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INTEGRATING 3D PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL MODELING INTO 3D FORM
CREATION IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN EDUCATION
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF NATURAL AND APPLIED SCIENCES
OF
MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY
BY
MEHTAP ÖZTÜRK ŞENGÜL
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR
THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
SEPTEMBER 2016
Approval of the thesis:
INTEGRATING 3D PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL MODELING INTO 3D
FORM CREATION IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN EDUCATION
submitted by MEHTAP ÖZTÜRK ġENGÜL in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Department of Industrial
Design, Middle East Technical University by,
Prof Dr G l in Dur l Ünver
Dean, Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences
Prof Dr G l y H sdoğ n
Head of Department, Industrial Design
Prof Dr G l y H sdoğ n
Supervisor, Department of Industrial Design, METU
Examining Committee Members:
Assist. Prof. Dr. Fatma Korkut
Department of Industrial Design, METU
Prof Dr G l y H sdoğ n
Department of Industrial Design, METU
Assoc Prof Dr Ç ğl Doğ n
Department of Industrial Design, METU
Assist. Prof. Dr. Ali Emre Berkman
Department of Industrial Design, TOBB-ETU
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dilek Akbulut
Department of Industrial Design, Gazi University
Date: 09.09.2016
iv
I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and
presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare
that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced
all material and results that are not original to this work.
N me, L st n me: Meht p Özt rk Şeng l
Signature . . . …:--- ---… … …………
v
ABSTRACT
INTEGRATING 3D PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL MODELING
INTO 3D FORM CREATION IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
EDUCATION
Özt rk Şeng l, Mehtap
Ph. D, Department of Industrial Design
Supervisor: Prof Dr G l y H sdoğ n
September 2016, 301 pages
Digital design media have entered in the design field in the course of the last couple
of decades and have rapidly changed the way of practicing in design related
professions. As part of this change, digital modeling has taken its place among the
basic skills that an industrial designer is expected to have.
As a cognitive activity, modeling plays very significant roles in the form creation
related skill acquisition processes in design education. Therefore an urgent need for
new approaches for the integration of 3D physical and digital modeling into
industrial design education has emerged with the entrance of digital modeling to the
field. However, formulation of such an approach cannot be achieved without a sound
understanding of the existing role and position of 3D physical and digital modeling
in the students‘ skill cquisition processes
This thesis investigates the existing role and position of 3D physical and digital
modeling in the skill acquisition processes of industrial design students with special
emphasis on their mutual dependency, complementarity and conditioning by
employing Actor Network Theory. The field study of the thesis is conducted in the
Department of Industrial Design at METU and involves twelve interviews containing
narratives of the most satisfying form development process of the student and twelve
interviews with the studio instructors.
vi
The n rr tives of the students‘ form development processes re n lyzed s the
translation processes of the studio actor networks. The findings of the study reveal
the complexities of the relationships between the actors in the skill acquisition
processes by highlighting the active roles of physical and digital modeling both in
2D and 3D.
The findings also showed how the students, physical and digital modeling work
together by complementing each other during these processes. Drawing upon these
findings which point to these complementary relationships, a new frame model for
the integration of 3D physical and digital modeling in industrial design education is
proposed in the thesis.
Keywords: 3D digital modeling, 3D physical modeling, knowledge and skill
acquisition in industrial design education, 3D form creation, Actor Network Theory
vii
ÖZ
3 BOYUTLU FĠZĠKSEL VE DĠJĠTAL MODELLEMENĠN
ENDÜSTRĠ ÜRÜNLERĠ TASARIMI EĞĠTĠMĠNDE 3 BOYUTLU
FORM YARATMAYA ENTEGRASYONU
Özt rk Şeng l, Meht p
Doktora, End stri Ür nleri T s rımı Böl m
D nışm n: Prof Dr G l y H sdoğ n
Eyl l 2016, 301 sayfa
Dijit l t s rım medy l rı son yıll rd t s rım l nın girmiş ve t s rım ile ilişkili
mesleklerde uygul m içimlerini hızl değiştirmiştir Bu değişimin ir p rç sı
ol r k dijit l modelleme end striyel t s rımcının s hip olm sı eklenen temel
eceriler r sınd yerini lmıştır
Bilişsel ir ktivite ol r k modelleme t s rım eğitiminde form y r tm ile ilgili
ecerilerin k z nım s reçlerinde önemli roller oyn m kt dır Bu nedenle, dijit l
modellemenin l n girişi ile irlikte ç oyutlu fiziksel ve dijit l modellemenin
end striyel t s rım eğitimine entegr syonu için yeni y kl şıml rın gerekliliği ort y
çıkmıştır Anc k, ç oyutlu fiziksel ve dijit l modellemenin öğrencilerin eceri
geliştirme s reçlerindeki mevcut rollerini ve pozisyonl rını nl m d n u t r ir
y kl şım form le edilmesi gerçekleştirilemez.
Bu tez ktör- ğ y kl şımını kull n r k, ç oyutlu fiziksel ve dijit l modellemenin
end striyel t s rım öğrencilerin eceri geliştirme s reçlerindeki mevcut rol ve
konuml rını k rşılıklı ğımlılıkl rı, koşull ndırm l rı ve t m ml yıcılıkl rın özel
ir vurgu y p r k r ştırm kt dır Al n r ştırm sı ODTÜ End stri Ür nleri
T s rımı Böl m nde y pılmıştır ve öğrencilerin en t tmin edici form geliştirme
s reçlerinin nl tıl rını d k ps y n on iki öğrenci gör şmesi ve on iki st dyo
y r t c s gör şmesi içermektedir
viii
Öğrencilerin form geliştirme s reçlerinin nl tıl rı st dyo ktör ğl rının
dön şt rme s reçleri ol r k n liz edilmiştir Ç lışm ulgul rı eceri geliştirme
s reçlerinde ktörler r sınd ki ilişkilerin k rm şıklığını hem iki hem ç oyutlu
fiziksel ve dijit l modellemenin ktif rollerine de dikk t çekerek ort y çık rmıştır
Bulgul r yrıc öğrencilerin, fiziksel modellemenin ve dijit l modellemenin
ir irlerini t m ml y r k t s rım s reçlerinde n sıl iş irliği y ptıkl rını d
göstermiştir Bu t m ml yıcı ilişkilerden yol çık r k tezde, ç oyutlu fiziksel ve
dijit l modellemenin end striyel t s rım eğitimine entegr syonu için yeni ir çerçeve
model de önerilmiştir
An ht r kelimeler: 3B dijit l modelleme, 3B fiziksel modelleme, end striyel t s rım
eğitiminde ilgi ve eceri k z nımı, 3B form oluşturm , Aktör Ağ Kur mı
ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis would not be possible without support of many people. First of all, I
would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Prof Dr G l y
H sdoğ n for her unf iling guid nce, p tience nd encour gement t ll st ges of the
thesis.
I would like to thank to the Thesis Supervising Committee members, Assist. Prof.
Dr. Fatma Korkut and Assist. Prof. Dr. Ali Emre Berkman, for their guidance and
advices. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to other members of the
Ex mining Committee, Assoc Prof Dr Ç ğl Doğ n nd Assoc Prof Dr Dilek
Akbulut for their valuable feedbacks.
I am also thankful to Professor Chris Pickvance for his valuable comments and
suggestions. I am also grateful to number of students and instructors who answered
my questions earnestly during the interviews.
I would like to th nk to the Dep rtment secret ries T l y Yıldız nd E ru
Pehliv nlıoğlu for their friendly attitude, help and support.
Finally, as always, my greatest debt and thanks go to two people who provided
continuing support nd inspir tion To my d ughter Bersi nd hus nd T rık, th nk
you for your love, support and solidarity.
x
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. v
ÖZ ............................................................................................................................... vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................ ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. x
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... xiv
LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................. xvii
1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Problem statement ....................................................................................... 1
1.2 The aim of the dissertation and research questions ..................................... 5
2 REPRESENTATIONS IN DESIGN PROCESS .................................................. 9
2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 9
2.2 Representing ideas ..................................................................................... 10
2.3 Communication and visualization tools in design process (Representing
ideas in design process) ...................................................................................... 11
2.4 Modeling Practice ..................................................................................... 16
2.4.1 What is a model? ................................................................................ 16
2.4.2 The position of modeling as a representational skill in design .......... 20
2.4.3 3D models and 3D form development ............................................... 23
2.4.4 Developments in 3D modeling techniques ......................................... 24
3 3D MODELING PRACTICE IN DESIGN EDUCATION ................................ 27
xi
3.1 Design education as a skill acquisition process ........................................ 27
3.2 Physical modeling in design education ..................................................... 36
3.3 Digital modeling and rapid prototyping technologies in design process .. 38
3.4 Approaches on modeling in design education .......................................... 42
3.5 Research studies on modeling practice in design and design education ... 44
4 BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH STUDY ............................................. 51
4.1 Theoretical framework for the research study .......................................... 51
4.1.1 Knowledge and skill development in design education ..................... 51
4.2 L tour‘s Actor-Network Theory and Industrial design studio in industrial
design education ................................................................................................. 53
5 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................. 61
5.1 Qualitative Research ................................................................................. 65
5.1.1 Interview process ............................................................................... 65
5.2 Data Analysis ............................................................................................ 69
5.2.1 Analysis of the interviews .................................................................. 69
6 THE FINDINGS ................................................................................................. 75
6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 75
6.2 Translation processes in the industrial design studio actor-networks ....... 76
6.2.1 The Department as an actor in the studio studies ............................... 84
6.3 Translation processes in the first year basic design studio studies ........... 87
6.3.1 Problematisation moment in the first year basic design studio .......... 87
6.3.2 Interessement moment in the first year basic design studio study ..... 99
6.3.3 Enrolment in the first year basic design studio study ...................... 102
6.3.4 Mobilization in the narrated basic design studio study .................... 104
xii
6.4 Translation processes in the second year studio studies ......................... 109
6.4.1 Problematisation moment in the second year studio ........................ 110
6.4.2 Interessement moment in the second year studio studies ................. 120
6.4.3 Enrolment in the second year studio studies .................................... 126
6.4.4 Mobilization in the second year studio studies ................................ 132
6.5 Translation processes in the third year studio studies ............................. 139
6.5.1 Problematization moment in the third year studio ........................... 140
6.5.2 Interessement moment in the third year studio studies .................... 153
6.5.3 Enrolment moment in the third year studio studies .......................... 166
6.5.4 Mobilization moment in the third year studio studies ...................... 170
6.6 Translation processes in the fourth year studio studies ........................... 178
6.6.1 Problematization moment in the fourth year studio studies ............. 181
6.6.2 Interessement moment in the fourth year studio studies .................. 194
6.6.3 Enrolment moment in the fourth year studio studies ....................... 201
6.6.4 Mobilization moment in the fourth year studio studies .................... 209
7 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 219
7.1 What skills and abilities do industrial design students need to create and
develop 3D forms in their studio studies? ........................................................ 225
7.2 Existing roles and positions of 3D physical and digital modeling in the
studio studies .................................................................................................... 228
7.3 Existing inclinations of the students for the employment of 3D physical
and digital modeling in their design processes and the factors affecting these
inclinations ....................................................................................................... 234
xiii
7.4 Employing 3D physical and digital modeling to contribute to the
development of form creation related skills of the students in industrial design
education .......................................................................................................... 236
7.5 Analyzing studio studies through Actor Network Theory lenses ........... 241
7.6 Limitations and suggestions for further studies ...................................... 242
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 245
APPENDICES ......................................................................................................... 259
A. STUDENT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS IN TURKISH ............................ 259
B. STUDENT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH ............................ 263
C. INSTRUCTOR INTERVIEW QUESTIONS IN TURKISH ..................... 267
D. INSTRUCTOR INTERVIEW QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH ..................... 269
E. IMPORTANCE AND CROSS-TABULATION TABLES FROM THE
PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE DISSERTATION .............................. 271
F. BRIEF AND DOCUMENTS OF STUDENTS SE3‘S AND SD3‘S COFFEE
MAKER STUDIO PROJECTS .................................................................. 279
G. BRIEF OF STUDENT SB4‘S PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT PROJECT
.................................................................................................................... 285
H. BRIEF OF STUDENT SC4‘S GRADUATION PROJECT ...................... 287
İ. BRIEF OF STUDENT SF4‘S BACKHOE LOADER WORKSTATION
PROJECT .................................................................................................... 295
J. ORIGINAL VERSIONS OF THE NUMBERED QUOTATIONS
REFERRED IN CHAPTER 7 ..................................................................... 297
CURRICULUM VITAE .......................................................................................... 301
xiv
LIST OF TABLES
Table 5.1 Conducted interviews ................................................................................. 66
Table 5.2 An example of coding and refinement for an interview comment ............. 73
Table 6.1 The most satisfying form narrative from the first year studio ................... 87
Table 6.2 Design education related nodes and themes for the first year basic design
studio .......................................................................................................................... 89
Table 6.3 The criteria the students are expected to meet and the required
representations for the narrated first year basic design studio study .......................... 90
T le 6 4 The reflections of the instructors‘ te ching interests on the set of criteri
and required representations for the first year basic design studio ............................ 91
Table 6.5 Opinions of the first year basic design studio instructors on 3D physical
modeling in Industrial Design Education ................................................................... 92
Table 6.6 Opinions of the first year basic design studio instructors on 3D digital
modeling in Industrial Design Education ................................................................... 95
Table 6.7 The identified roles and positions of the representational media in basic
design studio ............................................................................................................... 98
Table 6.8 Established connections with the representational media and their roles in
the basic design studio project ................................................................................. 100
Table 6.9 Emphasized aspects of the form development process of the narrated basic
design studio study ................................................................................................... 102
Table 6.10 The modeling tool on which the most important evaluation regarding the
narrated basic design studio project is made ............................................................ 103
Table 6.11 Opinions of SA3 on 3D physical modeling ........................................... 105
Table 6.12 Opinions of SA3 on 3D digital modeling .............................................. 106
Table 6.13 Summary of mobilization moment of the basic design studio study ..... 108
Table 6.14 The most satisfying form narratives from the second year studio ......... 109
Table 6.15 Design education related nodes and themes for the second year studio 112
Table 6.16 The criteria the students are expected to meet and the required
representations for the second year studio studies ................................................... 113
xv
T le 6 17 The reflections of the instructors‘ te ching interests on the set of criteri
and required representations for the second year studio studies .............................. 114
Table 6.18 Opinions of the second year studio instructors on 3D physical modeling
in Industrial Design Education ................................................................................. 115
Table 6.19 Opinions of the second year studio instructors on 3D digital modeling in
Industrial Design Education ..................................................................................... 116
Table 6.20 Mentioned representational tools and their functions in the second year
narratives .................................................................................................................. 121
Table 6.21 Emphasized aspects of the form development processes for the second
year studio studies .................................................................................................... 126
Table 6.22 The modeling tools on which the most important evaluations regarding
the narrated second year studio projects are made ................................................... 128
Table 6.23 Opinions of students narrated their second year studio studies on 3D
physical modeling .................................................................................................... 133
Table 6.24 Opinions of the students narrated their second year studio studies on 3D
digital modeling ....................................................................................................... 135
Table 6.25 Summary of mobilization moment in the narrated second year studio
studies ....................................................................................................................... 138
Table 6.26 The most satisfying form narratives from the third year studio ............. 139
Table 6.27 Design education related nodes and themes for the third year studio .... 142
Table 6.28 The criteria the students are expected to meet and the required
representations for the third year studio studies ....................................................... 143
Table 6 29 The reflections of the instructors‘ te ching interests on the set of criteri
and required presentations for the narrated third year studio studies ....................... 144
Table 6.30 Opinions of the third year studio instructors on 3D physical modeling in
Industrial Design Education ..................................................................................... 145
Table 6.31 Opinions of the third year studio instructors on 3D digital modeling in
Industrial Design Education ..................................................................................... 148
Table 6.32 Mentioned representational tools and their functions in the third year
narratives .................................................................................................................. 154
Table 6.33 Emphasized aspects of the form development processes in the third year
studio studies ............................................................................................................ 166
xvi
Table 6.34 The modeling tools on which the most critical evaluations and judgments
were made in the narrated third year studio studies ................................................. 168
Table 6.35 Summary of enrollment moment in the third year studio studies .......... 170
Table 6.36 Opinions of students narrated their third year studio studies on 3D
physical modeling .................................................................................................... 171
Table 6.37 Opinions of students narrated their third year studio studies on 3D digital
modeling ................................................................................................................... 174
Table 6.38 Summary of mobilization moment in the third year studio studies ....... 178
Table 6.39 The most satisfying form narratives from the fourth year studio ........... 179
Table 6.40 Design education related nodes and themes for the fourth year studio .. 183
Table 6.41 The criteria and required representations for the narrated fourth year
studio projects .......................................................................................................... 184
T le 6 42 The reflections of the instructors‘ te ching interests on the set of criteri
and required presentations for the narrated fourth year studio studies .................... 185
T le 6 43 Interviewed fourth ye r studio instructors‘ opinions on 3D physic l
modeling ................................................................................................................... 187
T le 6 44 Interviewed fourth ye r studio instructors‘ opinions on 3D digit l
modeling ................................................................................................................... 190
Table 6.45 Mentioned representational media and their functions in the fourth year
studio narratives ....................................................................................................... 195
Table 6.46 The most emphasized aspects of the form development processes in the
fourth year studio studies ......................................................................................... 202
Table 6.47 The modeling tools on which the most critical evaluations and judgments
were made in the narrated fourth year studio studies ............................................... 205
Table 6.48 Opinions of students narrated their fourth year studio studies on 3D
physical modeling .................................................................................................... 210
Table 6.49 Opinions of the students narrated their fourth year studio studies on 3D
digital modeling ........................................................................................................ 213
Table 6.50 Summary of mobilization moment in the fourth year studio studies ..... 217
xvii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1 Research questions ..................................................................................... 7
Figure 2.1 The elements of decision making (Pohl, 2006) ........................................ 14
Figure 2.2 Cognitive and concrete model .................................................................. 17
Figure 2.3 Taxonomy of design tools in three generic stages of design (Self, Dalke
and Evans, 2009; ) ...................................................................................................... 22
Figure 3.1 Industrial design education ....................................................................... 28
Figure 3.2 Typology of design knowledge (Thoring and Mueller, 2012) ................. 30
Figure 3.3 Diagram of the organization of the Bauhaus. (Translated from Walter
Gropius‘ (1923) di gr m (t ken from www.theartstory.com at 25-10-2011) ........... 31
Figure 3.4 The models, environments and worlds (Cerovsek et al., 2010; 6) ........... 43
Figure 3.5 Prioritized need statements for digital industrial design tools (Sener-
Pedgley, 2007) ........................................................................................................... 47
Figure 5.1 Sub research questions .............................................................................. 62
Figure 5.2 The Research Process ............................................................................... 63
Figure 5.3 The Analysis Process ................................................................................ 69
Figure 5.4 A screenshot from coding process in NVivo ............................................ 71
Figure 5.5 Matrix query groups ................................................................................. 72
Figure 6 1 Student SA4‘s iron project ..................................................................... 129
Figure 6 2 Student SE4‘s iron project ...................................................................... 130
Figure 6 3 Student SD3‘s prelimin ry nd fin l jury models .................................. 155
Figure 6 4 Student SF3‘s outdoor lighting project ................................................... 156
Figure 6.5 3D Digital model of a cube and drawing of its unfolded format ............ 160
Figure 6.6 3D Digital model of a coffee cup and drawing of its layers ................... 161
Figure 6.7 Preliminary jury model of student SE3 .................................................. 162
Figure 6.8 Final jury model of student SE3 ............................................................. 163
Figure 6 9 Student SC4‘s exc v tor ......................................................................... 204
Figure 6 10 Student SA4‘s h nd-held massager ...................................................... 206
Figure 6 11 Student SB4‘s pl yground equipment project ...................................... 207
Figure 6 12 Student SF4‘s ckhoe lo der workst tion........................................... 208
xviii
Figure 7.1 Translation processes of the development of 3D physical and digital
modeling skills in the studio studies ........................................................................ 223
Figure 7.2 Intended and actualized roles of 3D physical modeling ......................... 231
Figure 7.3 Intended and actualized roles of 3D physical modeling ......................... 233
Figure 7.4 Complementary instructions and exercises in 3D physical and digital
modeling in industrial design education ................................................................... 240
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Problem statement
One of the defining properties of a professional field is the tools and equipment it
employs in its professional practices. Once upon a time when there was no such
independent field as industrial design, de facto designer was the person who took the
responsibility of producing the things which s/he designed (Heidegger, 1977; Cross,
1994). In that period, both the design and production processes took place with
limited tools and equipment.
The emergence of design as a professional field has altered the way of practicing
design as well as the tools that designers use in the course of their professional
activities. Today, in modern (post) industrial societies, design practice is based on
the determination of the required possible specifications of a non-existent product
(Lawson, 2006). Consequently, the most important equipment that designers need is
the techniques and tools allowing them to communicate the ideas relevant to the
specifications of the designed object/system in the best way.
Changes taking place in the field of industrial design are ongoing processes. In the
last couple of decades, cultural and technological changes have immensely affected
the material culture of modern world and consequently all professional fields.
Parallel to these changes, the scope, boundaries and definitions of most of the
professions have been undergoing some form of change.
Industrial design is one of these affected professions thanks to its sensitivity to both
technological advances and cultural dynamics. In recent years, as a result of these
2
dynamics, continual changes have been experienced in distinct realms regarding the
production field from the definition of product to the ways of industrial production.
