Revisiting Problem-Solution Co-Evolution in the Context of Team Conceptual Design Activity

Abstract

The conventional prescriptive and descriptive models of design typically decompose the overall design process into elementary processes, such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. This study revisits some of the assumptions established by these models and investigates whether they can also be applied for modelling of problem-solution co-evolution patterns that appear during team conceptual design activities. The first set of assumptions concerns the relationship between performing analysis, synthesis, and evaluation and exploring the problem and solution space. The second set concerns the dominant sequences of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, whereas the third set concerns the nature of transitions between the problem and solution space. The assumptions were empirically tested as part of a protocol analysis study of team ideation and concept review activities. Besides revealing inconsistencies in how analysis, synthesis, and evaluation are defined and interpreted across the literature, the study demonstrates co-evolution patterns, which cannot be described by the conventional models. It highlights the important role of analysis-synthesis cycles during both divergent and convergent activities, which is co-evolution and refinement, respectively. The findings are summarised in the form of a model of the increase in the number of new problem and solution entities as the conceptual design phase progresses, with implications for both design research and design education.

Computational Study on Design Space Expansion During Teamwork

“…Therefore, it is not surprising that numerous works aimed at studying (Alsager Alzayed et al, 2019) and supporting design space expansion through the use of, for example, heuristics (Daly et al, 2012) or computational tools (Gero and Kumar, 1993;Han et al, 2018). Relatedly, several studies explored the rate at which the design space expands in a team setting (e.g., Gero and Kan, 2016;Martinec et al, 2020). For this purpose, studies utilised a cumulative graph of issues' occurrences.…”

Designing in Complexity: How Solution Conjectures Inform Problem Exploration

“…It conceptualises the design process as two notional spaces ('problem space' and 'solution space') interacting with each other until both are firmly defined (Maher and Poon, 1996). Problem space constitutes from problem entities like requirements, constraints, and needs, while solution space consists of solution entities like conjectures, concepts, and working principles (Martinec et al, 2020). According to co-evolution, a potential solution can be resulted from interpreting the problem, labelled as problem space to solution space transition.…”

Modelling Proportions and Sequences of Operations in Team Design Activities

“…The authors' initial efforts of modelling team conceptual design activity (Martinec et al, 2019) have resulted in theoretical developments of a state-transition model and initial empirical evidence of designing patterns that can be identified using the model. The follow-up study (Martinec et al, 2020) delved deeper into the data and found correlations between proportions of different types of design operations as well as the most probable sequences of design operation pairs during team design activities. Here presented study builds on these qualitative and quantitative insights, primarily by adding the temporal aspect into modelling of proportions and sequences of design operations across the problem and the solution space.…”

“…Finally, evaluation has been defined as a state transition resulting in the assessed appropriacy of a particular design entity within the explored design space. Please consult Martinec et al (2020) for more detailed definitions. The developed state-transition model thus enables capturing of various sequences of ASE design operations performed within and in-between the problem and the solution space during design activities.…”

“…Ideation was characterised as a divergent activity, due to higher proportions of problem-related design operations and solution synthesis, in contrast to the convergent concept review activity, which exhibited higher proportions of solution analysis and evaluation. The follow-up study (Martinec et al, 2020) utilised the model to revisit some of the literature-drawn assumptions regarding modelling of ASE and problem-solution co-evolution. Firstly, it investigated the relationship between ASE and problem/solution-related design operations.…”