Human-centered Human-centered Design MethodologyDesign Methodology

Petra Badke-Schaub Petra Badke-Schaub Peter Lloyd Peter Lloyd

Remko van der LugtRemko van der LugtNorbert Roozenburg Norbert Roozenburg

Design Theory and MethodologyDesign Theory and MethodologyFaculty of Industrial Design Faculty of Industrial Design

EngineeringEngineering

team under construction

1. Past: Research Issues and Projects Research Methods

2. Future: Design Methodology: Limitations Research Programm

outline

Aim: Understanding the design process

a. Reflective practice in designb. Sketching during idea generationc. Discourse analysis of design

processesd. Ethical decision-making

1. the past 5 years

Theoretical basis: reflective practice (Schön, 1983)

Empirical studies: Valkenburg 2000: analysis of design groups Kleinsmann 2005: analysing barriers and

enablers of shared understanding in a multidisciplinary project team in industry

McDonnell, Lloyd and Valkenburg 2004: VALiD project – Video Assisted Learning in Design: A team of designers filmed their own design process

and edited a film of the design process from the footage Learning through watching the own footage, selecting

'important' bits and compiling the edited film.

a. Reflective practice in design

Aim: evaluation of the use of methods in particular phases of design

Empirical studies: van der Lugt (2001, 2002): analysed the

relation between sketching and idea generation using linkography how are ideas deriving from visual information how are they associated to, and built on, earlier

ideas in the session.

b. Sketching during idea generation

c. Discourse analysis of design processes

Aim: evaluation of the use of words, concepts and assumptions during the design process

Empirical studies:– Lloyd and Busby 2001: in design practice– Lloyd 2002: in television programmes about

design processes– Lloyd 2003: commentary on the design

process (story telling)

d. Ethical decision-making

Aim: to analyse ethical judgments in the design process

Empirical studies:– Lloyd and Busby 2003: analysis of

discussions and conversations of designers and the ethical assumptions they use.

– Results: • ethical judgments in technical disciplines are

closely related to aesthetic judgements • discourse in design is highly normative

how to get meaningful results?

“People who write about methodology often forget that it is a matter of strategy, not of morals. There are neither good nor bad methods, but only methods that are more or less effective under particular circumstances in reaching objectives on the way to a distant goal.” (Homans, 1949)

Research methods

Focus: – understanding designing as a human activity

Protocol analysis of design activity:– verbal and non-verbal aspects of individual

design processes – communication of design teams

Challenge:– Protocol analysis is based on large quantities

of empirical data two problems:

• to manage the data effectively• to analyse the data meaningful

Research methods

Data Management– Linkography, a way of analyzing protocols of design

activity developed by Goldschmidt (1996)• setting links between moves, and then analyzing the

resulting link structure– Software Interact: direct coding of video footage

without transcribing the videotapes; segmentation on events or on time sampling; overlapping codes,…

Data Analysis– segmentation of the design process, depending on the

matter of interest– the main emphasis is to create a categorization system

relating to the research question: THEORY– meaningful ways to interpret the data

Research methods

2. Future

Design Methodology: Limitations

Research Programm

Design methodology

provides insight into the complete process

gives structure to the design process

provides rules and methods during the design process

proposes general strategies of solving problems independently of a branch of industry

An example

Design Methodology: Limitations

3 laboratory teams and one team in industry have been observed during their collective design process

communication has been recorded and analysed sentence-by-sentence

each utterance has been classified according to the focus (content vs. process) and the action (solution generation, ...)

Two strategies dealing with solution ideas

Strategy 1 new solution idea - no further analysis - immediate decision on the solution idea

methodological perspective: ideas should be first analysed and then evaluated: – a premature rejection

may discard a good solution idea

– a premature adoption of a solution idea may prove later as inadequate

questions ormisunderstanding?

generate idea

evaluate idea

solutionsatisficing?

alternative solution/s?

analyse idea

accept idea

+

+

+

-

-

-

Two strategies dealing with solution ideas

Strategy 2

failure of process 1 lack of common

understanding critical group

members (advocatus diaboli)

reflection use of methods

generate idea/s

evaluate idea

solutionsatisficing?

alternative solution/s?

analyse idea/s

accept idea+

+ -

-

Limitations: Rational model

Two basic assumptions:

1. humans are perfect information processors the designer is able to analyse the advantages

and disadvantages of any alternative the designer is able to evaluate the objective

consequences of each alternative the designer is able to select the alternative with

the maximum utility

2. an optimal solution can be determined complete information is available

Empirical Results: Designers rarely do follow these predefined procedures

information is disregarded information is forgotten alternatives are not listed completely consequences are neglected

instead of 1. rationality -> bounded rationality2. maximising utility -> satisficing

utility (Simon, 1956)

Limitations

1. does not relate to cognitive and motivational characteristics

2. does not relate to situational characteristics, such as time-constraints

3. does not relate to the social context, such as cooperation and conflict

Humans tend to reduce complexity in order to reduce cognitive load.

Perceived difficulty of a task and the non-availability of solutions reduce one’s feeling of competence and self-efficacy.

Design methodology

Human information processes

Design methodology: aims to provide the designer with a well-structured procedure and support in applying available design techniques.

needs

Theories of human thinking and acting in complex environments. -

develops and applies theories about human behaviour in different contexts

Psychology

Network of designing

designing as a form of complex problem solving in an environment with various interconnected influences

understanding design needs to ‘identify’ this network of designing. That means design research has to encompass the various fields

Organisational context Product

Group context

Individual designer

Design process

Task / Problem

information transferdecision making

demandsnovelty

experiencecreativity

heterogeneitygroup climateleadership

project management

innovativenesfulfilment of requirements

O rganisationa l context P roduct

G roup context

Ind ividua l des igner

Task / P rob lem

An integrated research approach

Theoretical level

empirical evaluation of theories and

methods

Empirical level Applied level

adaptation and development of

methods

human-centred design methodology

Integration of proven concepts and

modification by the empirical data

adaptation and integration of

theoretical concepts

Evaluation of hypotheses about the

thinking and acting processes

Adaptation of existing methods and development of new methods

information transferdecision making

demandsnovelty

experiencecreativity

heterogeneitygroup climateleadership

project management

innovativenesfulfilment of requirements

O rganisationa l context P roduct

G roup context

Ind ividua l des igner

Task / P rob lem

Project: Mental models in design teams

Individual How do mental models as individual unique

constructions develop during designing?

Group How do design teams establish common

mental models? How do design teams integrate different mental models? When and how do design teams modify mental models?

Organizational context How efficient is the use of a guideline

supporting the adequate use of mental models in design practice?

Lots of interesting issues remain for the next 5 years