Today, as a consequence of these changes, development processes of services,
systems, experiences etc.1 have been included within the scope of industrial design
practice.
In line with the changes in the field, industrial design education has also been
changing and evolving towards developing new programs to facilitate the
development of new skills based on new areas in design practice such as strategic
planning, sustainable design, interaction design and user centered design. Besides
these new areas and their emerging effects on the field, in the course of the last
couple of decades, digital design tools such as CAD (Computer Aided Design),
CAID (Computer Aided Industrial Design), CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing)
systems etc. have rapidly entered in the design field and changed the way of
practicing in design related professions. Skills regarding the digital design tools have
taken their place among the basic skills required by an industrial designer.
It is obvious that digital design tools contribute to the design process immensely. For
instance digital modeling has the capacity to enrich the design processes by
improving the representational skills of industrial designers and their ways of
processing information. However, as observed throughout the history of technology,
all technological advances have two contradictory faces. While they enhance human
abilities and sensitivities, they are also seen as a threat to human sensitivities and
culture (Mumford, 1967). Technology and its effects on the human capabilities are
the most attractive areas for the social scientists. The effects of technology are not
limited to its substitutive role for human capabilities, technology also has the
potential to modify the human capacities (Mumford, 1934; Dant, 2004).
The perception of a person channeled via her/his bodily sensations is affected by the
direct impact of the objects and technologies (Dant, 2004). Within this perspective it
1 The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) has renewed the definition of
industrial design. "Industrial design is a strategic problem-solving process applicable to products,
systems, services and experiences, which results in innovation, business success and a better quality
of life." http://www.icsid.org/about/about/articles31.html
3
can be assumed that design tools have direct impacts on the capabilities and
capacities of an industrial designer and her/his perception and way of thinking. At
that point, the significance of the influences of design tools on industrial design
education has been recognized by those working in the field. However, although
several studies have focused on the effects of digital design media on design
practice, until recently there has been little interest in their effects on design
education in general and on form creation related skill acquisition processes in
particular.
Although these new technologies and tools redefine the role of the designers, their
ways of practicing and education processes, there are still certain basic traditional
skills which the design profession still values and employs in its practices such as
sketching and 3D physical modeling. If we consider the design field as a 3D system
in which all parts work together from designer and design tools to education and
professional practices, mutual dependencies and conditioning between traditional
(physical) and digital design tools, skills and their effects on the field can be seen
clearly.
In such a context, the distinct natures of digital and traditional design tools and the
potential conflicts between them become an important issue. In professional
industrial design field and industrial design education, these conflicting tools, skills
and perceptions of design practice have critical effects on each other. While each one
can be a supportive knowledge and experience for the other, they have the potential
to at times turn into obstacles for the other.
In such a complex situation, it can be assumed that the integration of digital design
tools into industrial design education requires more than providing technological
equipment and adding certain courses and exercises to the educational programs.
Foremost, such an integration attempt should be tried without disregarding the
mutual dependencies and conditioning between physical and digital design tools and
regarding skills.
In so far as, industrial design students are concerned, they seem to set out to develop
their professional skills and build their body of knowledge in the process of their
4
professional education. Knowledge regarding the three-dimensional ―design world‖
(Schön, 1992; 11) and 3D form development skills are deemed to be among the basic
professional industrial design related skills. In order to embody an imagined form of
a product, an industrial designer needs these skills, since as mentioned by Sutton and
Williams (2007), the capacity of mental manipulation of a 3D form and the
appreciation of the relationships between the components of this form and its
environment are directly related to skills in 3D form development.
At that point the mutual dependency between the representational skills and 3D form
creation skills should also be mentioned. Representations are cognitive artifacts
evolved in an interactive process in which their producers are also evolved
reflectively (Schön, 1991; Visser, 2006) The f ct out the reflective evolution of
representations and their producers adds another dimension to the role of 3D
physical and digital modeling in the skill development processes of the students
beyond their representational capacities and effects on creative process. While the
students are equipped with 3D physical and digital modeling skills as the elements of
language of design, 3D physical and digital modeling and the relevant media act also
as the mediators for the skill acquisition processes.
Studio studies are at the core in industrial design education, as in such an
environment, the students develop their design related knowledge, skills and
attitudes by developing products2 in interactive processes. It is now an ever
increasingly acknowledged fact that 3D models in the studio studies immensely
contribute to the development of industri l design students‘ 3D form cre tion rel ted
skills. To equip industrial design students with the skills for more effective and
enriched 3D form development stages in design processes, three important factors
have been identified; (a) the competencies of the students on both 3D physical and
digital modeling tools, (b) the positions and roles of these tools in the studio studies
and (c) attitudes of the actors towards 3D physical and digital modeling in the studio
studies.
2 ‗develop design rel ted skills y developing products‘ is inspired from Dewey‘s (1938) ―le rning y
doing‖ concept s expl ined in Ch pter 2
5
Besides these critical factors, there has also been increasing concern about the
conflicts between these tools and the skills that should be taken into account for
developing new strategies aimed to contribute to the development of industrial
design students‘ 3D form creation related skills by employing 3D physical and
digital modeling.
The starting point of the dissertation is the potential conflicts resulted from
perceiving and manipulating 3D forms through digital modeling media in digital
environments on the basis of the skills and abilities acquired mainly through
traditional tools and techniques.
Tackling this issue is a thorny task as it requires a sound framework to create new
str tegies to contri ute to the development of the students‘ sic 3D form
development skills by employing both digital and physical modeling. However such
a task cannot be achieved without a sound understanding of the existing role and
position of 3D physical (traditional) and digital (computerized) modeling in the skill
acquisition processes of the students regarding the 3D form development phases of
the design processes.
1.2 The aim of the dissertation and research questions
This thesis takes this challenging tasks and aims to first investigate the existing role
and position of physical and digital 3D modeling in the skill acquisition processes of
industrial design students by problematizing mutual dependency and conditioning
between them, and then to propose a novel approach towards the integration of 3D
physical and digital modeling in industrial design education.
In line with these declared aims the following main question guides and structures
the dissertation.
6
A satisfactory and convincing answer to this vital question could be provided by
breaking down the main question into a set of sub-questions. These will be examined
through a detailed analysis of the current literature and the field study conducted in
the Department of Industrial Design at METU3 by applying interview and narrative
inquiry techniques.
The following question is tackled through a detailed analysis of the current literature
regarding design education in general and industrial design education in particular as
demonstrated in Figure 1.1.
What skills and abilities do industrial design students need to create and
develop 3D forms in the early phases of design process in their studio
studies?
Additionally, the following questions are mainly dealt with through the field study
by (1) revealing the evidence about the employment of the 3D physical and digital
modeling and (2) examining the factors shaping the position of 3D physical and
digital modeling in the 3D form development phases in the early stages of design
processes in industrial design education.
What are the existing roles and positions of physical and digital 3D modeling
in the studio studies?
What are existing inclinations of the students regarding the employment of
3D physical and digital modeling in the 3D form development phases of
design processes?
3 METU is chosen for basically one particular reason. As will be shown below, the field research
should go beyond formal interviews with students and instructors as the information collected from
the interviews are not deep enough provide the research with satisfactory knowledge of the issue in
hand. Such a strategy should be supplemented by the information acquired by observations. This
requires the researcher to get involved in the studio practices of the students. As the researcher herself
works in the department, it is much easier for her to take part in the studio works of the students.
How can 3D physical and digital modeling be employed more effectively
and efficiently to contribute to the development of form creation related
skills of the students in the studio studies in industrial design education?
7
What factors affect these inclinations?
Figure 1.1 Research questions
8
9
CHAPTER 2
REPRESENTATIONS IN DESIGN PROCESS
2.1 Introduction
Cultural and technological changes have affected all professional fields in the last
couple of decades immensely. Parallel to these changes, scope, boundaries and even
the definitions of most professions have been undergoing some form of change.
Industrial design is one of the most affected professions because of its sensitivity to
both technology and culture.
While the field of industrial design is changing, industrial design education is also
evolving to develop new programs for the development of new skills based on new
areas in design practice such as strategic planning, sustainable design, interaction
design, user-centered design, computer-aided design etc. Although these new skills
and new technologies redefine the role of designers and their education processes, it
should be taken into account that there are some more durable basic skills which the
design profession is still based on.
One of the persistent and commonly shared themes in the design literature is the
creative side of the design practice based on the ideas and imagination of the
designer. However, being creative is not sufficient to become a designer, as the
designer is expected to ― ring together str ct constructs such s inform tion,
knowledge, skills and sensitivities within a working context‖ in order to resh pe
materials (Morrison and Twyford, 1996). Along the same lines, Goldschmidt (1999)
emphasizes the critical role of planning activity in design practice. According to him,
to plan for creating a non-existent artifact involves a process of building its
representations in order to enable communication and examination of the ideas. This
10
insight requires us to turn to the representations as visualization and communication
tools in design.
2.2 Representing ideas
For communication one needs representations in different forms such as pictures,
drawings, formulas, symbols, gestures, and words. Different representations are
required for different purposes, modalities, media and level of abstractions (Grignon,
2000; Goldschmidt and Potter, 2004). More complicated expressions need some
extra supporting representations such as mathematical formulas, symbols, and both
abstract and concrete models.
From the cognitive science perspective, Visser (2006) considers representations as
cognitive artifacts evolved in an interactive process. His argument is based on the
reflective evolution of representations and their producers. He identifies seven main
functions of representations;
To keep track of ideas, inferences made, and results and conclusions
achieved.
To advance understanding and interpretation, and possibly “see” things
differently.
To reach “new” ideas based on “new” interpretations of the
representations.
To derive implications from results already obtained and presented in the
representation
To think about situations that [one is] not in or that may not yet exist,”
“to reason about situations that one is unable to experience directly.”
And to “rely on a kind of “hypothetical reality” that anchors [one’s]
reasoning”
To organize one’s continuing work
To communicate one’s results or conclusions – be they final or
intermediate- to other people.(Visser, 2006;121 )
Representations may vary depending on the audiences, stakeholders, the resources
and the purposes which they are used for (Grignon, 2000, 1988; Goldschmidt and
Potter, 2004). The most common representations may be listed as follows:
11
Concrete representations - Abstract representations
Precise and detailed representations - Rough and quick representations
Scaled representations - Life size representations
Three dimensional representations - Two dimensional representations
Conventional representations - Free form representations
Full and detailed representations - partial representations
2.3 Communication and visualization tools in design process
(Representing ideas in design process)
In his study on representation and reasoning in design, Gero points to a specific
relationship between the understanding of the external visual world and the visual
ideas of an individual. He draws our attention to the shapes and their main role in the
composition of our extern l visu l worlds According to him, ―we underst nd nd
inter ct with the world… l rgely through our visu l sense‖ (Gero, 1999; 315) In this
context, visualization of the ideas in the design process is a must for representing
them for evaluation. Accordingly, visualizing, testing and modifying can be
identified as central and iterative activities in the design process (Cross, 1990).
Through these central activities, a large body of scientific and technological
knowledge is processed and introduced during the design process.
In recent ye rs, p r llel to Cross‘s perspective, there h s een a large volume of
studies focusing on the role of visual representations in design from different
perspectives, such as cognitive science, sociology etc. as well as the design field
itself. In one of these studies that focuses on design as a “reflective conversation
with the materials of a design situation”, Schön (1992) defines designing on the
basis of ―seeing, moving, seeing‖ ctivities From his point of view, the designer
develops some visual, tactile or other kinds of representations of the specifications of
design idea, sees what has been done and uses this information for further
representations The term ‗seeing‘ encompasses 'recognize', 'detect', 'discover',
'appreciate' and innumerous variants of seeing. Moving means developing the
12
representation according to the information gathered by seeing, hence, seeing affects
the designer‘s move towards the new solutions. There is an emphasis on the role of
the judgments in ‗seeing, moving, seeing‘ in Schön‘s study Designers m ke
judgments during the design process based on their body of knowledge, values,
systems of beliefs, habitus etc. In this iterative and reflective process, the designer
herself /himself is lso ch nged s well s designed o ject/system (Schön, 1991)
At the beginning of the design process, as the representations are ambiguous, then
designer tends to eliminate these ambiguities, yet each move creates new ambiguities
and the designer continuously tries to eliminate them till a clear representation is
obtained. This process and its final product (the final representation) are affected by
this reflective conversation between the designer and the representation (Schön,
1991).
In another major study, Design Representation, Goldschmidt (2004) state that
―design is to represent, nd in no c se is there design without represent tion‖
(p.203). According to him, the ultimate goal of a designer is to develop ―s tisfying
represent tion‖ of designed o ject or system (Goldschmidt, 2004; 203).
During the design process, the designer uses different kinds of representations such
as report, sketches, drawings, 3d models, and electronic data. Some of them may be
abstract and some of them may be material representations. The designer transforms
information from abstract to material representations, from verbal to visual
representations, from two-dimensional to three-dimensional representation or vice
versa (Visser, 2006). During these transformations, designer can recognize more
easily the conflicting parts or gaps, make judgments and develop new solutions.
From a different discipline, cognitive psychology, Visser (2006) distinguishes design
and the production of the designed artefact product in her study in a similar way with
Goldschmidt‘s rgument She considers design s cognitive activity and the
representation as a cognitive ability that a designer employs during the design
process. In her own words, ―Designers are not producing the artefact product, but
its specification” (2006; 115). This approach to representations in the design process
is based on the suggestion that a designer only produce the specification of an
13
artefact product not itself. Specification activity in design process is described as the
construction of the representations.
In line with this reasoning, Visser describes three main phases of the specification
activity in design process: generating, transforming and evaluating. These phases
involves various iterations until the precise and detailed representation of the
designed product/system is achieved. Before reaching the final design representation
designer uses intermedi te represent tions As in Schön‘s study, Visser lso
highlights the differences between intermediate and final representations. The degree
of abstraction, specification and completeness differs for each one. She demonstrates
this as the process of transforming the representations. However, this transformation
is not limited within the types of representations, it may also occur in two directions;
vertical transformation from one idea to a brand new idea and the lateral (horizontal)
transformation from one idea to its refined version. (Goel, 1995; Visser, 2006; Self,
et al., 2009)
Representations are commonly considered as the main part of design processes and
designers employ them for different aims in different phases of this process. In the
relevant literature, the following four main functions of representations during
design process have appeared prominent.
Communicating ideas to the others
Since design is directly related to non-existent things, as mentioned above, designers
need communication tools and some form of media in order to represent their ideas.
These tools or media are expected to provide the designers with an opportunity to
visualize their ideas and imaginations in order to gather feedbacks and evaluations
for their designs from the other relevant actors and audiences. During a design
process, numerous decisions are made by the actors and representations and
visualization have significant roles in decision making. As demonstrated in Figure
2.1, Pohl (2006) considers representation and visualization as two of six functional
elements of decision making.
14
Figure 2.1 The elements of decision making (Pohl, 2006)
Through the representations and visuals, the proposals or current states of the
evolving solutions are transmitted to the decision makers during the design process
(Pohl, 2006) and it is partly for this reason that the design practitioners are mostly
appreciated by decision makers for their visualization skills. Therefore, although the
main emphasis is often on the form of the proposed object, the success of a design
proposal largely depends on the preferred representation type and quality of the
representations as well as the quality of the designed product / system, and the
effects of visual representations on the decisions of the actors in design process are
described s ―rhetoric l effects‖ (Crilly, et l, 2009)
As the inner dialogue of designer
Representing means making things visible. However this visibility is not only for the
other actors of design process but also for the designers themselves (Visser, 2006).
Besides communicating design related information to others, the designer uses
representations and visuals to evaluate her/his own ideas before introducing them to
the other actors in design process. Like other actors in design process, designer also
makes decisions through inner dialogs for evaluating her/his ideas and solutions. In
15
this respect, 2D and 3D sketch modeling play vital roles in initiating and developing
design ideas (Verstijnen et al, 1998a; 520) In th t c se, designers iter tive ‗seeing
moving seeing‘ (Schön, 1992) ctivity m y also be considered as an inner dialog.
As a supporting tool for the mental imagery in design process
It is an obvious fact that the human capacity for internal representation / mental
imagery has limits. For this reason we need external representations as a supporting
tool for our cognitive abilities in design process. As mentioned by many scholars,
our mental imagery needs external supports for complex design tasks.
Representations have very important roles in compensating for our limited capacity
for inner representation (mental imagery) (Goldschmidt and Porter, 2004). The
human brain uses stored knowledge for solving immediate problems, however, for
the solutions for ―im gined future o ject‖ we need supporting resources for
―perceiving, cting nd communic ting‖ (Fish, 2004, 154)
Testing proposed solutions
Design problems are considered as ill-defined/ill-structured problems by Simon
(1984), and one of the expected contributions of designers is to create possible
solutions for those ill-defined problems (Visser, 2006; Simon, 1984). During the
design process, designer redefines ill-defined problem continuously; this means that
each definition opens up new paths for new solutions. It is hard to test design
solutions for definite criteria. In such a complex situation, words are not adequate to
represent solutions for testing; designer needs different representations, which
support the testing process of the solution, such as 2D drawings, illustrations and 3D
models.
16
2.4 Modeling Practice
Most scholars working on design practice mention modeling and its role in design
process in their studies. Eissen (1990) emphasizes modeling as an activity depicting
form in order to communicate design intent. In line with this reasoning we can
consider models as external representations of ideas which are formulated and
manipulated in the mind and modeling s the ―l ngu ge of designing‖ (Archer,
1992). Before focusing on models and modeling practice in design education, it will
be useful to survey the literature on models in different fields. Hence, in this chapter,
the term model, its role in different disciplines, in design and especially in industrial
design is reviewed.
2.4.1 What is a model?
In this section, we will review the literature on the term model and its role in general
and in industrial design. To understand what a model is, firstly, the term model
should be considered on the basis of its functions in language; as a noun, as an
adjective and as a verb. Model, as a noun, is a representation; as an adjective, it
means ide l or perfect inst nce, s in model hus nd; ‗ s ver to model
ssoci ted with to demonstr te, to reve l or to show wh t thing is like‘ (He ly and
Healy, 2008, p 125) In ro der sense, ‗model is defined s kind of represent tion
of something‘ (Brown nd M rtin, 1977; Mitchell, 1993) Although models nd their
roles differ according to the fields, any description of a model and its role in a field
originates from its power to represent. There is a special relationship between model
and the reality/system/object which a model represent. This relationship can be
determined y ‗simil rity nd isomorphism‘; the constructions, m nipul tions nd
analysis of models and the knowledge gathered from these analyses depend on the
similarity or isomorphism between the model and the represented
system/object/reality (Knuuttila and Boon, 2009).
At this stage, before explaining the term model further, the difference between
simulation and model should be mentioned in order to prevent any misconception.
17
Simul tion is defined y Archer (1992) s ‗the techniques of uilding logic l models
which copy or imitate the functional behavior of the system modeled‘ Simul tions
are realistic models which are needed to make predictions about the ultimate
performance of a design in a modeled usage environment, with a modeled user
(H sdoğ n, 1993).
Models are classified in different ways in the literature, at the most basic level; they
could be classified into two basic categories, ‗cognitive models‘ nd ‗concrete
models‘ as externalized forms of cognitive models.
Figure 2.2 Cognitive and concrete model
Cognitive models are imagined ideas in the mind; the ability to evaluate them, to
make judgments, to transform them into alternative configurations by using mental
represent tions is ‗cognitive modeling‘ (Archer nd Ro erts, 1992; Welch, 1997;
Davies and Elmer, 2001). Externalized forms of cognitive models are concrete
models; in the most common way concrete models are categorized into three types
in the literature, (a) iconic, (b) symbolic and (c) analogue (Archer, 1992; Davies and
Elmer, 2001; Smith, 2001)
18
Iconic models represent physical structures such as a product, a building, a
landscape etc. Sketches, three-dimensional architectural models, model of a kettle
etc. are examples of iconic models (Archer, 1992; Smith, 2001). Archer defines
iconic models as the most reliable ones.
Symbolic models represent intangible factors by using abstract codes such as
mathematical models. (Archer, 1992; Davies and Elmer, 2001; Smith, 2001)
Analogue models represent existing or proposed reality through diagrams and
algorithms such as electrical circuit diagrams. (Archer, 1992; Davies and Elmer,
2001; Smith, 2001)
Although, all models have been used for a same purpose, for representing, their role
in different domains such as natural sciences, social sciences, engineering, etc. varies
based on the domain specific contexts. For a social scientist a model is an instrument
which can mediate between the theory and the world (Morgan and Morrison, 1999;
Frigg and Hartman, 2006). We can acquire knowledge through models whether they
re ‗phenomenologic l models‘ or ‗models of d t ‘ Scale models, idealized,
analogical and phenomenological models are listed by Frigg and Hartman (2006)
under the ‗models of phenomen ‘ title On the other h nd, they define ‗models of
d t ‘ s corrected, rectified, regimented and at least partially idealized version of the
raw data.
In another study, focusing on scientific representations, models are given three main
functions. In this study, Baker (2000) suggests that needed predictions should be
extracted from a model;
Firstly, models should give us knowledge about the potential possibilities
and risks regarding to the represented reality.
Secondly, through a model, the knowledge which cannot be acquired
because of the complexity of the reality should be easily recognized and
understood. Thus, according to him, a model should also be an elaborated
or refined representation of the represented theory.
19
Thirdly a model should take into account some features and characteristics
of the represented reality and ignore others in order to render the examined
parts of the represented reality more workable.
