairs of designers collaborating on design tasks of similar complexity using a different design environment for each task: face to face sketching, remote sketching, and 3D virtual world. Comparing the behaviour patterns and design actions we conclude that characteristics of the design process are quite different in sketching and 3D world environments. While sketching, the architects more frequently moved between the problem and solution spaces, dealing with analysis and synthesis of ideas. The same architects focused on synthesis of the objects, visually analysing the representation, and managing the tasks to model the design when they were in the 3D virtual world.

Design processes in collective innovation communities: a study of communication

“…The protocol analysis of design communication is an approach that has been used in the past to understand the design process for a team of designers collaborating (e.g. Maher et al 2006). The authors consider it is an appropriate tool to use in understanding collective design transactions, which also involve high levels of collaboration.…”

“…Maher et al 2006). Findings from studies based on team design only partially reflect online collective design since design communities are of a fundamentally different composition to design teams.…”

Co-creating external design representations: Comparing face-to-face sketching to designing in virtual environments

“…With this interpretation of Kvan et al's (1997) definition of the loose-coupled and close-coupled process, the aim of the collaboration mode is to capture the nature of the shared activities for the creation of the design representation in the different environments. Maher et al (2006) also used these definitions with a slightly different interpretation. Interacting with 3-D space/ ideas that are related to 3-D, view from different level, access of the sun and view from the atrium.…”

Shape Interpretation with Design Computing

“…Because of this, use of communication tools to support design collaboration, necessarily affects design behaviour. For example, Maher et al [35] compare design behaviour exhibited in face-to-face collaboration with collaboration in a remote sketching system and collaboration in a 3D virtual world. They discovered that collaboration using communication tools results in less time spent on the design process, more time spent on discussing software features, and a decrease in analysis-synthesis activities.…”