From software engineering field, in which models are used commonly, Bézivin nd
Ger é (2001) define model s ‗ simplific tion of system‘. They identify the two
most important characteristics of models in a similar way to B ker‘s three import nt
functions of a model. The first characteristic is that a model should have ‗the
capacity to answer the questions about the system which it represents‘. The second
characteristic is ‗the usefulness of a model‘, the usefulness of a model, which could
be achieved by the simplification of the model; it should be simpler than the actual
system, many details of the represented system should be abstracted out and only
necessary details should be implemented on it (Bezivin and Gerbe, 2001). Although
Knuuttila and Boon (2009) analyze models on the basis of their construction
processes, they also mention two characteristics of models. According to them, a
model should be constructed to provide external support for our thinking process. In
the construction process of a model, its information space should be narrowed by
localizing only the most important features of represented reality so that the
information can be turned into a manipulable and workable form.
As observed in the studies from different disciplines mentioned above, there are four
prominent common characteristics of models. These characteristics are summarized
y H sdoğ n (1993) s follows
A model is a 'representation' of something
The representation is based upon some selected aspects of the
phenomenon
The representation 'reduces' the attributes of the phenomenon
The representation is 'systematically related' to the phenomenon on
the basis of some 'purpose'
In addition to these characteristics which might be considered as a summary of the
ppro ches to the models which mentioned ove, H sdoğ n (1993) also lists the
criteria by which models can be judged or compared: Validity, Utility, Reliability,
20
Fidelity, Comprehensiveness, Flexibility, Communicativeness, Ease of use, and
Effectiveness.
After this short review on models in general, the following section will focus on
models in design and especially in the industrial design field.
2.4.2 The position of modeling as a representational skill in design
Although the transformation of industrial design profession has changed its modes of
action, its scope and required competencies for professional life, industrial design is
still based on to merge ideas and feelings with concrete materials (Hannah, 2002).
The merger of the essential concepts with material embodiment of the designed
o ject determines n o ject‘s ttri utes such s its utility, comfort, s fety, esthetics
etc. (Norman, 2004; Crilly, et al., 2004; Desmet and Hekkert, 2007).
Designers are expected to create, evaluate and communicate the proposed attributes
of non-existing products, buildings, systems, etc.. Models are fast and economic
representational tools for the creation, evaluation and communication of these
attributes (Archer, 1992; Paynter et al., 2002). The design process starts in the
designer‘s mind; she/he im ges ide s, ev lu tes them, m kes judgments nd
transforms them by employing mental modeling (Archer and Roberts, 1992; Welch,
1997; Davies and Elmer, 2001). However, designer needs to externalize them for
three main reasons.
Firstly, sometimes to conduct design process totally in the mind is impossible
because of the complexity of the design processes and the limited mental capacity of
human beings. In order to keep track of the ideas before they fades or are covered by
new ideas, and to organize them to facilitate investigations, to see them from a
different perspective, etc. designer needs to externalize her/his mental models of the
design solutions (Goldschmidt and Potter, 2004; Fish, 2004). To investigate and see
mental models from a different perspective enables unexpected discoveries which
are a very important impetus for creativity (Holm, 2006)
21
Secondly, in most cases, verbal representations are not sufficient to communicate
ideas/ mental models of design solutions to the other actors of the design process for
instance decision makers, production team and users (Archer, 1992; Goldschmidt
and Potter, 2004; Visser, 2006). As mentioned in the previous chapters, to introduce
design solutions by different representational tools makes them more
comprehensible for the other actors in the design process, especially for the actors
out of the professional design field.
Thirdly, the cost of testing, evaluating and making judgments of the design solutions
on a real product, building, system, etc.is very high in most cases and take a very
long time, therefore employing models simplified and abstracted from unnecessary
details for testing and evaluation process may be more economical in terms of both
cost and time (Evans, 1992; Page, 2000).
In the numerous studies on design process, models are classified according to
numerous different criteria such as the functions which they support, phases of
design process, the audiences to which they are introduced etc. Evans and Wormald
(1993) classify these visualization tools based on their functions in different phases
of design process in the following way:
• 2D sketches for the rapid generation of ideas
• 3D sketch models for a more detailed manipulation of form
• 2D renderings to present the proposal(s) to a client
• 3D block model(s) as an exact representation of the proposal
• 3D prototypes to define internal detail and undertake performance testing
Self, Dalke and Evans (2009) classify representational tools based on the three
generic stages of design process; concept design, development design and detail
design. Their classification demonstrated in Figure 3.1 is abstracted from the studies
of numerous researchers in design field such as Cross, Pipes, Ulrich, Goel, etc.
22
Figure 2.3 Taxonomy of design tools in three generic stages of design (Self, Dalke
and Evans, 2009; )
In the early stages of design process, sketching is the most easy and quick way of
externalization of the flowing ideas. Freehand sketches allow reflective conversation
between the designer and her/his ideas (Goel, 1995) and their ambiguity and density
make unexpected discoveries possible (Holm, 2006). However, employing 3D quick
models besides 2D sketches in the early stages of design process has considerable
advantages. It could prevent inconsistencies hardly noticeable on 2D representations,
make the possibilities more visible (Evans, 1992), reveal relationships between full
and empty spaces and between surfaces of a form, and allow on to feel its volume
and geometry.
Designer needs more realistic models in the advanced phases of design process
because there are more refined details which should be evaluated and communicated.
In the later phases of design process, the most common modeling tools can be listed
as follows; block models and 3D digital models and realistic images for presenting
the appearance of the proposed object, partial models for the evaluation of details,
working models for the evaluation of mechanism and functions, detailed technical
drawings and prototypes for usability tests, market researches and production
(Evans, 1992; Goldschmidt, 2004; Dorta, et al., 2008).
23
As seen in Ev ns‘ nd Worm ld‘s list nd Figure 3 1 , lthough two dimension l
models have an important role in the early phases of design process, whether they
are physical or digital, 3D models appear as the most significant representational
tools for the manipulation of a 3D form throughout the design process.
2.4.3 3D models and 3D form development
Although there are limited studies focusing on the real effects of 3D visualization on
design process and presentation, they are considered as one of the most powerful
communication tool between the actors (Liem, 2004) because, as Lawson (2004)
shows in his seminal work, How Designers Think, designing an object, system,
building or a region is to create three dimensional forms and spaces. To create 3D
forms, the designer needs 3D design knowledge.
2D drawings and sketching have limitations for advanced phases of product
development process. In order to represent a complex 3D form on paper, one should
be an expert in both 2D drawing and sketching. However, there are significant
differences etween the ―perception of physic l 3D o ject‖ nd the perception of
―2D represent tion of th t o ject‖ 3D models nd m quettes llow the designer to
explore design possibilities and strengthen mental images (Kimbell et al., 1996;
Paynter et al., 2002).
As mentioned in the previous section, attributes of an object related to both tangible
and intangible properties can be associated with the elements of emotional design;
utility, comfort, safety and aesthetics. The appearance of a product provides
numerous clues about the elements of emotional design which it bears (Crilly, et al.,
2004; Norman, 2004, Desmet and Hekkert, 2007). However to test them and their
effects on the emotions of a user on a 2D drawing may not give sufficient feedback
to the designer. At that point, 3D models, whether rough or detailed, can be
considered as one of the most convenient representational tools for creating,
evaluating and developing the tangible and partially intangible properties of a
24
product, its appearance and its interaction with a user (Sauer and Sonderegger,
2009).
By drawing upon the recent literature on design, Liddament (1993) identifies the
following roles of the 3D models.
• Obtain ideas about the finished appearance of a design
• See how the design might be improved
• Develop or refine the design
• Show possible faults in the design
• Study possible prototypes
• Test mechanisms, circuits, or other parts
• Represent features such as scale, proportion etc.
• Check features such as weight, feel etc. (92)
2.4.4 Developments in 3D modeling techniques
Although there have been very few studies on it, the history of model making shows
that the model making techniques have developed parallel to the production
techniques in h ndcr fts Brunelleschi‘s Dome for Florence C thedr l is known s
one of the first model produced in the 15th
century. However, first important
appearance of models started at the beginning of the 18th century (Baker, 2004). In
her book on modeling practice in architectural design, Moon (2005) provides a short
history of modeling practice in design field. Until the 1930s, hand tools and some
basic cutting and pressing equipment were used for model making. In 1939, the first
known model-making workshop with industrial equipment was opened in USA
(Moon, 2005). However, these tools were not convenient to produce miniaturized
parts of the models. In order to produce miniaturized models, the model workshops
needed miniaturized tools and equipment. In the 1970s, smaller tools and equipment
ec me v il le for model m king workshops At the end of the 1970‘s, first
computerized production techniques such as CNC (Computer Numeric Control)
milling and laser cutting emerged and they suited to the model making process. CNC
machining in model making made it possible to produce smaller and complicated
25
models, even if the cost of the computerized equipment was very high for model
making companies.
In recent years, rapid developments in computer technologies have affected all
professional fields. Especially in the last three decades, significant changes in
visualization techniques have been experienced in design field parallel to the
developments in computer technologies.
At least for the last two decades, in addition to 2D drawings, it has been possible to
produce 3D digital models and 2D realistic images from these 3D models via
rendering applications. In the last decade, along with the introduction of middle
range inexpensive CAD applications, CAD has been turned into one of the basic
communication tools in design field (Feirer, 2002).
CAD applications have many advantages for designers, some of which are
mentioned by the researchers such as Paynter et al. (2002), Feirer (2002) and Unver
(2006) are listed below;
Experimenting with form in a risk free environment
Producing photo realistic representations of artifacts
Facilities such as transforming, copying, scaling, rotating and keeping history
of actions
Preparing and communicating quickly design proposals
Not needing physical storage
Not needing hands-on skills
Not consuming time and money compared to the traditional modeling
techniques
In spite of its advantages, digital design was criticized because of its virtuality until
90‘s In these criticisms, the lack of the physical feedback that allows an evaluation
of the designed o ject‘s physic l properties such s weight nd texture w s emerged
as the most significant problem of digital design.
According to Ramduny-Ellis et al. (2010), although digital modeling techniques are
used extensively in design processes in recent years, objects are experienced mostly
26
with their physicality and materials. At that point, with the development of rapid
prototyping techniques, compensation of the lack of physicality of digital design has
been partially achieved.
After the 1990s, with the widespread use of rapid prototyping technologies, digital
modeling techniques have been valued for their ability to produce physical models.
The problems resulting from the lack of physicality have been partially solved by
development of rapid prototyping techniques.
In recent years, CAD and rapid prototyping techniques have been turned into
common practices in new product development process in industry. Unver (2006)
suggest that parallel to the extensive usage of these techniques in industry,
integration of CAD and rapid prototyping techniques into the design education
becomes a necessity in order to equip candidate designers with newly emerged
design tools for their professional life.
27
CHAPTER 3
3D MODELING PRACTICE IN DESIGN EDUCATION
3.1 Design education as a skill acquisition process
As several studies on design education have suggested, the most effective way of
training in the reflective practices such as architecture and industrial design is
‗le rning y doing‘ (Dewey, 1938; Schön, 1991; L ckney, 1999; Oxm n, 2004) The
―Le rning y doing‖ ppro ch has been appeared from the beginning of the 20th
century as the central idea of the progressivist perspective in education.
From Dewey‘s perspective, as mentioned by Adamson (2007; 79), ―experience‖ is
one of the key concepts for ―le rning y doing‖. He defines 'experience' as a
"moment of interaction with objects and processes".
Lawson (2006) supports this approach for design education by stating ―it seems
almost impossible to learn design without actually doing it‖ In the common
approach to design education, design students are equipped with scientific and
domain specific knowledge with supporting courses and learning to use this
knowledge for their design problems in the studio studies (Figure 4.1).
28
Figure 3.1 Industrial design education
Simil r to Schön‘s (1991) term ―knowing in ction‖, knowing has been defined with
reference to its action relevant nature by Barab, Hay and Yamagata (2001). Their
approaches imply that knowledge and cognition should be evaluated by taking into
account the dynamic relations among the changing (learning) environments and
changing individuals. Throughout these dynamic relations among individual learners
and their environments, learners can develop their potential to act in a certain fashion
(Barab, Hay and Yamagata, 2001). In design education, studio environment is the
place where the formulation of design related knowledge construction is actualized
and the potential to act in design (product development) process is developed.
Although, as argued by Kolko (2000) and Lawson (2006), the design studio tradition
is criticized for its weakness such as paying attention to the end products of the
students rather than to the process, and needs some changes for adaptation of newly
emerging areas in industrial design such as sustainable design and interaction design,
it is still a fact that the most convenient conditions for learning by doing in design
education can be provided by studio studies (Schön, 1991; L ckney, 1999;Broadfoot
and Bennett, 2003). Gathering formal knowledge related to design domain is not
sufficient to become a designer, a design student should learn to analyze and reframe
the problem, to develop new strategies for action, etc. (Schön, 1991). These are the
29
skills which a designer needs to act in a design process. Cross (1990) defines the
most important skills which design education should develop in design students as
―core ilities‖, these re:
Resolve ill-defined problems
Adopt solution-focusing strategies
Employ abductive/productive/appositional thinking
Use non-verbal graphic/spatial modeling media
However, developments of these skills are mostly based on the construction of the
t cit knowledge, in Schön‘s (1991) term, sed on ―knowing in ction‖, which c n
be acquired only by doing, exercising and observing the practicing professionals.
McCullough (1996) define skill by emphasizing its acquisition process as in the
following quotation from his book, Abstracting Craft.
Skill also differs from talent, and from conceptual grasp, even if it may
reflect them. Talent seems native, and concepts come from schooling, but
skill is learned by doing. It is acquired by demonstration and sharpened by
practice. Although it comes from habitual activity, it is not purely
mechanical. (McCullough, 1996; 3)
In another significant study on the creation of the knowledge in design education,
Thoring and Mueller (2012) define four knowledge levels built up on each other as
demonstrated in their typology of design knowledge in Figure 4.2. The transitions
between these levels enable the development of the knowledge.
30
Figure 3.2 Typology of design knowledge (Thoring and Mueller, 2012)
Thoring and Mueller, building on Schön‘s nd Cross‘ perspective, place tacit
knowledge that also contains representational skills on the second level which other
refined knowledge will be built up on. On this level, tacit knowledge is acquired
mainly through learning by doing and observing professionals as in studio studies in
design education.
The first instances of studio based learning by doing were seen in the guild system of
the Middle Ages. Then it was adapted in design education by the Ecole des Beaux
Arts at the beginning of the 19th century (Reimer and Douglas, 2003; Broadfoot and
Bennett, 2003). As mentioned by Lackney (1999) studio studies were conducted by
masters (professors or guest master designers) in the Ecole. The representations of
projects were judged by a jury, however, without students.
Following Ecole des Beaux Arts, numerous design schools in both Europe and US
adopted studio-based learning by doing. Although the studio studies had different
31
characteristics in each school especially in Bauhaus, its basic form was based on
experimenting, in other words, learning by doing was not changed (Lackney, 1999;
Reimer and Douglas, 2003; Broadfoot and Bennett, 2003). The goal of Bauhaus was
the unification of all training in art and design. In Bauhaus ideal, to educate a
designer/artist was to equip her/him with the knowledge and mastery of the physical
laws such as statistics, acoustics etc. (Gropius, 1923). This unified training was
sed on ―le rning y doing‖ nd the intellectu l educ tion nd the m nu l training
was implemented in a parallel way. The main emphasis in the education process was
on both conceptualization and visualization, and representations had an important
place in the curriculum as demonstrated in Figure 4.3.
Figure 3.3 Diagram of the organization of the Bauhaus. (Translated from Walter
Gropius‘ (1923) di gr m (t ken from www.theartstory.com at 25-10-2011)
Today, as mentioned above, studio studies are the main part of the educational
process in most design schools Studio studies re sed on Dewey‘s ‗le rning y
doing‘ concept, students le rn to design y designing Besides ‗le rning y doing‘,
another important strategy in studio studies in design education is the direct
relationship between instructors and students. Through this relationship, instructors
(experienced designers) guide students to understand how they can reframe the
32
problem, find and represent solutions, make judgments etc. based on the their
experiences (Cennamo, et al., 2011).
This is ctu lly kind of reflective process etween students nd instructors (Schön,
1992) Instructors‘ experiences, judgments nd ppro ches to the pro lems h ve
important effects on the construction process of the design world of a design student.
Design world is descri ed y Schön (1991, 1992 ) s world in which designer
constructs and reconstructs objects and relationships with which she/he deals with
according to her/his own way of reframing problems, making judgments, developing
solutions, etc.
The first step in studio studies in design education is to give students an intentionally
― t le st in p rt, ill-defined, uncert in or incoherent pro lem‖ (Bro dfoot nd
Bennett, 2003; 3). Students start their studio studies by analyzing and reframing the
given ill-defined problem and continue to develop their design solutions in their
design worlds according to the changing situations such as inconsistency between
the design solution and new situations, between the visual and verbal
representations, reframed problems, etc. (Schön, 1991; Visser, 2006) This
continuous development and evolution of design solutions in studio studies is
actually another formulation of Schön‘s (1992) ―seeing, moving, seeing‖ ctivities
which continuously iterate during the design process. Learning to develop and
evaluate design solutions by doing/experimenting depends on the three main
characteristics of design.
Design is a cognitive practice sed on designer‘s knowing in ction, it is
kind of tacit knowledge which cannot be entirely formulated and described in
words (Schön, 1991; W tz, 2001)
Design is a process and should be learned as a whole. The cognitive abilities
and competencies can be developed through a design process by
experimenting the effects of these cognitive abilities and competencies on
e ch other nd on the design solutions (Schön, 1991; W tz, 2001)
Design process is based on the developments of the representations of
designed object/system.
33
The representational tools used during the design process such as drawings, models
etc. comprise ―l ngu ge of design‖ (Archer, 1992) In the e rly ph ses of design,
representations allow one to see the problem from a different perspective and
provide se for refr ming it In the dv nced ph ses, s st ted y Schön (1991),
each new solution creates new problems to solve. In this situation designer should
reframe newly emerging problems in order to arrive at the most convenient solution.
The str tegy of ‗looking from different perspective‘ is still v lid for the dv nced
phases of design process; however it should be supported by different forms of
representation. The externalization of design problem and solutions with different
representational tools creates new possibilities for seeing new aspects of the problem
and serendipities for the solutions. (Lawson, 2006; Horowitz and Danilowitz, 2009)
In the previous section, Goldschmidt‘s (2004) ppro ch on design is captured by her
own words, ―design is to represent‖ Schön‘s nd Visser‘s ppro ches to the
representations in design process support her statement by implying that design is
the evolution of the represent tions According to Schön, m iguous nd
incompetent representations are developed by seeing, moving, seeing action. This is
a reflective action between designer and representations of her/his design solutions.
In a similar way, Visser assumes that design process is the transformation process of
the representations from intermediary representations that have uncertain
specifications to the final ones, which have certain specifications.
The mentioned critical positions of representations and representational media in
design make it a technology-mediated practice. All representational media whether
physical or digital are among the technologies for design practice. Accordingly,
design practice occurs through the interaction between the designer and technologies
for design practice.
Departing from the regarding literature, it is possible to conclude that the main
objective of design education is to equip design students with the knowledge and
skills for professional lives. Hence, the development of the representational skills
that a designer employs to deal with the design solutions has an important place in
design education.
34
If the role of learning by doing and modeling in design education in the literature are
reconsidered, it can be concluded that, students also learn to design by learning;
To represent their design solutions by modeling for testing its specifications
To m ke decisions y m king inner convers tions with their designs‘ models
(Schön, 1992; Verstijnen et al, 1998; Visser, 2006)
To determine gaps and inconsistencies between the different forms of models
(Goldschmidt, 2004; Visser, 2006)
To develop their designs by transforming uncertain specifications on the
models of their designs into cert in nd concrete specific tions (Schön, 1991;
Visser, 2006; Lawson, 2006)
To represent their design solutions in a convincing way to the decision
makers (jury members) through models in different forms (Archer, 1992;
Goldschmidt and Potter, 2004; Visser, 2006)
To narrow the working space in order to understand more easily the hidden
problems on their designs through abstracted and refined models (Evans,
1992; Page, 2000)
To catch serendipity moments in design process through different form of
representation such as drawings, illustrations and models (Lawson, 2006;
Horowitz and Danilowitz, 2009)
However, while the representational tools are evaluated and adopted commonly
based on their exploratory capacities on the recognition of the inconsistencies and
possible new solutions, their effects on the educational processes, the students‘
cognitive developments and their design approaches are analyzed in the limited
number of the studies.
Eastman, (2001) in his important study on representations and design cognition,
states that learning new specialized representations is the foundation for advanced
learning in design field. A new representation is learned through repeated practices,
35
a design student firstly learns to read a new representation, starts to interpret,
manipulate and evaluate it automatically. According to him, design expertise
emerges at the point where design student can map the knowledge with the
representations.
The significant relationship between the design education and the developments of
the representational skills is also emphasized by Oxman (1999). She considers the
acquisition of the cognitive ability to manipulate the representations of design
knowledge as one of the elements of design learning. As mentioned by her in a
recent study, organizational structure of the knowledge provides convenient ground
for the cognitive ability to manipulate different knowledge and competencies in
design (Oxman, 2004). This is actually cognitive process of design thinking. In that
case, according to her the construction of the knowledge and the development of
cognitive abilities in design are among the most important contents of learning by
doing in studio studies.
In both academic and professional design field there are some conflicting approaches
to the representational media and their roles in design education. While certain
studies focus on the advantages of traditional representational techniques and media
such as 2d free- hand sketching, 3D physical modeling, etc., others analyze the
computer aided design (CAD) tools and their positive effects on the skill
development process of design student.
However, according to Crilly et.al (2009) each representational technique has
limitations and encourages the user to use certain types of form treatment; in other
words, they h ve ―deterministic effects‖ on the design process. These effects are the
constraints and advantages of any kind of modeling media. Being familiar with the
possibilities and practicalities of any media can be possible only by understanding
these constraints and advantages (McCullough, 200, 1996), in other words,
underst nding their ―deterministic effects‖. At that point, it can be assumed that
being competent in any modeling media entails being familiar with their mentioned
possibilities and practicalities.
36
3.2 Physical modeling in design education
In his book, Allen (2008) starts one of the sections entitled ‗H nd‘ with a quotation
from Yan Yuan (17th
c.), a well known philosopher from the late imperial period of
China,
―The h nd must seize thing efore one knows it perfectly‖ (Y n Yu n, 17th
c.;
Allen, 2008; 14)
One of the me nings of the term ―to see‖ is lso ‗to underst nd‘ From Allen‘s point
of view, we can see through our hands. They are sensory devices and we use them as
an instrument for communication. He suggests five procedures for manual
exploration: lateral motion and contour following; pressure; static contact;
unsupported holding, and enclosing (2008; 15). We discover structural and surface
properties of a physical object and manipulate it through these procedures. Allen
supports his rgument y suggesting th t ‗there is lmost no skill th t doesn‘t
com ine‘ h nd nd eye (2008; 16)
Shapes, in art and design, are created and evaluated based on visual, kinesthetic and
tactile feedback (Bordegoni and Cugini, 2005). Tactile feedback is mostly acquired
by manual exploration. In design process, manual exploration of the shape provides
clues about its features and improves the three-dimensional mental representation of
it.
Designer‘s eng gement with form nd the link etween her/his ody nd it (Dort ,
2005) has significant effects on the creation process of the aesthetics and functional
properties of this form. The engagement of designer with a form requires visual,
kinesthetic and tactile involvement.
Along the same lines, according to Schön (2006), design process relies not only on
the designer‘s mind ut lso on her/his ody nd senses ‗Knowing in ction‘,
designer‘s most import nt competency, include sensory, odily knowing‘ Bodily
knowing involves the reflective conversation between a designer and the emerging
model during the form cre tion process (Schön, 1991; Şener-Pedgley, 2007).
37
Designers shape forms by their physical efforts as well as by their cognitive efforts.
During this physical interaction, the designer gathers different knowledge and
employs them in the future design processes as well as the following phases of the
current process (Bucolo, 2008).
To handle certain materials and to control 3D forms by hands and stereoscopic
vision during the design process is mentioned by Dorta (2005) as the significant
competencies of a designer which design education should enable design student to
acquire. Dorta also suggests that developing forms, their details and textures;
evaluating them, making judgments and changing their qualities according to the
judgments directly on an editable 3D physical model improve the creative work.
However, he highlights that in the early phases of the design process, 3D physical
models should be ambiguous and inaccurate in order to facilitate unexpected
discoveries and exploration of geometry as in sketching (Dorta, 2005). In contrast,
exploring geometries in existing CAD softw re requires precise definition of forms‘
geometry and to focus on commands rather than flow of ideas. Actually, the
advantages of studying rough physical sketch models in the early phases of design
processes which cannot be provided by computer aided modeling software are
mentioned frequently in the studies on digital modeling as well as on the physical
modeling (Dachille, et al., 1999; Cheshire, et.al, 2001; Dorta, 2005).
In the later design stages, the designer needs refined 3D physical models in order to
experiment and represent the texture of a surface, details on a form, physical
interaction between the potential user and the proposed product etc. Examining the
approaching angle of a hand to a handle or leverage, evaluating spatial relationships
of an object (Hornecker, 2007), testing the feel of touch to a silicon surface require
3D physical models. Nevertheless, in spite of their contribution to the design
processes, in studies on digital modeling, refined 3D physical models for the later
stages of design process are criticized based on their expensive, time consuming and
labor intensive production.
The significance of physical models in industrial design education is not limited to
their representational qualities and effects on creative process; they also provide
38
knowledge during their construction process. Physical laws (Hornecker, 2007),
development of concepts nd principles, nd m teri ls‘ reflexes c n e understood
during the model construction process (Knuuttila and Boon, 2009). Although
materials, as stated by Ramduny-Ellis et al. (2004), have limits and may constrain
designers during the model making process, these constraints can turn into
inspirations for form creation. Therefore working with various materials can enhance
the model making experience, feedbacks and creativity through their characteristics
(Hornecker, 2007).
3.3 Digital modeling and rapid prototyping technologies in design
process
Technological advances have two faces. While they enhance human abilities, they
are also threats to human sensitivities and culture (Mumford, 1967). Technology and
its effect on human capabilities are the most attractive areas to study for the social
scientists. The effects of technology are not limited within the substitutive capacity
for human capabilities, technology also has a potential to modify the capacities of
human (Mumford, 1934; Dant, 2004). The perceptions of a person channeled via
her/his bodily sensations are affected by the direct impact of the objects and
technologies (Dant, 2004).
Virtual reality environments and applications have had a significant place in
industrial design field because of the constant developments in CAD software and
digital modeling tools through which the usability of the applications and the quality
of outputs are continuously improved (Sutton, et al., 2007). CAD and digital
modeling tools have changed design process in the industrial design field and the
design culture in gener l (Oxm n, 2006; Şener-Pedgley et al., Aldoy and Evans
2011). As a result, the competencies for an industrial designer and hence the scope
of industrial design education have changed (Yang, et al., 2005).
The transformation of the representations is mentioned as one of the most significant
parts of design process in a large volume of the studies on design (Cross, 1990;
39
Schön, 1992; Goldschmidt, 2004; L wson, 2006; Visser, 2006) Throughout the
history of design, parallel to the developments in representational tools such as
discoveries of laws of perspective, paper and photography, there have been great
changes in both design field and design culture ( Frohburg and Petzold, 2004; Moon,
2005). However, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the most dramatic
changes have been experienced with the entrance of CAD and digital modeling tools
in design field. Effects of CAD and digital modeling tools on design field are not
limited to the representation techniques; they have also changed the way designers
act (Lawson, 2006).
Several studies have been conducted to investigate the effects of CAD and digital
modeling tools on design process and the way designers act. Although numerous
effects of CAD and digital modeling have been argued in these studies, the most
significant contributions of CAD and digital modeling tools to design process and
the designer appear to be as follows:
They make possible the realization of the highly sophisticated forms in most
of the design related realms such as industrial design, architecture, interior
design, etc. CAD and digital modeling tools and their applications have made
possible the mathematical description of the forms for their construction
processes (Lawson, 2004).
They enhance the representational skills of designers and allow them to
produce high quality representations without requiring hands-on skills
(Tweed, 1998; Must ‘ m l, 2008)
They enable the production of several realistic alternative representations
from only one model (Bilda and Demirkan, 2003; Evans et al, 2005;
Bordegoni, et al., 2006), and hence reduce the time, material and labor
needed for preparing the representations (Evans et al., 2005; Aldoy and
Evans 2011). It is the economical contribution of the digital modeling to the
design process, however, in some cases in which the consequences of a
design failure would be severe such as injury or death, the cost of physical
model would not be compared with the value of the acquired information
from it. (Mitchell, 2008)
40
They make it possible to evaluate appearances and surface related visual
qualities of forms on realistic digital images without producing tangible
representations.
They enable the incremental modification of the existing forms in digital
environment without producing them physically. (Bilda and Demirkan, 2003,
Evans et al, 2005; Mitchell, 2008)
They eliminate scale and proportion problems in the representations. It is
possible to study details as if on a full scale representation (Paynter, et al,
2002; Breen, et al, 2003; Dorta, 2008)
They need only virtual space for the storage of the representations;
consequently they make representations more mobile. A large number of
representations can be stored only in a CD or an external memory.
They make it possible to compensate design failures and to change
inconsistent parts without rebuilding the representations by undo, erase,
scale, copy and paste commands in a risk free environment. (Dorta, 2008)
CAD and digital modeling tools are used not only for representation but also
for analyzing design solutions (Frohberg and Petzold, 2006, p8)
Heidegger (1929, 2001), in Being and Time, asserts that technology can extend
human capacities and abilities, but he emphasizes on that the possibilities are also
restricted by the opportunities and limits of the technology (Dant, 2004). Although
CAD and digital modeling tools facilitate and provide significant opportunities for
design process, forms are created, manipulated, perceived, and evaluated through a
2D screen, a keyboard and a mouse during the digital modeling (Breen, 2001).
Eventually, to learn to manipulate 3D forms through 2D interfaces might be highly
problematic especially for design students who endeavor to develop their cognitive
abilities regarding third dimension as well as representational skills.
The relationship between the organizational structures of knowledge and the
cognitive abilities to manipulate different knowledge and competencies are
mentioned in the section on Design Education. During the skill development process
of design students which could be considered as the construction process of the
knowledge reg rding three dimension l design world (Schön, 1991; Bucolo, 2008),
41
to develop 3D forms without any physical interaction with them may cause
inconsistencies in the perception and understanding of the real three dimensional
world.
Usage of CAD and digital modeling in the studio studies during the design education
may be turned into an obstacle to the development of the ability of physical
interactivity of the design students, in other words the ability to explore and evaluate
physical aspects of the forms such as physical user product interaction (McLundie,
2001; Smyth, 2002; C mp ell et l , 2003; Smyth, 2007; Şener-Pedgley, 2010).
Additionally, CAD and digital modeling requires focusing on to operate CAD
software and the determination of the mathematical descriptions of the forms rather
than following the ideas and the elements of the form which determine its functional,
aesthetics and ergonomics values (Dorta, 2005; Zuo and Malonebeach, 2010).
Although the scale-free digital environments of 3D digital modeling software enable
to focus on the details by zooming, they also cause the lack of overview (Breen, et
al., 2003) that has an important role in the form creation processes. The unity of the
form, its relation with its environment, the relationships between its surfaces, full
and empty spaces etc. can be perceived through the overview of the form (Hannah,
2002). There is also a relationship between the overview and sense of scale. Hence,
learning to develop forms in a scale-free environment without overview has
significant effects on the structure of the tacit knowledge of design students.
Today modeling environments of most of the existing digital modeling software are
isolated from the physical, social and cultural context for which the design solutions
are developed. Hillis (2002) points out the potential influences of these isolated
environments by emphasizing the possibility that products, buildings and systems
will ‗look like they h d f llen from computer screen‘ (34)
Until recently, to create, manipulate and evaluate 3D forms and produce realistic
representations through digital modeling software has required visual immersion into
the virtual environments of this software. As a result, a series of questions has
emerged regarding the negative effects of the loss of physicality in design.
Accordingly, recent studies on CAD and digital modeling tend to intensively focus
42
on the needs for tangible interfaces for digital modeling (Breen, 2001; Giraudo and
Bordegoni, 2005; Sutton, et al., 2007).
3.4 Approaches on modeling in design education
Although they have had an important place in both professional design field and
design education, the arguments against CAD and rapid prototyping techniques
persist. While, a good number of researchers such as Lennigs et al. (2000), Gibson,
Kvan and Ming (2002) question whether it is convenient to use them in all phases of
design/new product development process, others, such as Charlesworty (2007),
Robertson and Radcliffe (2008) and Must ‘ m l et l (2009), problematizes CAD
and rapid prototyping techniques on the basis of their effects on creative behaviors
and performance of designer in both industry and design education.
However, rather than focusing on negative effects or inadequate performances of
both the traditional and digital modeling, to focus on their advantages and
opportunities look more productive and have adopted in a number of studies (Dorta,
2005; Ramduny-Ellis et al., 2010; Aldoy and Evans, 2011). In recent years
alternative approaches to CAD and digital modeling and their roles in both the
professional design field and design education have emerged. The most significant
approaches may be classified under three he dings; ‗digit l modeling intensive
design educ tion‘, ‗physic l modeling intensive design educ tion‘ nd ‗mixed
modeling intensive design educ tion‘
In digital modeling intensive approaches, it is claimed that, although physicality is
considered as an important aspect in the form creation in design process, newly
developed Human Computer Interaction tools such as haptic devices and virtual
reality environments have the potential to be substitute for physical interaction with
the objects in design process (Şener-Pedgley, 2007; Evans, 2004; Aldoy and Evans,
2009)
43
Physical modeling intensive approach emphasizes the importance of physical
interaction with the representations during the design process. It is suggested that a
design student should learn to create, manipulate and evaluate design solutions or
forms based on the conversation with the physical representations of their designs.
Using physical representational tools enhance the creativity of design students and
provide full sensory experience for decision making in design. CAD and digital
modeling tools are considered as contributing applications useful in producing
realistic final representations (Welch, 1998; Charlesworth, 2007; Pable, 2006).
Mixed modeling intensive design education approach has adopted the incorporation
of both physical and digital modeling tools in design education. Each
representational technique has weak and strong features according to the certain
conditions, problems, phases of design process and designers (Okeil, 2010). It is
considered that the incorporation of physical and digital representational tools may
provide richness to the design process and balance the stress between the digital and
physical skills in both professional design field and design education. (Dorta, 2005;
Ramduny-Ellis et al., 2010; Aldoy and Evans, 2011)
Figure 3.4 The models, environments and worlds (Cerovsek et al., 2010; 6)
44
As demonstrated in Figure 4.4, to connect different environments and worlds in
different models can be possible through mixed models (Cerovsek et al., 2010). Such
a sophisticated approach provides a base for multidirectional skills which enable the
designer to cope with the increasing complexity of design practice. Design students
should develop their design skills and abilities based on reflective conversations with
both physical and digital representational tools. In such an understanding, a design
student is expected to learn mental modeling to conduct inner conversation with the
designed object/system in her/his mind and then to be able to represent externally
her/his mental models. To experience multi-faceted conversations with different
representational tools in different environments and worlds may provide richness of
design skills and abilities for a design student. (Lindquist, 2009; McLundie, 2001).
As mentioned in the previous sections of the study, design solutions are developed
throughout the transformations of the representations from mental to external, from
2D to 3D, from rough to precise and detailed, etc. (Visser, 2006). The transformation
of physical models into digital models or vice versa brings a different perspective for
designer. Eventually; they should be considered as complementary tools for each
other and for the different phases of design process (Mitchell, 2008).
3.5 Research studies on modeling practice in design and design
education
Until the last couple of decades, modeling practice in design field was analyzed only
in a very limited number of studies. Since the entrance of CAD and digital modeling
techniques into the field, the tension between physical and digital modeling has
attracted the attention of researchers. However, most of the research is conducted
within the architecture and interior design fields and unfortunately the number of the
research studies focus on modeling practice in industrial design field is still limited.
In the early 2000s, developments in tools and their usage in digital modeling
applications opened a new perspective for digital design. Most of the studies on
haptic tools were conducted in order to evaluate haptic modeling systems. Although
45
haptic modeling systems have a capacity to enhance design practice by their features
combining digital modeling with physicality and sense of touch, they are still in
development stage and their costs are too high. Eventually, their integration into
design education in general and into industrial design education in particular is
hardly applicable at least in Turkey. Accordingly, they are excluded from the scope
of current study. In addition to haptic tools, studies analyzing certain modeling
software are also excluded since their main emphasis is on the systems being
evaluated rather than their effects on the designers‘ skills nd ilities.
The research studies on physical and digital modeling in industrial design field can
be categorized on the basis of their main interests. These are; the relationships
between modeling techniques and creativity, comparison of physical and digital
modeling tools and their effects on design process, and the evaluation of mixed
modeling tools in design and design education.
Empirical studies dealing with the relationships between the modeling tools and
creativity in design process are conducted by employing different research methods
ranging from interviews, observation, protocol analyses and design diaries. Although
physical modeling tools are considered as the creativity triggering media in most of
the studies, in some research studies, it is demonstrated that creative behaviors
determined as peculiar for physical modeling also occur during the form creation by
digital modeling (Must ‘ m l, et al, 2008; 2009; 2009a). In contrast to the studies
focusing on the digital modeling tools, the research study conducted by Ramduny-
Ellis, et al (2010) shows that design process is not only affected by modeling tools
nd m teri ls ut lso y designer‘s skills and experiences with these modeling tools
and materials.
The relationships between modeling tools and the stages of design process are also
attracted the interest of researchers such as Self et al. (2009), Aldoy and Evans
(2009; 2010).
In their empirical research, Self et al. conducted questionnaire with 7 professional
designers from different countries. Processed data demonstrates that, according to
the respondents, each design tool supports different design stage on the basis of their
46
characteristics. Although physical modeling was determined to be the most preferred
technique for concept development, for the advanced phases of design process and
preparing influential presentations, digital modeling was rated as the most employed
technique.
Drawing upon these findings, Self et al. concluded that although most participants
use similar modeling tools for each design stage, modeling tools and their usage may
differ ccording to the designer‘s perception of design, w y of ction nd their p st
experiences. So they state that these factors should be taken into account in the
analysis of modeling tools in design process.
In another study conducted in 2009, Aldoy‘s nd Ev ns focused on the question of
which modeling techniques are used for which phases of design process.
Questionnaires were given to 100 newly graduated and ten experienced industrial
designers. Although the literature survey of the study emphasized the opportunities
of digital modeling tools during the design process, the respondents did not agree
with these implications for the early phases of design processes such as concept
development although they preferred to employ digital modeling tools for the
advanced phases. Another important finding of the study is that none of the
participants considered digital modeling as a substitute for physical modeling for
oth profession l design field nd design educ tion Nevertheless, p rticip nts‘
opposition to the totally digital industrial design and design education is considered
by the researchers as a consequence of the p rticip nts‘ ignorance of CAD and
digital modeling tools.
Comparing physical and digital modeling and their effects on design process was the
subject of research by Broek, et al. (2000). The researchers conducted a
questionnaire study with 20 professional design firms in Netherlands. The results
demonstrated that although both physical and digital modeling were employed by the
firms, they mostly relied on physical modeling in concept development stage and
digital modeling in detail stage. Physical modeling tools were appreciated by
participants in relation to their contribution to the both creativity and verification.
However, CAD and digital modeling tools were appreciated for verification alone.
47
In rese rch study conducted y Şener-Pedgley in 2007, modeling techniques and
strategies of 8 industrial designers and 8 undergraduate industrial design students
were examined through observation of form creation, questionnaires and interviews.
Each participant created three distinct products by employing different modeling
media in three sections. At the end of the study, certain needs for future digital
modeling media were identified based on the 800 individual strength and weakness
statements of the participants. Although none of the weakness and strength
statements are mentioned in the research paper, 30 need statements for digital
industrial design tools and their priorities determined (Figure 4.5), and four key
themes for improving digital industrial design tools are identified; life-like form
creation, ease of form creation, bulk/sketch form creation and control of form
creation.
Figure 3.5 Prioritized need statements for digital industrial design tools (Sener-
Pedgley, 2007)
48
In another important research study conducted in 2007, Charlesworty investigated
industrial design students and their use of physical and digital modeling tools. 39
second years industrial design students took part and the participants were divided
into teams consisted of two groups; one group for employing physical modeling, one
group for employing digital modeling. All groups employed traditional sketching for
the concept development stage, and then they developed selected concepts through
identified modeling techniques. The analysis of the data demonstrated that design
students using physical modeling continued to develop new ideas, whereas the
students who used digital modeling tools focused on the visual presentations.
Consequently, while physical modeling was considered by the students as
development practice, virtual modeling was considered as a presentational tool.
Finally, Wojtczuk and Bonnardel (2010) compared physical and digital modeling
tools and their outputs based on observed design tasks conducted by 20 designers.
Each designer developed items by employing both physical and digital modeling.
Then the designed items were evaluated by 20 other designers. While items created
by digital modeling tools were evaluated as more aesthetic and original, the second
group of participants did not find any difference regarding their functionality
between the items produced by using both physical and digital modeling.
In recent years, arguments on mixed modeling media in industrial design and
industrial design education have been started. New approaches evaluate physical and
digital modeling tools based on their combinable positive effects on both mental and
external modeling. Within this approach, Dorta conducted a research study in 2005
comparing two different proposed hybrid-modeling approaches. Two designers who
employ one of these approaches were observed during their design processes. One of
the designers started to design by employing sketching and the other started to
design by employing sketch modeling. Both of them transform their concepts into
digital models. The designer who started with 3D sketch modeling transformed the
form into a digital model more easily. Both of the models are reproduced by rapid
prototyping and edited by the designers and scanned. Surface problems on the
scanned models were corrected and final forms produced. At the end of the research,
it was concluded that the physical and digital modeling tools should be integrated
49
into the design process in order to make more effective and reduce their respective
limitations so that designer can concentrate on the creation of form.
The reviewed research studies show that, whether participants were design students
or professional designers, they agree that while physical modeling is more
convenient for the early phases of design processes, the most effective tool for detail
development and final presentations is digital modeling. Besides its potential in the
3D visualization of design ideas physical modeling is also considered as a leading
process for providing 3D physical information for digital modeling.
50
51
CHAPTER 4
BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH STUDY
4.1 Theoretical framework for the research study
In the previous sections a number of questions were raised in the process of
formulating the main aim of the thesis. The answers to the research questions are
sought using a theoretical framework based on Actor-Network Theory (ANT). In
what follows in this section firstly a brief overview of knowledge and skill
development in design education is provided and then in the second section an
explanatory discussion is carried out on the Actor-Network Theory with special
emphasis on its relevance to design education in general and to the main topic of the
thesis in particular.
Even if in the previous chapter knowledge and skill development in design education
related literature has been reviewed, it would be helpful to remember some of the
basic points on this issue to support the theoretical framework of the dissertation.
4.1.1 Knowledge and skill development in design education
As mentioned in Ch pter 4, ‗le rning y doing‘ is identified in the liter ture s the
most convenient and effective way of training in reflective practices such as
architecture and industrial design. In the educational approach based on learning to
design by practicing, three main characteristics of design have emerged as
significant.
52
Design is a cognitive pr ctice which sed on designer‘s knowing in ction,
it is a kind of tacit knowledge which cannot be formulated and described with
words lone (Schön, 1991; W tz, 2001)
Design is a process and should be learned as a whole. Cognitive abilities and
competencies can be developed through a design process by experimenting
the effects of these cognitive abilities and competencies on each other and on
the design solutions (Schön, 1991; W tz, 2001)
Design process is based on the developments of the representations of being
designed products/buildings/systems, etc.. The representational tools used
during the design process such as drawings, models etc. comprise the
―l ngu ge of design‖ (Archer, 1992)
Given these characteristics, design education could not be considered without the
interacting actors in design process and design media by which design practice
mediated.
As seen in the literature review and the summarized research studies in the previous
chapter, both 3D physical and digital modeling examined on the basis of their
representational capacities that make them essential skills for a designer and their
contributing or constraining effects on design processes.
However, the role of 3D physical and digital modeling in studio studies in industrial
design education is beyond their representational capacities and effects on creative
processes.
When design students learn to map the knowledge with the representations, design
expertise emerges (Eastman, 2001). As mentioned by the key scholars working on
design such s Schön (1991) nd Visser (2006), represent tions are cognitive
artifacts evolving in an interactive process in which their producers also evolve
reflectively. In industrial design education, studio is the network of the instructors,
the students, the employed technologies, the existing elements of the studio
environments nd the other involved ctors From Schön‘s nd Visser‘s perspective,
53
it is possible to assume that, the students and the representations required for the
studio studies co-evolve through reflective design processes in the studio network.
The reflective evolution of 3D physical and digital models and their producers (the
students) adds another dimension to the role of 3D physical and digital modeling in
the skill development processes of the students. 3D modeling whether physical or
digital are the activities mediated by certain media (modeling tools, materials and
technologies). While the students equipped with 3D physical and digital modeling
skills as the elements of language of design, both 3D physical and digital modeling
media influence the students, in other words they act also upon the students in their
knowledge and skill acquisition processes in the studio networks and affect their
attitudes towards industrial design practice.
Of course the roles of 3D physical and digital modeling in industrial design
education are mainly determined by the intentions and the interactions between the
students, instructors and the other actors in the education processes. However, to
understand such active roles of 3D physical and digital modeling in the skill
development processes of industrial design students, it is not enough to only focus
on the interactions between the people (the students, instructors, supporting staff,
etc.) in industrial design studio network; it also requires one to approach 3D physical
and digital modeling media as entities that have the ability to act upon the students.
In order to capture this reflective evolution by admitting the abilities of 3D physical
and digital modeling media to act upon the students, Actor Network Theory has been
adopted as the theoretical framework for the field study.
4.2 Latour’s Actor-Network Theory and Industrial design studio in
industrial design education
Practices, knowledge creation, product development, policy making or education can
all be considered as the products of certain assemblages. Those assemblages and the
interactions between the individual human actors within them consist of social
54
structures which are considered as networks in social network theory (Degenne and
Force, 1999; Moolenaar, 2010). Social network studies focus on the interactions
among the individual human actors within a network in order to understand how a
thing such as practice, knowledge creation or education is made.
While social network studies are concerned with social relations between individual
human actors in order to understand a social phenomenon created by social
structures, as stated by Latour (1996), Actor-Network Theory (ANT) ―does not limit
itself to human individual actors but extend the word actor – or actant – to non-
human, to non-individu l entities‖ (2) for n lyzing soci l phenomenon L tour
explains the main concerns of Actor-Network Theory through its agenda:
So what is on its agenda? The attribution of human, unhuman, nonhuman,
inhuman, characteristics; the distribution of properties among these entities;
the connections established between them; the circulation entailed by these
attributions, distributions and connections; the transformation of those
attributions, distributions and connections, of the many elements that
circulates and of the few ways through which they are sent. (Latour, 1996; 7)
All entities in a network, whether human or non-human, are sources of action and
modify the network in which they take part and should be followed by a neutral
stance for Actor-network analysis. (Law, 1992; Latour, 1996, Callon, 1998).
ANT does not study objects as the things that re ‗useful for ―implementing‖
something‘ nd does not study the role of n o ject vi the hum n Its m in concern
is the traces left behind by what objects do as for the human actors. (Tscholl, Patel &
Carmichael, 2011)
Law and Callon (1998), two of the key figures in Actor-Network Theory, suggest
that social and technical are jointly created in a single process, and all actants, either
human or non-human, contribute to it and their contribution should be treated fairly.
From ANT perspective; all actor-networks are composed of not only human actors
but also of elements of the material world such as computers, buildings,
technologies, since almost all of the interactions between human actors are mediated
through objects, technologies, etc. All actor-networks are heterogeneous
55
assemblages. Accordingly, one of the most significant concepts in Actor-network
theory is ―heterogeneity‖ (L w, 1992)
Gatherings of actants and their interactions are described as assemblages by the key
social scientists such as Deleuze and Guattari (1986) and DeLanda (2006). The
actants (human and non-human) and their relationships are the components of an
assemblage and they are determining factors of its capacities. However, as explained
by DeLanda (2006) the capacities of an assembl ge re more th n its components‘
properties and those capacities make things happen.
―Form tion of n ssem l ge‖ is mong the most import nt f ctors in n ctor-
network, when an actor form or break links with the other actors, a translation occurs
in this formation. These translations are the traces which help to describe gaps
between the intended and realized in a situation. By internalizing ANT, one can
construct rese rch fr mework for ―situ tions involving inter ctions etween people
nd things‖ (T tnall, 2012).
Fenwick and Edward (2010) emphasize that most of the processes, in different
realms, depend on at least partially precarious correlations rather than only cause and
effect They expl in ‗prec rious correl tions‘ y touching on the unpredict le
n ture of some ssem l ges, ccording to them ―what entities do when they come
together is unpredictable‖ (10). In their studies on education, ANT is considered as
the key framework which shows how knowledge is generated through certain
processes and how precarious correlations affect these processes.
In addition to concepts of heterogeneity and assemblage, there are several other
concepts employed in Actor-network Theory. In what follows in this section, the two
significant concepts of ANT, considered as useful for studying on knowledge and
skill acquisition processes, will be explained.
In Actor-networks, there might be actors which are punctualized Actor-networks. If
an Actor-network acts as a single block, then it disappears (Law, 1992; 385), its
action in any other network turns into an actor of that action. This is the
―punctu liz tion‖ of n ctor network (L w, 1992; L tour, 1996, C llon, 1998)
56
The l st signific nt ANT concept, which should e mentioned, is ―tr nsl tion‖ As
mentioned above, assemblages consist of Actor-networks. In order to fit an
assemblage; an actor should transform itself or be transformed by the translation of
the wills of the other actors. All negotiations, persuasions, calculations etc., which
take place in order to align interests in the establishment of an assemblage, can be
considered as the parts of translations in Actor-network Theory (Callon, 1986,
Fenwick and Edwards, 2010).
The acts of the translation of the will(s) of the key actor(s) to the others take place in
the problematisation moment in the translation processes. The will of the key
actor(s) might be formulated as a framed idea, a problem etc. and they may be
named the central object (aim) of the network. At that point, key actors are turned
into indispensable ctors for the network; in most c ses they ―est lish themselves s
n o lig tory p ss ge point‖ (C llon, 1986; 204) which one h s to p ss through to e
part of the network. The critical actors that might have roles in the success of the
translation process are/should be also identified at this moment.
After the problematisation, key actors create devices to convince the actors to stay in
the network; this moment is c lled s ―interessement‖ C llon (1986) expl ins
interessement by its etymology, inter-esse means to be in between. To interest other
actor, key actors use the mentioned devices for placing between the targeted actors
and the other entities that want to convince them to weaken their ties with the key
actors. The devices for the interessement moment may vary from negotiations to the
texts or regulations. The consequences of all these negotiations and persuasions are
not limited to the convinced actors; during these negotiations key actors may
develop new interests, problems or ideas (Fenwick and Edwards, 2012). So, it can be
assumed that an actor network continuously evolves and its key actors need to
develop new strategies in order to succeed this moment.
At this point it will be helpful to look how Latour (1987; 108) explains translation in
an actor-network. He emphasizes two critical issues in order to establish an actor
network, to engage the actors in the new offered interests regarding the objectives of
the newly established actor network and to ensure them behave in a predictable way
57
in accordance with the objectives of the key actors in the established actor network
by making the engagements long-lasting. He explains the criticality of these two
issues by pointing to the unpredictability of the acts of the enrolled actors and
assumes that the success of the tr nsl tion depends on the key ctors‘ ilities nd
strategies to solve this contradiction.
Interessement moment determines the success of the enrolment moment, the
connections between the interested actors should be established and strengthened
and the connections with the opponents, which have competing or counter interests
against the key actors, should be disconnected or they should be persuaded to join
the actor-network or to act as an ally in order to make possible the enrolment of the
actors to the network (Callon, 1986; Latour, 1987). In this moment of the translation,
the key actors need allies and mediators to strengthen the enrolment of the actors and
to lock them into their new position in the actor-network (Hamilton, 2011).
The l st moment in the ‗tr nsl tion‘ is the ‗mo iliz tion‘ When ro ust ctor-
network is established and the targeted actors enrolled to their new identities through
strong and durable relationships, the key actors mobilize enrolled actors as the
representatives in order to extend the translation to the other fields. (Law, 1992;
L tour, 1996; C llon, 1998; González , 2013)
Although these four moments of the translation in an actor-network explained in a
sequence, as emphasized by Callon (1986) they may overlap in real situations.
In examining an actor-network in a situation there are certain critical questions:
What is the central aim of the actor-network?
Which actors are present for studio actor networks?
Who are the key actors in the actor-network?
How do they translate their will to the other actors?
How the problematization, interessement, enrolment and mobilization
moments occur in the translation process in the actor network?
Is there any resistance from the actors? Where and when?
Is there any actor disturbing the translation process?
58
These questions will guide the analysis of industrial design studio studies in this
dissertation. But before starting to examine the actor-network in the studios, it will
be better to review industrial design education and studio tradition based on the key
concepts in ANT.
‗To equip industri l design students with the required knowledge, skills nd
ttitudes for their profession l life‖ c n e considered as the central aim of industrial
design education which finds its resonance in an industrial design studio.
Placing the resonance of this central aim at the center of an industrial design studio
requires the human and non-human actors present such as the students, the
instructors, a studio room, desks or work stations etc. In addition to those present
actors, different actors also start to enroll to the studio by adopting the wills of the
key actors in the studio. Each industrial design studio can be considered as a distinct
assemblage constituted by changing instructors, studio rooms, context, students,
mediums etc. There are also outer assemblages such as facilities, courses, industrial
partners, built environment etc. which interact with the inner actors of the studios
and affect the peculiarity of them. Additionally, in an industrial design studio, based
on its peculi rity, cert in types of ―design medi ‖4 take part in the assemblage as
non-human actors. Here sketch books, cardboards, cutters, computers, 3D modeling
programs, 3D printers and CAM systems used by students are seen as active media
rather than tools. Such an approach refuses to consider them as tools as such a
labelling reduce the computers, 3D modeling software etc. to passive elements used
by design students. Rather ANT considers them as active mediums which participate
in design process, change it and become changed through the interactions with the
other actors as a part of the assemblage.
It can be assumed that all of the actors and the formation of the studio assemblages
affect design processes in the studio studies in a peculiar way and oblige the students
to design in a certain way and forbid them from designing in other ways (this
perspective is adapted from Yaneva's approach to objects, she suggest that "many
4 Medium term encapsulates many things which a human act with or through such as tools, materials,
knowledge, method etc. hence, in the following parts of the dissertation study, the terms design media
and modelling media will be employed in a similar way.
59
objects afford and facilitate our activities, obliging us to do certain things and forbid
us from doing others"). This does not mean that certain actors force students to
design in a peculiar way and influence the development of their form creation related
skills. Those skills arise with the instructors, the students, their motivations,
intentions and previous knowledge, the curriculum, other courses, texts on problem
definitions, etc., and with the interactions between those things.
Starting from the perspectives and approaches mentioned above, it looks like Actor-
network Theory provides an important ground for the thesis by providing theoretical
and methodological insights.
60
61
CHAPTER 5
METHODOLOGY
As mentioned in the first chapter the main question which guides the dissertation is;
How can digital and physical 3D modeling be employed more effectively and
efficiently to contribute to the development of form creation related skills of the
students in the studio studies in industrial design education?
In order to provide a satisfactory and convincing answer to this vital question, it is
divided into sub-questions in the following way.
What skills and abilities do industrial design students need to create and
develop 3D forms in their studio studies?
What are the existing roles and positions of 3D physical and digital modeling
in the studio studies?
What are existing inclinations of the students for the employment of 3D
physical and digital modeling in the 3D form development phases of design
processes?
Which factors affect these inclinations?
62
Figure 5.1 Sub research questions
The set of sub questions are dealt with through the detailed overview of the current
literature and the field study conducted in industrial design department in Middle
East Technical University.
As seen on Figure 5.1, the answer to the first question is mainly sought through the
literature review and answers to the following four questions are sought through the
field work based on qualitative research method. The summary of the qualitative
research process is demonstrated in Figure 5.2.
63
Figure 5.2 The Research Process
Conducting a research study through Actor Network Theory perspective requires the
researcher:
to focus on the relationships among the actors in the network and the traces
left behind by what the actors do,
to leave her assumptions aside and listen to the actors‘ own voices (Yaneva,
2012), and
to approach all actors whether human or non-human without giving any
priority
These three basic research approaches are thus adopted by the author and integrated
into her interpretive qualitative research perspective. The data collection process is
conducted based on interview and narrative inquiry methods, in order to reveal the
complexity of the phenomenon under investigation. During the data collection
process the following two objectives are put at the core.
64
To reveal the facts about the employment of the 3D physical and digital
modeling in the knowledge and skill acquisition processes of the students.
To examine the factors shaping the position of 3D physical and digital
modeling in the design processes in industrial design studio studies.
METU Industrial Design Department is selected as the setting for carrying out the
field research for some practical reasons. As shown below, the field research goes
beyond formal interviews with students and instructors as the information collected
from the interviews are not deep enough to provide satisfactory knowledge of the
issue in hand. Such a strategy needs to be supplemented by the information acquired
by observations. This requires the researcher to get involved in the studio studies of
the students. As the researcher herself works in the Department, it is much easier for
her to take part in the studio works of the students.
At that point it is required to mention the preliminary study carried out by the author
in 2010 and 2011. In the first phase of that research, 17 interviews with METU
students were conducted. In this st ge, 14 signific nt f ctors th t ffect the students‘
physical and digital modeling practices in their studio studies were identified. In the
second phase of the preliminary research, a Likert scale questionnaire was prepared
based on the factors extracted in the first phase in order to measure the level of the
importance of these factors according to the industrial design students in four
different universities. The questionnaire was conducted with 225 industrial design
student from four Turkish universities. The division of the students according to the
universities as such; 88 from Middle East Technical University, 44 from Anadolu
University, 28 from Izmir University of Economics and 65 from Istanbul Technical
University. 20 elements of the questionnaire were divided 4 elements based on factor
analysis as demonstrated in appendix E Table E.1.
In order to explore the relationships between the importance groups and variables,
cross-tabulation was employed. The relationship between the university variable and
the elements groups is demonstrated in Appendix E from Table E.2 to Table E.9.
As seen in Appendix E, when the ev lu tion scores for ‗Inter ction with the form‘
nd ‗Incre sing the skills‘ f ctors re ex mined, it w s o served th t the differences
65
etween the universities re not signific nt For ‗closeness to re lity‘ f ctor, the
significance value of the differences between the universities was counted very low.
From the findings of the preliminary study, it is possible to assume that although the
findings of the fieldwork are mainly valid for the METU case, they can be
considered as applicable to the industrial design departments that have similar
curricula and educational approaches in Turkey.
5.1 Qualitative Research
In the first stage, interview method was employed to examine the approaches of the
actors to the developments of the form creation related knowledge, skills and
attitudes and the roles of 3D physical and digital modeling practices in it. However,
since the core human actors in the research study consist of two different groups, the
industrial design studio instructors and industrial design students; it seems to be
necessary to design two different interview guides. Hence different interview
questions are designed for each group.
The following sections of this chapter provide the details of the methodology of the
field study.
5.1.1 Interview process
Conducting a research on the development of form creation related knowledge, skills
and attitudes of the industrial design students entails examining three main factors
listed below:
1) Approaches of the actors to the form creation in the studio studies
2) Approaches of the actors to the development processes of form creation
related knowledge, skills and attitudes
66
3) The roles of 3D physical and digital modeling media in this process
With the aim of examining these factors, interviews were conducted with the core
actors in industrial design studios in METU.
Student interviews
The third and fourth year students in Industrial Design Department at METU were
identified as the research population. These year groups were chosen since to obtain
adequate information, the students interviewed need to have adequate knowledge,
skills and experiences regarding both 3D physical and digital modeling.
Accordingly, twelve student interviews, six interviews with the third year students
and six interviews with the fourth year students, are conducted. The information
about the interviews can be seen in Table 5.1.
Table 5.1 Conducted interviews
67
In the early phases of the field study, 9 interview questions have been designed and a
pilot interview was conducted with a fourth year student on the basis of this question
set.
During the pilot study it was observed that to keep the interview within the intended
research framework was very hard and some questions were understood differently
from the way intended because of their wording and position in the sequence.
Accordingly, the student interview questions and the structure of the interview were
revised and rearranged. In addition to these revisions, the final version of the student
interview question set was designed to ask for narratives of the design processes
through which the students think they developed the most satisfying forms. The
final versions of the student interview questions in Turkish and in English can be
seen in Appendix A and Appendix B.
The driving impetus to ask the narratives of the design processes of the most
satisfying forms comes from Actor-Network Theory. Through its lenses, the
students‘ n rr tives of design processes c n e considered s stories of the
translation processes in the studio actor-networks through which their knowledge,
skills and attitudes are transformed into a new form. When the students accept the
new interests they also accept their new identities in the studio studies. If their new
identities require certain ways of acting such as thinking through sketching and
attitudes such as taking into account the sustainability criteria for material selections,
they start to behave in these ways and if the students become engaged in these
required ways of acting and attitudes, they possibly may turn into dispositions at the
end of the studio studies. In other words, the translation processes succeed. The
students‘ eng gements in the design processes determine their perform nces s well
as the success of the translation process. Consequently, the narratives of the
development processes of the most satisfying forms are considered as the stories of
the most engaged form development processes.
Narratives contain experiences and perceptions (Riessman, 2000). As stated by Eliot
(2006), an individual narrative seems like it is related to isolated individual,
however, she adds, it rather reveals the understandings of the social groups, classes
68
and cultures, their structural relationships and habits. Common experiences,
approaches and understandings can be traced through the similar elements in the
stories of individuals in a group. Consequently, analyzing the industrial design
students‘ n rr tives llow one to reve l their existing experiences nd the most
common perceptions regarding the form creation process and the role of 3D physical
and digital modeling in it. However, at this point it should be mentioned that besides
common facts and perceptions revealed through interviews and narratives, the less
frequent viewpoints and situations are also valued during the analysis phase because
of their potential to open up original perspectives (Venturini, 2012) for the
dissertation.
Instructor interviews
The number of instructor interviews was determined as at least four interviews for
each studio, making 16 in total. For the studio studies it was observed that the
instructors could be divided into three categories such (a) full time instructors, (b)
assistants, (c) part-time instructors. The selection of the interviewees among the
instructors was made based on these three categories in second, third and fourth year
studios. However, in the first year studio, during the interview period, there were no
part-time instructor among the studio conductors, consequently, the interviewees
were selected among the full time instructors and assistants. Except in the first year
studio, it was planned to conduct interviews with four instructors for each studio,
two full-time instructors, a part-time instructor and an assistant. However during the
interview process, only 11 instructor interviews could be conducted. The detailed
information on the conducted interviews is shown in Table 5.1.
A pilot interview was conducted with an instructor whose area of expertise is design
education and curriculum development. After the pilot interview, on the basis of the
thesis dvisor‘s nd the interviewed instructor‘s dvice on the educ tion rel ted
terminology used in the interview questions, the wording were revised and their
sequence was changed. The final version of the instructor interview questions in
Turkish and in English can be seen in Appendix C and D.
69
5.2 Data Analysis
5.2.1 Analysis of the interviews
As the base for the analytical procedure of the in-depth interviews, interpretive and
inductive analysis approach (Braun and Clarke, 2006) was adopted by the author.
However, although inductive analysis approach suggest that the outputs of the
analysis come from the data rather than from the theoretical and epistemological
backgrounds of the researchers, in the dissertation, because of the reflexive nature of
qualitative research (Charmaz, 2005), the extraction of the nodes, codes, themes and
patterns from the data could not be completed thoroughly without the theoretical
background, interests and field experiences of the author. Additionally, during the
d t collection process, the voices of the rese rch su jects lso enriched the uthor‘s
own approach to the field and the problem determined in the dissertation.
Figure 5.3 The Analysis Process
In-depth interview method is preferred by the researchers in various disciplines
because of its potential to provide rich information. However, to analyze data
acquired through interview methods without getting lost in it appears as a
challenging issue for the researchers. Bearing in mind this challenge, in the
70
dissertation, NVivo is selected as data processing software because of its
convenience for qualitative studies. Stages of the data processing process are
described in the below.
As mentioned above all interviews were recorded and in order to capture all themes
clearly, all records were transcribed word by word. During the verbatim transcription
process of the records, notes and keywords which guide the processing phase of the
data in NVivo were added on the documents.
After the completion of the transcription of each interview in Turkish, all Turkish
characters in the documents were turned into English characters, in order to avoid
unexpected processing errors and the software collapses experienced in the early
phases of the dissertation study, then the documents were saved as separate resource
files for NVivo.
In the first part of the data processing, initial themes are identified on the basis of the
expected information from the narratives and interviews.
Students‘ narratives
Stages of the design process
Employed modeling media
The most critical evaluation in the design process
Emphasized aspect of the design process
Student interviews
3D physical modeling
3D digital modeling
Their skills and abilities
Their knowledge
Their attitudes
Opinions
71
Instructor Interviews
Design education
o general aims
o Skills
o Knowledge
o Attitudes
o Emerging needs and problems
Modeling Media
o Sketching
o 3D physical modeling
o 3D digital modeling
Then, each transcription is thoroughly read and each theme is identified as a node to
which related lines and paragraphs are attached (Figure 5.4). Doing this through
Nvivo allows one to see all the conversations from different interviews according to
a given theme on a page whenever researcher needs it.
Figure 5.4 A screenshot from coding process in NVivo
72
After the node and construct determination process, 1710 nodes and constructs were
acquired from the processed data. These were processed by matrix coding query in
NVivo in order identify and remove the duplications in the nodes and to capture the
patterns (Bazeley and Jackson; 2013) on the basis of identified groups and scopes
demonstrated in Figure 5.5.
Figure 5.5 Matrix query groups
After the extraction process of the raw main and sub themes, all transcriptions of the
interviews and the extracted nodes under the raw themes are reviewed and refined.
Refinement process of the data containing matrix coding queries and node
arrangements iterated until the refined parent and child nodes are acquired. An
example of the coding and refinement is demonstrated in Table 5.2.
73
Table 5.2 An example of coding and refinement for an interview comment
Refined parent and child nodes
Parent and child nodes Digital modeling
The transcribed comment Initial Node Digital modeling Advantages
We can do anything that could not be made by hand
in there. There is more chance; an extraordinary idea
may emerge from accidents and constitute
something. Or it may not be imagined to bend a
wooden stick when you play with it physically. How
does it look like? She/he could not bend. However, in
a digital environment, there is no limit, everything is
possible. (A02)
Digital modeling More unusual forms /
accidental inspirations
Makes possible to create more
unusual forms - accidental
inspirations
74
75
CHAPTER 6
THE FINDINGS
6.1 Introduction
In the methodology chapter, it was underlined that the inductive/interpretive
approach was employed in the evaluation of the empirical findings. Hence, all the
information gathered through the field study has been interpreted on the basis of the
internalized theoretical framework, namely Actor-Network Theory, by putting the
following two objectives at the core of the research.
To reveal the facts about the employment of the 3D physical and digital
modeling practice in the skill development processes in industrial design
education.
To examine the factors shaping the position of 3D physical and digital
modeling practice in the form development processes in the studio studies in
industrial design education.
In line with the insights of Actor-Network Theory, industrial design studio studies
are identified as actor-networks in which the design related knowledge, skills and
attitudes of the students are transformed into a new form on the basis of the
interactions between the actors (human, non-human, inhuman, etc.) involved in
them. An industrial design studio actor network is also a socio-technical assemblage
and both social and technical aspects of the studio should be dealt with in examining
the situations in the studio assemblages. The roles of 3D physical and digital
modeling media in the skill development processes of the students and the factors
shaping their roles and positions in such a socio-technical assemblage could not be
understood thoroughly by focusing only on the intentions of the social actors or only
on the advantages and constraints of these media. However, as mentioned by
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Deleuze nd Gu tt ri (1986), n industri l design studio ssem l ge‘s c p city to
equip the students with the required representational skills go beyond the sum of the
capacities of its social and technical aspects, in other words more than the
intentions+advantages+constraints of the actors. Actor Network Theory suggests that
to understand the interactions between the components of an assemblage without
giving any priority to any components makes it possible to understand what makes
more the c p cities of n ssem l ge th n the sum of its components‘ c p cities
Hence the findings from the field study are explained by approaching human and
non-human actors in the same way as in the analysis of the data.
As mentioned above, the design related knowledge, skills and attitudes of the
students are transformed into a new form in the studio actor networks; in other
words, studio studies re the tr nsl tion processes of the students‘ skills, knowledge
and attitudes. Accordingly, in the following sections of the chapter, the explanations
of the findings are structured around the four moments of the translation process of
an actor-network; problematisation, interessement, enrollment and mobilization.
Although the translation moments of an actor-network are given in the mentioned
sequence, interessement and enrolment moments are intertwined in most of the
studio studies narrated and observed. In the explanation of each transformation
moment the main focus is on the form development related skill acquisition
processes of the students and the positions of 3D physical and digital modeling in
these processes.
6.2 Translation processes in the industrial design studio actor-
networks
Industrial Design studio projects and the criteria the students are expected to meet
during the studio studies are formulized to a large extent by the studio instructors.
They structure the studio studies as knowledge and skill acquisition processes on the
basis of their teaching interests. However, it should be mentioned that, although the
studio studies are initiated and conducted by the instructors, there are other dynamics
77
which play some role in shaping the course of the studio studies and the aimed
outputs. Therefore it might be useful to refer once g in to the ― ssem l ge‖ concept
to understand the dynamics that affect the course of the studio studies. From ANT
perspective, an industrial design studio can be considered as an assemblage of
human and non-human actors such as instructors, students, computers, studio briefs,
available modeling materials, courses. All the actors, either human or non-human,
modify it by interacting with each other. This is the translation process (Callon,
1986) of an industrial design studio actor network.
Studio studies realized in the studio actor networks are the translation processes
through which industrial design students turn into industrial designers gradually by
accepting introduced professional interests and by acquiring knowledge, skills and
attitudes.
When the students accept these new interests in the studio studies they also accept
their new professional identities. If their new identities require certain ways of acting
such as thinking through sketching or attitudes such as taking into account the
sustainability criteria for material selections, they start to behave in these ways and
these required ways of action and attitudes may possibly turn into dispositions at the
end of the studio studies. In other words, they become stabilized and the translation
processes in the studio studies are succeeded.
It c n e ssumed th t the students‘ eng gements with the introduced profession l
interests and regarding knowledge, skills and attitudes in the studio projects
determine their performances and the outputs of the design processes.
Starting from this assumption, the students are asked to select one of their studio
projects through which they think they developed the most satisfying form and to
narrate design processes of these projects in order to understand the following three
issues
How the relationships between the students and 3D physical and digital
modeling are established
78
How these relationships affect the knowledge and skill acquisition processes
of the students
How the other actors in the studio studies influence these knowledge and
skill acquisition processes
Accordingly, the narrated studio studies are analyzed as the translation processes and
four moments of these translations are explained mainly by combining the findings
extracted from these narratives and the interviews in the following sections.
In order to make clearer how the narrated studio studies are analyzed as actor
networks in which translation processes occur, in the following paragraphs, the
course of an industrial design studio study is interpreted on the basis of four
moments of the translation process of an actor network.
Problematization
It is a commonly shared view that the main objective of industrial design education
is to equip industrial design students with the required knowledge, skills and
attitudes for their professional life. In design education, the studio environment is the
most import nt venue for the students‘ educ tion l processes nd lthough there are
v rious f ctors th t ffect the student‘s le rning process, ppro ches of the
instructors could be considered as one of the most significant.
To design a multifaceted and sophisticated studio project which has various
objectives such as motivating students to engage in design process and to develop
required skills for conducting the design processes (studio projects) is one of the
primary responsibilities of the studio instructors. Teaching interests of the studio
instructors have determining effects on the formalization of the studio projects.
Hence, from ANT perspective, the instructors should be considered as the key actors
in the studio actor-network. The establishment process of an industrial design studio
actor-network starts with the formalization of the studio project; this is the
problematization moment of the translation process of the studio study. Each studio
project contains certain criteria the students are expected to meet throughout the
79
design process. At each stage of the studio studies, students are informed through
project briefs as well as their verbal communications with the instructors. Project
briefs contain the information on the studio project, the criteria expected to be met,
expected reports, representations etc. on the basis of the stages of the studio studies.
Design processes of the students should be conducted according to these briefs. In
other words, the project briefs in the studio studies can be considered as the
definitions of the requirements of the obligatory passage points through which
students would reach their target.
Problematization moment has a significant role in the success of an in-studio actor-
network. In addition to the formalization of the studio project, identification of all
the possible and more importantly the critical actors for the stages of the design
process should be considered as another critical issue for the next moments of the
translation process of the studio actor network.
Before starting to analyze an industrial design studio as an actor-network and its
problematization moment, it is necessary to examine the key actors' visions of
industrial design education. In the interviews, all instructors were asked to express
their opinions on design education in general, and on industrial design education in
particular. The problematization moments of the studio studies are interpreted
mainly on the basis of the opinions and the reflected teaching interests of the
instructors by also taking into account their approaches to 3D physical and digital
modeling in industrial design education.
Interessement
The students build their knowledge and skills for their professional life through a
reflective process between the instructors and the students in industrial design studio.
To establish robust relationships with the students is one of the most important
factors in the success of the studio studies driven by the teaching interests of the
instructors. After the introduction of the studio project (problematisation moment),
although the curriculum, the departmental rules, laws on higher education and their
carreer interest force them, the students need to be persuaded to act in a certain way
during the design process, to acquire certain skills and to employ certain design tools
80
etc. in order to comply with the requirements of the studio projects. This is the
interessement moment in a studio study in which the instructors channel the students
through negotiations and persuasions to establish relationships with the ally human
and non-human actors or to weaken the ties with the opposing ones that may
convince them to act in contrary ways.
Besides negotiations and persuasions key actors also use various interessement
strategies such as force, seduction etc. and intermediaries such as available technical
equipment. While key actors employ their interessement strategies, there may be
certain actors that want to change the process according to their wills or interests and
develop their own strategies such as resistance, pretense etc. In an actor-network,
actors become stronger by assembling other allies (Fenwick and Edwards, 2010) for
negotiations or resistances. In the studio studies, the students who have counter
interests need to convince or force other students to act in contrary ways to disturb or
change the direction of the translation process. While the learning interests of the
students are changed through these negotiations and acts of intermediaries, the
teaching interests of the instructors are also influenced because of the reflective
nature of the studio studies. The dynamic atmospheres of the studio studies come
from their reflective nature.
All of the student actors in the studio actor-networks share the same objective, to be
an industrial designer by completing their professional education; however, as
mentioned by most of the interviewees, they prefer to select the most expedient way
to achieve their goals. Nevertheless, the definition of the expedient way differs
according to the students and their learning interests.
As mentioned above, the connection between the learning interests of the students
and the teaching interests of instructors is the most important factor in the success of
the translation process in the studio studies. Students' motivations can be considered
as their learning interests. If their motivations channel them to the instructors'
teaching interests, the possibility to adopt the introduced interests becomes higher
and they become engaged in the knowledge and skill acquisition processes in the
81
studio studies; in other words they become engaged in the proposed new knowledge,
skills and design attitudes.
In certain cases, the objectives of the studio studies are adopted by certain students
without any need for negotiation and persuasion because their learning interests
overlap with the instructors‘ te ching interests which sh pe the studio projects nd
the criteria. However, in another studio study driven by different teaching interests,
the need to convince the same students to change their ways of design towards the
given direction may appear because of the conflicting interests between the studio
projects and the students. In these cases, besides negotiations and persuasions, the
ties with the resources of the conflicting interests should be interrupted. Otherwise,
these counter interests may disturb the translation processes in the studio studies.
However, there are also certain students who could understand why they should
conduct their design processes in accordance with the teaching interests of the
instructors because of their career interests, although they have counter learning
interests and tendencies. In these cases, those students become engaged in the design
process by establishing fragile connections with the critical actors in the studio
studies. Although these fragile connections are established and sustained throughout
the translation processes, they are potentially temporal. The students who could not
accept certain interest but pretend as if they are convinced mostly tend to turn back
their counter learning interest immediately. The consequences of these fragile
relationships are explained in the following sections on enrolment and mobilization
moments.
The main focus of the dissertation is on 3D physical and digital modeling, however,
in the analysis phase, all of the identifiable established connections between the
students and the common representational media in the narrated design processes are
examined. The main impetus for investigating the connections of the students with
the other significant representational media comes from the assemblage concept
(Deleuze nd Gu tt ri, 1986), since it is considered th t the students‘ connections
with 3D physical and digital modeling are determined not only by the potentials of
82
3D physical and digital modeling media but also by the other representational media
in the studio studies.
The explanation of the interressement moments of the narrated studio studies are
made on the basis of these identified connections by taking into account mainly the
following four factors;
The formulation of the studio studies / problematization,
The instructors‘ str tegies to provide the est lishment of the intended
connections between the students and the weighted representational media,
Learning interests of the students and the strategies that they employ in order
to affect the process,
Promises and constraints of the existing representational media (non-human
actors)
Enrolment
The persuaded students become engaged in their studio projects in the enrolment
moment of the studio studies. When they are persuaded they become engaged in
certain new ways of acting, employing certain design tools and focusing on
developing certain skills for the design processes.
Each student becomes engaged in a different way determined not only by their
interests nd inclin tions ut lso y the other connected ctors‘ inclin tions nd
interests such as instructors, existing design tools, facilities, etc.
During this process, in order to achieve the enrolment of the students in the skill and
knowledge acquisition process as in the problematized studio studies, there should
be allies and mediators to enable the students to behave in the expected ways.
Facilities in the department, space, existing design tools and materials, certain
departmental courses, representatives of the project partners can be considered
among the mediating actors for the enrolment moment of the studio studies.
Throughout the enrolment process, the students‘ skills nd knowledge ecome
translated into a new form.
83
The enrolment strategies of the studio instructors such as identifying certain allies
and mediators to include in and certain actors to exclude from the actor-network
have critical roles in enrollment moment of the translation process in the studio
actor-network. Through these strategies, newly established and potentially fragile
connections between the students and the actors in the studio studies can be
transformed into robust and durable connections or vice versa.
Hence, the enrolment moments in the narrated studio studies are examined and
explained on the basis of the following critical points;
The most emphasized and valued aspects of the narrated design processes,
The most important evaluations and judgments regarding the components of
the forms of the students
The modeling media on which the referred evaluations and judgments were
made
Mobilization
When the students engaged in their new designer identities and internalized the
acquired knowledge and skills provided by the studio studies they become the
representatives of these studio actor-networks and get mobilized. Mobilization
moment in industrial design studio actor-network has two different dimensions.
On the one hand, the students who became representatives bring the acquired
knowledge, skills and attitudes to the other actor networks. In each step of their
professional education, industrial design students build new knowledge and skills
upon the previous ones that they enrolled in the previous studio studies. In other
words they construct their professional identities through these step by step
processes.
On the other hand, each mobilized student may affect the translation processes in the
following studio studies as allying or competing actor, if her knowledge, skills,
attitudes or habits fit to or conflict with the proposed new ones.
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In order to understand the mobilization moments for the narrated studio studies, the
current opinions of the students on 3D physical and digital modeling are analyzed
nd the students‘ opinions re tre ted s the outcomes of the previously p rticip ted
studio studies including the narrated design processes and related courses. Then, the
reflections of the objectives of the narrated studio studies on the students‘ opinions
are examined. Accordingly, the mobilization moments of the narrated studio studies
are explained mainly on the basis of these reflections.
Before communicating the findings acquired from the narratives and interviews, to
overview the courses aiming to develop representational skills of the students in the
departmental curriculum and the facilities provided by the faculty will be helpful for
understanding the positions of 3D physical and digital modeling in the research site
since they comprise the most significant non-human actors in the studio actor
networks. Hence, in the following section, the departmental courses regarding
representational skills and the facilities are explained briefly then the industrial
design studio studies are explained as transformation processes.
6.2.1 The Department as an actor in the studio studies
Before starting to examine an industrial design studio as an actor-network in its own
right, it is necessary to pay some attention to the punctuated actor-network, which
has a determining role on the formalization of the situations in the studios such as the
combination of the instructors; as such an attention may provide us with useful
insights. As mentioned in the theoretical chapter, certain actor-networks acting as a
single block may disappear and it is turned into an actor of that action. In the studio
studies, like all the other departmental courses and activities, department has certain
roles, although it is also another actor-network which encompass the studios.
Undoubtedly, the department is not the only punctuated actor in the studio actor-
networks YÖK/CoHE (Y ksek Öğretim Kurulu, Council of Higher Educ tion),
METU Administration, The Faculty can be listed as the most prominent other
punctuated actor-networks which act in the studio through laws, regulations, policies
85
and principles. However, it is possible to assume that the department acts as the
representative of these punctuated actor-networks in the educational program.
In the Academic Catalog of METU (http://id.metu.edu.tr/en/metu-department-of-
industrial-design/department-of-industrial-design), the industrial design studios and
the open jury system have been identified as the core elements of the education
process since the foundation of the department.
The combination of the full-time and part-time instructors for each studio can be
considered as substantially stabilized, although some minor changes have taken
place time to time. Hence, it may not be unfair to assume that the objectives and the
emphasized knowledge, skills and attitudes differ according to the differences
between the combinations of the instructors in the studios.
As mentioned above studio studies are at the core of the educational program and the
students learn to design through hands-on experiences by combining their
acquisitions from the courses provided by the department. During the education
process, besides technical and theoretical courses, the students are provided with the
courses on representational skills.
2D representational skills in general and sketching in particular comprise the most
significant part of program (Appendix F). There are four must and two elective
courses on sketching and technical drawing. The must courses, Design
Communication I, II, III and IV, take place in the first half of the educational process
and the electives, Design Presentation I and II, are given during the third year of the
program. While the students are introduced with free hand drawing and sketching
through exercises such as drawing selected 3D objects etc. in Design
Communication I and II, Design Communication III and IV aim to develop the
students‘ perspective view dr wing ilities Design Present tion I nd II im to
provide the students with advanced sketching and rendering skills.
In the curriculum, there are two courses on 3D physical modeling, Elementary
Workshop Practice and Computer Literacy in Design and Model Making. At the end
of the first year, in the first summer practice, Elementary Workshop Practice and
86
Computer Literacy in Design, the students are introduced with 3D physical and
digital modeling techniques and regarding media. ID290 comprises two modules,
physical modeling and workshop practices for four weeks and digital modeling in
both 2D and 3D for two weeks. During physical modeling and workshop practices
module, the students experience different model making techniques and materials
through hands-on practices and learn to use basic traditional workshop equipment
such as drill press, saw band, etc.
Model Making course aiming to train the students in basic industrial design model
making skills is held in the third year of the program; however it could not be
opened regularly.
In the first two years of the program, the students are introduced with digital
modeling in the summer pr ctices‘ Computer Liter cy in Design modules In these
modules the students are introduced with basic 2D and 3D digital modeling through
tutorials. Besides these introductory level trainings there are a must course,
Computers in Design I, and an elective course, Computer Graphics I, in the third
year of the program. While the students are introduced with certain digital modeling
software such as Rhino, 3DMax, etc. in Computers in Design I, Computer Graphics I
aims to provide the students with advanced 3D digital modeling skills such as
material editing, rendering, etc.
In addition to the mentioned courses aiming to provide the students with the essential
representational skills, Visual Narrative in Design I and II focus on to enrich visual
communication abilities of the students by combining various representational
techniques such as scenario building by combining sketching and stop motion.
Besides the explained courses aiming to develop representational skills of the
students, modeling workshop of the Faculty provide the students with various
modeling facilities such as 3D printing, laser cutting and CNC machining as well as
traditional workshop equipment for wood and metal machining.
87
6.3 Translation processes in the first year basic design studio studies
Among the 12 interviews conducted with the students, only one student, SA3,
selected one of her first year studio projects to narrate as the development process in
which she thought she developed the most satisfying product forms. The translation
process in the first year studio study is analyzed on the basis of this narrative and the
interviews conducted with the three of the first ye r studio instructors In T le …,
the year of the studio study, the referred project and the mentioned reason for the
selection are demonstrated.
Table 6.1 The most satisfying form narrative from the first year studio
Student SA3 selected her chess set project to narrate since she found the pieces of
the set to be her most freely developed forms up to the interview date. She
considered that in the subsequent studio studies the constraints regarding the
materials, production techniques and functional requirements turned into a barrier
against her creativity. Besides these constraints, she referred to the identification of
3D digital models among the required representations for the studio studies as
another underlying reason that led her to design more basic forms. She felt more at
ease with the chess set design process compared to her subsequent studio projects
because of the absence of 3D digital models as well as the absence of the mentioned
design constraints.
6.3.1 Problematisation moment in the first year basic design studio
Although there may be minor changes in the number of participating instructors
according to the years and semesters, basic design studio studies are conducted by at
Student ID Year Project Why
SA3 2012 Chess set They were my most freely developed forms
88
least two full-time and a part-time instructors and three assistants. The first year
basic design studio instructor interviews are conducted with both of the full-time
instructors and one of the assistants of the studio team.
As explained in the introduction of the findings, the central objective of each
industrial design studio is determined on the basis of the program of the department.
Nevertheless it is possible to assume that the formulation of the studio projects, the
identification of the criteria that the students are expected to meet and the required
representations are made by the instructors on the basis of their teaching interests.
Hence in order to understand the problematization moment of the narrated first year
studio project process, opinions of the instructors on industrial design education are
analyzed and the most significant themes and nodes are extracted as the reflections
of their teaching interests. In Table 6.2, these themes and nodes are demonstrated.
Instructor A1 was the senior instructor in the first year basic design studio. Her
teaching interests mainly revolve around providing the student with a sense of
composition and the design related essential competencies by focusing especially on
elements and principles of basic design, 3D thinking abilities and physical modeling
skills.
Instructor A2 was the junior instructor in the studio; she completed her bachelor and
Ph.D. degrees in graphic design. Her teaching concerns are mainly on increasing
visual literacy of the students and to enable them to design by moving between
different 2D and 3D representations by equipping them with enriched
representational skills and 3D thinking abilities.
Instructor A3 was one of the assistants of the basic design studio during the
interview period. Her teaching interests are based on equipping the students with
enriched representational skills by focusing on 3D thinking and modeling abilities.
She is also interested in user centered design approaches.
The first year basic design studio instructors reflected their opinions on industrial
design education by touching upon four main themes: (1) The aims of industrial
design education, (2) the knowledge and skills which the students should be
89
equipped with through industrial design education, (3) the educational opportunities
which should be provided for the students and (4) emerging needs in industrial
design education. The main themes and the extracted nodes under these themes are
demonstrated in Table 6.2.
Table 6.2 Design education related nodes and themes for the first year basic design
studio
From the analysis of the opinions of the interviewed first year studio instructors, the
following five significant teaching interests mentioned by at least two interviewees
emerged.
To equip the students with 3D thinking abilities
To equip the students with enriched representational skills
To equip the students with 3D physical modeling skills primarily
To enable the students to internalize to design by moving between 2D and 3D
representations
Full-time Full-time Asst.
A1 B1 C1
To increase visual literacy of the students 1 1 0
To provide sense of form 1
To provide sense of composition 1 0 0
To equip the students with 3D thinking abilities 1 1 1
The enriched representational skills 1 1 1
3D physical modeling skills firstly 1 0 1
The production related knowledge 1 0 0
The ability to find creative solutions for the problems 0 0 1
To internalize designing by moving between 2D and 3D representations 0 1 1
To internalize thinking through sketching 0 1 0
To integrate acquired basic design knowledge into their following studio studies 0 1 0
To internalize user centered design approach 0 0 1
The advanced level form development exercises through physical and digital modeling 0 1 0
The integration of 3D DM in the early phases of ID education 0 1 0
The development of digital and physical modeling skills in parallel ways 0 1 0
The exercises on how to express design ideas through 3D PM 0 0 1
The n
eed f
or
The Basic Design Studio instructors' opinions on industrial design education
Aim
sE
nable
the
stu
dents
Aim
sT
o e
quip
the
stu
dents
with
90
To increase visual literacy of the students
The instructors teaching interests are among the essential elements that comprise the
sic design studio studies‘ centr l o jective Accordingly, it is possi le to ssume
that besides the other essential elements of the central objective of the basic design
studio, these five significant teaching interests play critical roles in the
formulizations of the basic design studio studies and the identification of the
expected criteria and the required representations.
In order to complete basic design studio and to pass the next stage of their industrial
design education, the students are expected to align their learning interests with the
sic design studio instructors‘ te ching interests and to comply with the criteria and
the required representations of the studio projects. For the narrated first year basic
design studio project, chess set, the most significant criteria and the required
representations are extracted from the interviews5 and demonstrated in Table 6.3.
Table 6.3 The criteria the students are expected to meet and the required
representations for the narrated first year basic design studio study
5 The criteria and required representations for the narrated second, third and fourth year studio studies
are extracted from the documents of the studio studies, however for the narrated basic design studio
project, chess set, as stated by them, the instructors did not use any written documents to introduce
the project. Hence the regarding information extracted from the narrative of the student and from the
interviews conducted with the first year studio instructors.
3D form giving
Hierarchical relationships between the pieces
Harmony between the pieces
Finishing
Sketches (idea generation)
3D physical sketch models (development process)
Posters (final presentation)
3D physical models (1:1 - Final presentation)
The criteria and required representations for the narrated first year basic
design studio project
crit
eria
rep
rese
nta
tio
ns
91
The weighted positions of 3D physical models and 3D form giving criteria point out
the following teaching interests of the instructors,
To equip the students with 3D thinking abilities
To equip the students with 3D physical modeling skills as the foundational
competence
The required 2D sketches, posters and 3D physical models can be identified as the
reflections of the following teaching interests of the instructors;
To equip the students with enriched representational skills
To enable them to internalize to design by moving between 2D and 3D
representations.
Table 6.4 The reflections of the instructors‘ te ching interests on the set of criteri
and required representations for the first year basic design studio6
As seen on Table 6.4, 3D physical modeling emerged as the most critical
representational media for the chess set project and there is no implication for 3D
digital modeling. Besides the teaching interests of the interviewed instructors, their
6 The mentioned te ching interests‘ reflections on the criteria and required representations in the
narrated studio studies are more complicated than the table, however, most of these reflections are
omitted intentionally in order to make more clear and visible the effects of these reflections on the
roles and positions of 3d physical and digital modeling in the studio studies.
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opinions on 3D physical and digital modeling are also among the significant factors
that determine the dominance of 3D physical modeling and the absence of 3D digital
modeling in the project.
Table 6.5 Opinions of the first year basic design studio instructors on 3D physical
modeling in Industrial Design Education
The interviewed first year basic design studio instructors reflected their opinions on
3D physical modeling on the basis of three main themes; (1) advantages, (2)
constraints and (3) its positioning in industrial design education. The summary of the
regarding opinions are demonstrated in Table 6.5.
The most emphasized advantage of 3D physical modeling, mentioned by both A1
and C1, is its capacity to provide real 3D information on the physical properties of
the forms. For instructor A1, 3D physical models provide real 3D information by
appealing to the other senses as well as sight. Instructor C1 considered that without
such real 3D information provided by 3D physical models it might be almost
impossible to evaluate a form sufficiently.
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Besides its capacity to provide real 3D information on the physical properties of a
form, instructor A1 also mentioned three more advantages of 3D physical modeling.
For her, its concreteness makes 3D physical modeling more perceptible to human
beings. She also emphasized the relationship between the possibility of accidental
inspirations and hand building processes of the 3D physical sketch models in the
form finding phases. The last advantage of 3D physical modeling mentioned by
instructor A1 is also related with hand building processes in 3D physical modeling.
According to her to develop form creation related skills through 3D physical
modeling, at least in the early phases, provide the students with hands-on
experiences on the 3D forms such as to able to observe how certain changes on
certain components affect the overall form.
Instructor C1 reflected her opinions on the advantages of 3D physical modeling by
mainly emphasizing 3D physical information provided by only 3D physical models.
For her, 3D physical information regarding the form of a product make easier to
perceive the user product interaction and size related characteristics of it. She also
commented on how the mentioned types of information help determine primary
problems on the forms in the early phases of design processes.
As seen on Table 6.5, while instructor A1 and C1 emphasized advantages of 3D
physical modeling, only instructor B1 touched upon its constraints. For her, to
modify or change a physical model requires manual labor and time when compared
to hand sketching.
All of the interviewed basic design studio instructors considered 3D physical
modeling related skills and knowledge as the foundation for the knowledge and skill
acquisition processes of industrial design students. Hence, they put it at the foremost
position in industrial design education. While instructor A1 and C1 considered 3D
physical modeling skills as the primary competence for a designer, for instructor B1,
the students should start to develop their industrial design related skill development
processes through the most familiar representational media, sketching and 3D
physical modeling; because, as mentioned by her, almost all of the students are
familiar with drawing and sculpting 3D forms at least from play dough or paper.
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For instructor A1, the foundational role of 3D physical modeling does not come
from its potential to present but also from its significant influence on the
developments of the design approaches of the students. She emphasized that bodily
involvement of the students with the forms in their skill acquisition processes
increase their awareness of the significance of the physical interaction between the
user and the products. Besides the opinions regarding the foundational role of 3D
physical modeling, instructor A1 also mentioned the significance of awareness of the
students about the roles of 3D physical modeling in their skill acquisition processes.
She commented that if the students are aware of the importance of the coordination
of their eye, hand and brain in their skill acquisition processes they can spend more
effort for developing the mentioned coordination.
According to instructor C1, the students should be competent in 3D physical
modeling when they completed their first year in the department. She also
emphasized the significance of the internalization of thinking through 3D physical
modeling. She commented on the common tendency of the students to postpone 3D
physical models to the advanced phases of their design processes.
No one wants to spend time for such things, because she/he has got this
conviction that she/he would get the right one in his first attempt, s/he
develop only one. Then, when s/he is told it is not ok, she/he gets highly
demoralized. (A01)
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Table 6.6 Opinions of the first year basic design studio instructors on 3D digital
modeling in Industrial Design Education
All of the basic design studio instructor interviewees emphasized the same two
advantages of 3D digital modeling, the potential to increase the quality of
representations and to facilitate and accelerate the design processes. According to
instructor A1 and B1, the realization of the design ideas is easier and quicker through
digital modeling media. However, instructor A1 stated that when the students
experienced the facilitating and accelerating potentials of 3D digital modeling, some
of them found it unnecessary to go back to the 2D and 3D physical representations.
Besides the two shared opinions of the interviewed instructors, B1 and C1 also
mentioned diverse advantages of 3D digital modeling. Instructor B1 commented on
how 3D digital modeling media make possible to create more unusual forms by
providing more accidental inspirations through their risk free environments.
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There, we do things that could not be made by hand. Very interesting idea
coming out of a contingent situation or accident can lead to something. Or it
may not be imagined to bend a wooden stick when you play with it
physically. If s/he could image that, s/he cannot bend it. However, in a digital
environment, there is no limit, everything is possible. (A02)
While instructor A1 mentioned its inspirational potentials, instructor C1 reflected her
opinions on the advantages of 3D digital modeling by emphasizing its skill
enhancing features departing from her own experiences. She commented on how she
had limited manual skills in the beginning of her undergraduate education process
and how her hand sketching, 3D physical modeling and 3D thinking abilities became
better by the contribution of 3D digital modeling. Departing from her comments, it is
possible to assume that rather than to enroll representational facilities of 3D digital
modeling; she was impressed by its potential to provide precise 3D information.
When the reflections of the interviewed basic design studio instructors on 3D digital
modeling are reviewed it emerged that instructor B1 did not touch upon any
constraint regarding digital modeling media. At that point it should be reminded that
she was the only basic design studio instructor interviewee who mentioned the
constraints of 3D physical modeling.
Instructor A1 considered that the most significant constraint of 3D digital modeling
was its limiting effects on the students who are incompetent in digital modeling.
According to her the concerns of the students on how to model in digital modeling
software discourage them; they prefer to create the usual forms which they can
model. She also commented that digital modeling media direct the students to easier
solutions through its facilities. Consequently, the mentioned situation is considered
by instructor A1 as the underlying reason for less accidental inspirations and the loss
of distinctive characteristics in the design solutions of the students. Instructor A1
found 3D digital modeling 2D, although it is called 3D. According to her, 3D digital
modeling provides 3D information through a screen and this makes it similar to the
other 2D representational media.
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For instructor C1, the only significant constraint of 3D digital modeling results from
its scale free nature. Accordingly, she found hard to perceive the actual size of a
form through its 3D digital model.
All of the instructor interviewees considered 3D digital modeling as a convenient
media for generating and comparing the form alternatives because of its facilities
that make it possible to generate numerous variations of a form without spending any
material and manual labor. Instructor B1 also found 3D digital modeling convenient
for fine detailing of the forms in the advanced phases of design processes.
During the interviews, all of the interviewed basic design studio instructors
emphasized the necessity to introduce digital modeling to the students in the early
phases of industrial design education; however, they referred to different phases for
the introduction. According to instructor A1 and C1, to be competent in 3D digital
modeling entails to be competent in 3D physical modeling, since without robust
basic design knowledge and the experiences 3D physical forms, it might be hard to
perceive 3rd
dimension in digital environments. Accordingly, they suggested that the
introduction of 3D digital modeling should be in the second year of industrial design
education, in other words after the acquisition of the knowledge and skills provided
by basic design studio studies. Contrary to the opinions of instructor A1 and C1,
instructor B1 considered that 3D digital modeling should be introduced as early as
possible because new generation industrial design students are more familiar with
digital media. She stated that if the balance between roles of the physical and digital
representational media in the courses and studio studies could be established their
combination might be turned into a motivation for the students who feel more at ease
in digital environments. Hence the internalization of 3D digital modeling as a
complementary media for physical modeling should be provided.
Another significantly emphasized opinion, mentioned by all of the interviewed basic
design studio instructors, regarding the integration of 3D digital modeling in
industrial design education is the necessity to enable the students to perceive 3rd
dimension on 2D screens by providing hands-on exercises. Although instructor A1
mentioned the virtuality of 3D digital models that makes them 2D as one of the
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constraints of digital modeling she acknowledged that it is possible to learn to
perceive 3rd
dimension on a screen.
Table 6.7 The identified roles and positions of the representational media in basic
design studio
In view of the opinions of the interviewed basic design studio instructors on
industrial design education and 3D physical and digital modeling, the identified
representational media and their attributed roles and positions can be summarized as
in Table 6.7.
Sketching is identified as the critical non-human actor especially for the initial
visualization of design ideas on the basis of the expectation to equip the students
with basic sketching skills for enabling them to visualize their design ideas.
3D physical models are identified as the most critical non-human actor through-out
the studio studies on the basis of two following expectations;
To equip the students with 3D physical modeling skills because it is
considered as the foundation for the following phases of industrial
design education and
Sketching 3D physical modeling 3D digital modeling
Throughout the design processes Throughout the design processes Excluded
To equip the students with 3D
physical modeling skills because it
is considered as the foundation for
the following phases of industrial
design education and
To prevent the students to involve 3D
digital modeling because of its
misleading effects on the
development processes of the design
approaches of the students
To provide the students with the
experiences on 3D forms in order
to contribute the developments
of 3D thinking abilities
to postpone its introduction after the
acquisition of 3D physical modeling
skills and 3D thinking abilities of the
students in order to provide a
foundation for the development of
3D digital modeling skills
To equip the students with basic
sketching skills for enabling them
to visualize their design ideas
Exp
ecta
tio
ns
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To provide the students with the physical experiences on 3D forms in
order to contribute to the development of 3D thinking abilities
3D digital models are excluded on the basis of the following two expectations;
To prevent the students‘ involvement with 3D digit l modeling
because of its potential misleading effects on the development of the
students‘ design ppro ches
To postpone its introduction after the acquisition of 3D physical
modeling skills and 3D thinking abilities of the students in order to
provide a foundation for the development of 3D digital modeling
skills.
Although the criteria the students are expected to meet, the identified critical
representational media and their roles are demonstrated in the regarding tables in a
certain order, as mentioned by instructor A1, the basic design studio instructors
prefer to formulate the studio studies without strictly structuring them in order to
make possible to change the processes of the projects according to the responses of
the students at the moment.
6.3.2 Interessement moment in the first year basic design studio study
When the formulated (problematized) studio projects and the relevant documents are
introduced to the students by the instructors, interessement moments in the basic
design studio studies start. In this moment, the instructors direct the students to
establish connections with the identified representational media and to engage in the
proposed ways of acting through diverse strategies and negotiations.
In the narrated basic design studio study, the established connections between
student SA3 and the critical representational media are demonstrated in Table 6.8 on
the basis of their functions in the design process of the chess set.
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Table 6.8 Established connections with the representational media and their roles in
the basic design studio project
Hand sketches and 3D physical models are identified by the instructors as the
required representations for the chess set project on the basis of the match between
their potentials and the aims of basic design studio. However, when SA3 narrated the
beginning of the design process, she did not mention hand sketches and only referred
to the 3D physical models she employed for form development. Then, she was asked
if she drew hand sketches in any stages of the project. Her first answer w s ‗no‘
However, after a couple of seconds she changed her answer, but she passed over
hand sketches as an insignificant media employed in the very initial phase of the
narrated form development process.
As seen on Table 6.8, throughout the design process of SA3‘s chess set, she
generated the form alternatives by carving Styrofoam and evaluated them on the
basis of the criteria such as hierarchical relationships between the pieces of the chess
set.
Based on her narrative, it is possible to assume that she established connections with
both of the required representational media in the studio project, with hand sketching
for idea generation and with 3D physical modeling for generating and evaluating
form variations. Nevertheless, although her connection with 3D physical modeling
could be considered as robust, the connection between her and hand sketching
seemed weaker.
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The we kness of SA3‘s connection with h nd sketching c n e expl ined by
referring to both the role identified for it in the basic design studio studies and the
limited sketching abilities of the students. As explained by instructor A1, one of the
main roles of 2D sketching in the basic design studio studies is to facilitate the
transition of the students to work on 3rd
dimension since one of the most significant
teaching interests of the instructors is to equip the students with 3D thinking
abilities. Accordingly, it is possible to assume that she could not understand
thoroughly the significance of the relationship between 2D and 3D physical
modeling in the development of her 3D thinking abilities because of the emphasized
place of 3D physical modeling in the negotiations between the instructors and SA3.
At this point it should be mentioned that although the students were introduced with
basic 2D representational techniques in the first semester of their first year, it is
possible to assume that most of them feel themselves insufficiently competent in
communicating their ideas through sketching. Hence she might not be able to
employ hand sketching throughout the design process of her chess set.
In view of the interessement moment of the narrated basic design studio project, it is
possible to conclude that interessement moment of the chess set design process was
successful at least for student SA3, despite the weakness of the connection
established between her and hand sketching. She was persuaded to develop the forms
of the pieces of her chess set through iterative 3D physical modeling.
Departing from her narrative and the opinions of the interviewed basic design studio
instructors, the established connections and the underlying factors can be
summarized in the following way.
SA3 established connection with hand sketching because it was identified as the
required representation for idea generation phase.
She established a connection with 3D physical modeling on the basis of two main
reasons;
It was identified as the main representational media for form development
process.
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It was the most promoted and promising representational media that provide
3D physical information on the form without needing abstraction.
6.3.3 Enrolment in the first year basic design studio study
As mentioned above, student SA3 was persuaded to design through 3D physical
modeling and established connections with 3D physical modeling media in the
design process of her chess set. These connections had significant roles in the
acquisition of 3D thinking abilities, internalization of 3D physical modeling skills
and form development through iterative modeling.
In the narrated studio project, the most emphasized aspects of the design process are
extracted and deemed to be clues to the engagements of SA3 to the proposed skills,
knowledge and attitudes in the studio study. As demonstrated in Table 6.9, she
emphasized three aspects of the design process repeatedly.
Table 6.9 Emphasized aspects of the form development process of the narrated basic
design studio study
Sculpting the 3D forms by carving Styrofoam was the first emphasized aspect of the
narrated design process. She found the sculpting process pleasant and this enabled
her to engage in 3D physical modeling. Accordingly, rather than modifying the
existing 3D physical models, she preferred to make new ones when she felt a need to
change any detail. To be able to turn a Styrofoam block into a refined chess set with
painted surface finishing satisfied her and this was the other factor that provided her
engagement in 3D physical model making on the basis of its craft side. Besides these
Developing form through iterative modeling
Sculpting
Finishing
Emphasis
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emotional outputs, to be able to evaluate the effects of the new solutions on the
overall forms by comparing 3D physical models of these alternatives impressed her.
Then, she became engaged in developing 3D forms through iterative modeling.
Besides the most emphasized aspects of the narrated studio study, like all the other
student interviewees, she was asked to identify the most important evaluation and
judgment regarding the forms of the pieces of the chess set and the representation on
which the referred evaluation was made. She told how at a certain moment of the
design process she recognized certain inconsistencies in the hierarchical
relationships between the pieces of the chess set. According to her, if there were no
3D physical models of the pieces of the set she would not be able to imagine in
which way certain details should be changed in order to solve these inconsistencies.
Table 6.10 The modeling tool on which the most important evaluation regarding the
narrated basic design studio project is made
It should be mentioned that to deem the identified representation, 3D physical model
of the chess set, as a measure of the student‘s eng gement with 3D physic l
modeling may not be entirely true, since it was the only representational media that
she could employ for her design process. However it is possible to assume that to be
able to see how her chess set was improved on the basis of the evaluation and
judgment on 3D form satisfied her and her engagement in 3D physical modeling was
strengthened.
Student SA3‘s eng gement in 3D physic l modeling st ilized y the str tegic lly
designed and conducted chess set studio project and she internalized 3D physical
Chess Set
SA3
3D physical sketch modelsIn which way the hierachical relationships
between the pieces should be designed
Modeling tools
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modeling as the foundational design competence. However, at that point, it should be
added that her engagement with 3D physical modeling was not provided by the
potential of 3D physical models in providing 3D information alone but also by its
cr ft side s tisfying the student‘s person l interests
From the enrolment moment of the narrated basic design studio project, it is possible
to conclude that:
In certain cases, the students may become engaged in the proposed way of
acting or representational media in unintended ways because of their diverse
learning interests and inclinations
Hands-on experiences that allow the students to see the results of their
actions have instant and significant effects on engagement of the students in
the experienced way of acting or representational media
6.3.4 Mobilization in the narrated basic design studio study
As mentioned in the previous sections, the students internalized the knowledge,
skills and attitudes proposed in the studio studies and brought them together to the
following stages of their education and their professional lives.
Student SA3 was in the third year in her industrial design education, when she
narrated her basic design studio study. Her opinions on 3D physical and digital
modeling at the interview date are determined by her experiences, skills developed
and knowledge acquired through the previous three years including the narrated
studio study.
105
Table 6.11 Opinions of SA3 on 3D physical modeling
For student SA3, form development processes, especially in the early phases, should
be conducted mainly through 3D physical modeling in order to evaluate physical
properties of a form and to prevent size related problems and unexpected
inconsistencies.
During the interview, student SA3 frequently emphasized how she employed 3D
physical models as a contribution to her 3D thinking abilities when she could not
perceive certain properties of imagined form thoroughly on its sketch or 3D digital
model. She found it impossible to be sure about the form of a product solution
developed by her without evaluating it at least through a very rough 3D physical
model. According to her to perceive 3D physical properties of a form without
interacting with it physically was almost impossible and only 3D physical models
could provide these opportunities. The last advantage of 3D physical modeling she
emphasized was its contribution to 3D digital modeling, she found it easier to model
a physically modeled form in digital environment than to turn a sketched form into a
3D digital model. As mentioned in the previous sections, she was fond of 3D
physical modeling not for only its potential to provide real 3D information but also
for its making process increasing the involvement of the designer with the form and,
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accordingly, it is this involvement which facilitates the transformation of the form
into digital format.
Student SA3 touched upon only a constraint of 3D physical modeling although she
emphasized its various advantages. According to her, it was hard to represent certain
delicate details through 3D physical modeling. However she did not mention if there
is any relationship between this constraint and the available modeling media and her
physical modeling abilities.
Table 6.12 Opinions of SA3 on 3D digital modeling
The most valued advantage of 3D digital modeling by SA3 was its contribution to
3D physical modeling. When she commented on how she used 3D digital modeling
s physic l modeling f cilit tor, she referred to ‗unroll method‘ s one of the most
efficient ways of turning a digital model into a 3D physical form. In the intermediate
stages of her design processes, she employed 3D digital modeling as an ally to
physical modeling, however, rather than highly detailed digital models she prepared
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them very roughly in order to facilitate unroll process. To be able to edit models in a
risk-free environment was mentioned by her as the second advantage of 3D digital
modeling. In the last advantage, she mentioned contribution of 3D digital modeling
to her 3D thinking abilities. She said that whenever she could not imagine certain
relationships between the components of a form on a sketch she modeled the form
roughly in digital environment, then, drew the relevant details.
Student SA3 considered 3D digital modeling more convenient for the advanced
phases of the design processes and found it more convenient for providing geometric
accuracy, generating the variations of the forms and detailing.
Although she mentioned only a constraint for 3D physical modeling, she emphasized
various constraints of 3D digital modeling frequently. For her, to model a complex
form in digital environment took long time. Hence, she preferred to postpone
modeling the forms in detailed way in digital environments to the very advanced
phases of the design processes. According to her, digital modeling process entails
focusing on commands rather than on the form and channels the students to generate
forms that they could model. Although she did not touch upon the virtual and scale
free environments of 3D digital modeling software among the constraints, she
mentioned the problematic aspects of digital modeling resulted from its virtuality
such as the difficulties in keeping control of the forms, to perceive the actual size
and physical properties of them etc. These last two constraints can be considered
among the underlying factors that channeled her to consider 3d digital modeling as
convenient for the advanced phases of design processes.
However, although she emphasized the constraints of digital modeling, at the
advanced phases of the interview, she felt the need to declare that she found herself
competent in 3D digital modeling and capable of coping with these constraints.
Her connection with 3D digital modeling was established after the narrated design
process; however, her robust relationship with 3D physical modeling influenced the
internalization of 3D digital modeling. Although she acknowledged the contribution
of 3D digital modeling to her 3D thinking abilities, she identified 3D physical
modeling as the most reliable 3D information provider. Her views on the
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employment of 3D digital modeling revolved around the advanced phases of design
processes, despite its mentioned contributions to her 3D thinking abilities and form
development processes such as making it possible to generate variations of a form on
the basis of minor changes in a short time, etc.
Table 6.13 Summary of mobilization moment of the basic design studio study
Student SA3 internalized 3D physical and digital modeling mainly on the basis of
their advantages and constraints. As seen on Table 6.13, in the mentioned advantages
of both of the modeling media, two interesting points emerged. She utilized both of
them to contribute to her 3D thinking abilities and employed each one as a
complement to each other.
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6.4 Translation processes in the second year studio studies
During the student interviews, four students referred to their second year studio
studies for their most satisfying forms. The translation processes of the second year
studio studies are analyzed on the basis of these four narratives and the interviews
conducted with the three of the second year studio instructors. The narrated projects,
the year of the regarding studio studies and the mentioned reasons for the selections
are demonstrated in the Table 6.14.
Table 6.14 The most satisfying form narratives from the second year studio
From Actor-Network Theory perspective, the underlying reasons for the selection of
the most satisfying forms can be considered as the reflections of the acquisitions
gained through the translation process in the studio actor-network nd the students‘
ways of enrolment to the studio study. Student SB3 selected the outdoor furniture
group as the most satisfying forms developed by him throughout his education
process. The pleasure of seeing his ideas on a concrete real product is one of the
main reasons for his selection, since, apart from the selected project the outputs of
the studio studies that he participated until the interview date were only the
representations of the products.
Student SC3 explained the underlying reasons for her selection on the basis of the
deliberately designed details of the form. Besides the final form, she also considered
the development process of the form as a satisfying process. During the design
Student ID Year Project Why
SB3 2013 Outdoor furniture I enjoyed the form becuse it w as pleasant to see my ow n style on it
SC3 2013 Nut cracker The form w as very deliberate becuse w e had a second chance
SD4 2012 Iron Because each line had a meaning and refered to another line
SE4 2012 Iron Development process of the form w as pleasant
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process, she had a chance to work with different materials and to test working
principles of the nutcracker alternatives.
Two of the four students selected the same second year studio project outputs, irons,
as the most satisfying forms. However the expressed underlying reasons for the
selections are different as seen on Table 6.14. While student SD4 selected her iron
for its refined lines and details, student SE4 emphasized the development process of
the form rather than its features as the reason for her selection.
6.4.1 Problematisation moment in the second year studio
In order to analyze second year industrial design studio as an actor-network and its
problematisation moment, the key actors' visions on industrial design education are
examined as a first step. The most significant aspects of the instructors' visions of
industrial design education are identified from the interviews and turned into the
nodes and themes listed on Table 6.15.
Although there are minor changes in the total number of instructors in the second
year studio, at least 2 full time instructors, 2 assistant and 3 or 4 part-time instructors
participate in the studio studies for each semester. Three of these instructor were
interviewed in the field research. The interviewee A2 is the senior instructor, the
interviewee B2 is the junior instructor and the interviewee C2 is one of the assistants
in the studio. It can be assumed that because of his senior position, teaching concerns
and interests of the instructor A2 are the most determining factors on the formulation
of the studio projects, introductions and directions for the stages of the design
processes (studio project processes).
The second year industrial design studio, ID201-202, is coordinated by the instructor
A2. His vision of industrial design education is mainly based on enabling the
students to conduct creative thinking processes (design processes) effectively by
focusing on the knowledge and experiences on materials and production processes
111
and the objectification7 of these processes by combining design related knowledge
and skills.
Instructor B2 is the senior instructor in the second year studio studies. His teaching
interests mainly revolve around equipping the students with the ability to construct,
to manage and complete a design process by focusing on production and material
related knowledge and physical experiences in the early phases of ID education,
although he is interested in digital design tools and computer aided prototyping.
Instructor C2 is one of the assistants of the second year studio. According to him, the
main aim of ID education is to equip the students with the knowledge and skills to
conduct a design process from the beginning to the end by motivating students for
more creative processes.
From the analysis of the interviews, it appears that the instructors reflected their
opinions on industrial design education by touching upon five main themes, (1)
general remarks on industrial design education, (2) the aims of the education, (3) the
knowledge and skills which a student should be equipped with through industrial
design education, (4) the educational opportunities which should be provided and (5)
appeared needs in industrial design education.
7 O jectific tion term is considered s the most convenient term for the Turkish term ―nesneleştirme‖
by the author, during the interview, when instructor A2 reflect his opinions on design education, he
define design process on the sis of two concepts ―o jectific tion of n ide ‖ ( ir fikrin
nesneleştirilmesi) nd ―reific tion of n str ct entity‖ (soyutu somutl ştırm )
112
Table 6.15 Design education related nodes and themes for the second year studio
Although a significant diversity in the teaching interests of the instructors is
demonstrated in Table 6.15, it can be assumed that the shared two nodes extracted
from the opinions of the instructors on ID education are the most obvious elements
of the central objective of the second year studio.
To equip the students with the knowledge on the materials and their
production methods
To enable the students to learn materials by processing them
instructors' opinions on design education 2A 2B 2C
ID education is a traditional education because of its physicality related aspects X
Design is about objectification X
Studio is at the core of the program X
To strengthen people for the emergence of ideas and its processes X
To transfer the body of knowledge on industrial design to the students X
To motivate students for more creative processes X
To increase visual literacy of the students X
The knowledge on the materials and their production processes X X X
The skills to construct, manage and complete a design process X X
The foundational knowledge on technology X
The ability to objectify generated ideas X
The ability to combine knowledge and skills acquired in different courses X
The ability to think in 3rd dimension X
The knowledge on elements and principles of design X
The knowledge on new technologies X
The skills on form exploration X
The ability to use verbal and nonverbal representations X
To learn materials by processing them X X X
To be familiar with digital fabrication and cam systems X
To develop digital and physical modeling skills in parallel X
To coordinate all the departmental courses as a part of a whole X
To balance the positions and the roles of physical and digital modeling in ID education X
For institutional approach and policy on id education X
To teach how to combine dm and pm X
To develop new educational models X X
For graphic design related skills X
rem
ark
sa
ims
en
ab
le
the
stu
de
nts
the
ne
ed
to e
qu
ip w
ith
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The students who aim to be successful in the studio course are expected to align their
learning interests with the studio instructors' teaching interests, so that they can
complete their design processes on the basis of the criteria introduced by the
instructors. The most significant criteria and the expected representations for most of
the studio studies conducted in second year studio are extracted from the interviews
and the documents and listed as demonstrated in Table 6.16.
Table 6.16 The criteria the students are expected to meet and the required
representations for the second year studio studies
By identifying the criteria and required representations for the stages of the design
processes of the studio studies, the instructors also identify most of the critical
human and non-human actors of the studio actor-networks.
As demonstrate on Table 6.17, the shared opinions on the necessity of the
knowledge on materials and their production processes for form development is
projected on the studio studies in producibility and selection of the materials and
the production methods criteria. To direct the students to produce the prototypes of
Innovativeness
Usability
User product interface
Producibility
Selection of the material and the production methods
Performance of the students througout the process
Posters (problem analysis and idea generation)
Video recordings (problem analysis)
Reports (problem analysis)
Sketches (throughout the design process)
3D physical sketch models (throughout the design process)
Working physical models (detailing phase)
Prototypes (finalization)
crit
eria
rep
rese
nta
tio
ns
The criteria and required representations for the narrated second
year studio studies
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their studio projects is the reflection of the opinion on the significance of the
physical experiences on the acquisition process of this knowledge. By putting
prototypes in the required representations list, the instructors also identify the
materials by which the prototypes are produced, the modeling workshop of the
faculty etc. as the critical actors of the studio actor- network.
Table 6.17 The reflections of the instructors‘ te ching interests on the set of criteri
and required representations for the second year studio studies
The user product interface criterion and the required 3D physical models can be
identified as the reflections of the teaching interests of the instructors on the criteria
to equip the students with the ability to objectify ideas and to equip them with
the ability to think in 3rd
dimension. While 3D physical models are identified as
the most prominent critical non-human actors at the problematisation moment, there
is no place for 3D digital modeling tools and representations in the design process as
consequence of the instructors‘ opinions on 3D digit l modeling summarized in
Table 6.19.
The most significant teaching interests of the second year
studio instructors
Producibility
Selection of the material and the
production methods
User product interface
Working physical models
To equip them with the ability to think in 3rd dimension
To enable the student to learn materials by processing them Prototypes
The reflections of the teaching interests on the
set of the criteria and required representations
To equip the students with the knowledge on the materials
and their production methods
3D physical sketch models
crit
eria
rep
rese
nta
tio
ns
To equip the students with the ability to objectify ideas
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Table 6.18 Opinions of the second year studio instructors on 3D physical modeling
in Industrial Design Education
Instructor 2A nd 2B emph sized 3D physic l models‘ potenti ls in providing 3D
physical information by comparing them with the other representational media,
although instructor 2A found hand sketching superior. For instructor 2B, physical
interaction between the designer and the form of the design solution was one the
most important thing that directly influences the outputs of design processes and
employing 3D physical modeling during the design processes increases this
mentioned physical interaction. For instructor 2C, to employ 3D physical modeling
during the design process makes possible to develop more producible forms because
of real 3D physical information provided by 3D physical models.
Although all of the second year studio instructors found 3D physical modeling
convenient for the early phases of design processes, for instructor 2A it was not as
practical as hand sketching hence it should be employed after the idea generation
phases.
For instructor 2A nd 2B, 3D physic l models‘ potenti ls in providing re l 3D
physical information make 3D physical modeling the primary skill that an industrial
design student should be equipped with.
116
Table 6.19 Opinions of the second year studio instructors on 3D digital modeling in
Industrial Design Education
Although the instructors‘ reflections reg rding 3D digit l modeling re m inly
concerns its constraints, they also mentioned certain advantages of it in course of the
interviews. According to instructor A2 and B2, design process can be facilitated and
accelerated by 3D digital modeling. However for instructor A2, these facilitating and
accelerating contributions occur at the expense of various information on 3D
physical properties of products‘ forms.
While instructor A2 emphasized its potentials in enhancing 2D representational
skills such as coloring photographs of 3D physical sketch models in digital photo
editing tools, instructor C2 mentioned its facilitating features for 3D physical
modeling. In these two advantages mentioned by instructor A2 and C2, digital
modeling is considered to be complementary to physical modeling.
117
In the interview conducted with instructor A2, the main emphasis regarding the
constraints of 3D digital modeling media is on its inadequacy for physical aspects of
design. According to him 3D digital models cannot provide most of the information
on physical properties of a product. Hence, they cannot be considered as an
alternative for physical modeling.
... No matter is it digital or high-tech. Technology could not be superior to
physical one because there is a basic core. A man (sic) involved in
woodwork, let‘s not s y involved, I me n, wood smells, there re different
types of wood and weight of each is different. I mean, by no means digital
environment could represent physical properties. (A03)
Instructor B2 mentioned the three constraints of 3D digital modeling; its limiting
effects on the students‘ cre tivity, its limited pr ctic lity compered to sketching nd
its 2D nature. According to instructor C2, it requires exhaustive labor and therefore it
directs students to easier solutions.
All of the interviewed second year studio instructors referred to 3D digital modeling
as a medium that can be used in the advanced phases of the design processes. This
shared opinion of the instructors could be resulted from the mentioned constraints,
which make digital modeling inconvenient medium for idea generation and form
creation phases of design process.
According to Instructor A2, digital modeling can be employed in the detailing phase
and for generating variations of a form on the minor changes. It is also considered as
a convenient modeling medium for detailed, delicate and repetitive surface studies
by instructor C2.
Besides their opinions on 3D digit l modeling, the instructors‘ te ching interests
could be the underlying reason for their exclusionary attitude towards 3D digital
modeling. Instructor B2 expressed one of the underlying reasons in the following
way;
We do not allow them, as I mentioned, like in other things, they should climb
the historic l st ges…I elieve th t first the previous ones then the
contemporary ones should be given. Thus, as in the case of ape-human being,
in order to explain where the progress takes place, where the new one fulfills
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the things the old one can not, or where the older gives way to the new one, it
is necessary to follow the very same sequence. (A04)
According to instructor B2 the sequence of the skill acquisition processes should be
arranged in accordance with the chronological sequence of these skills. In other
words, an industrial design student should be equipped with hands-on physical
modeling skills before starting the acquisition process of digital modeling skills.
For instructor A2, industrial design education is inherently traditional (physicality
intensive) education since it involves materials, textures, etc. Then, he states that
technology cannot provide any medium that can represent physical aspects of an
object and of its materials as in reality.
I mean, now, as you know, linden is different from sapelli, oak is different
from eech, popl r is different from u ing …You would know this s you
de l with wood work… I me n, therefore, they re ll physic l properties nd
we deal with externalization. Our main task is to get know the material and
this is not possible in the digital environment. That is, you can see some
examples of what could be done with that material but you need to feel it if
you re going to do something with th t m teri l… For this re son, let‘s s y
that I am from an ecole which values very much the physical at the earlier
stages of design education. Nowadays, I believe, for the sake of getting
things done easily, computers push all these outside the process with a price
of losing the knowledge somehow. (A05)
For him, physical properties of the material of an object are the most influential
factors on its form. To develop a form without any physical interaction during the
knowledge and skill acquisition process is considered by him as a misleading
activity for the students. From his perspective, during the studio critiques and the
juries, it is possible to observe the misleading influences of digital modeling tools on
the students‘ w ys of design
What would be used? I have not given thought to the material yet. Look these
are very funny things. You ask him, how did you do this without taking the
material into account. Like a computer, there object is produced, material is
appointed, watch this, like appointing a material in Photoshop, it is like that.
That is, they design the object and then seek for material. They are not aware
of the fact that design of the object requires to take the material into account
from the very start. As if he appointing material on a form in 3DMax. I ask
him about the material of the designed product and he tells me that he have
not given any thought to the material yet. How come you design the object on
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Monday, and start thinking about the material on Thursday, I tell him, they
go hand in hand, as a matter of fact this is designed on the basis of the
material. (A06)
On the basis of the opinions of second year studio instructors, attributed roles and
position of the identified modeling media as the critical actors of the second year
studio studies could be summarized in the following way.
Sketching (a critical actor especially for the early phases of the studio studies)
Expectation is to equip the students with sketching skills to increase the
speed and practicality in the visualization of the ideas.
3D physical modeling (a critical actor for the intermediate stages of the studio
studies)
Expectation is to equip the student with 3D physical modeling skills because
only 3D physical models can provide certain information regarding 3D
physic l properties of form nd contri utes the students‘ 3D thinking
abilities.
Prototyping (a critical actor for the advanced phases of the studio studies)
Expectation is to provide the students with the possibility to acquire the
knowledge on the basic materials and their machining through hands-on
experiences.
3D digital modeling (a critical actor which should be excluded)
To prevent the students to learn to develop a product through 3D digital
modeling because of its misleading effects on the attitudes of them.
The summarized opinions and interests of the instructor on physicality and physical
and digital modeling and the four objectives extracted from them can be considered
as the underlying force for the exclusion of digital modeling from the
problematization moment of the studio actor-network. By doing this, the instructors
120
attempted to build a barrier between the students and digital modeling as a strategy
for the subsequent moments of the translation processes.
6.4.2 Interessement moment in the second year studio studies
The interessement moments of the translation processes of the second year studio
studies begin with the introduction of the studio projects to the students and the sets
of criteria and required representations. The connections between the students and
the critical actors of the studio projects are established in this moment through the
negotiations between the students and the instructors. In order to understand the
established connections between the students and 3D physical and digital modeling
in the narrated second year studio studies, the mentioned representational tools and
their functions are examined on the basis of the comments of the students. The
summary of the examined connections is demonstrated in Table. 6.20.
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Table 6.20 Mentioned representational tools and their functions in the second year
narratives
Three of the students, SB3, SC3 and SD4, generated their ideas in the initial phases
of the studio projects through hand sketches. Nevertheless in our sample, only
student SD4 was persuaded by the instructors to employ hand sketching as
complementing actor for 3D physical modeling to generate variations of forms.
The place and role of sketching in the second year studio studies can be explained by
referring to the two influential factors. Firstly, sketching is the most promoted design
tool especially for the idea generation and generating form variations in the
interessement moments of the studio. Furthermore, the senior instructor of the studio
conducts two of the must courses on 2D representational skills. He also identifies
hand sketches as the essential representational tool for his professional design
processes. His sketchbooks filled with artful sketches can be considered as an
interessement device to persuade the students to design through sketching. Secondly,
hand sketching can be considered as a competing actor for other visual
representational tools because of its speed and practicality. However, for
Outdoor furniture Nutcracker Iron Iron
SB3 SC3 SD4 SE4
Hand sketches Idea generation Idea generation
Idea generation
To generate form
variations
Sketches drawn on the
photographs of the 3D
physical models
Form analysis
3D physical sketch models
To generate form
variations
To test the product's
structure
Form explorations
To generate form
variations
Idea generation
Form explorations
To generate form
variations
To test physical
interaction
working models / prototypes
To test working
priciples
To generate form
variations
3D digital modelsTo generate form
variations
Modeling tools
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representing physical aspects of a form, it has limitations resulting from its
characteristics such as being scale free, being 2D, requiring competence on drawing
and spatial skills for complex forms etc.
In the narratives of the students, 3D physical models appeared to be the most
referred representational tools for the form development related issues such as
generating form variations, form explorations, to test the structure of the form, to test
user-product interaction, etc. however this was not only stimulated by the
identification of 3D physical models as the required representations but also by the
fact that the students were persuaded on the significance of the information on 3D
physical properties of a form in the form development processes.
In most cases, as they mentioned, the instructors are faced with the resistance of the
students against developing form through 3D physical modeling. Compared to
existing easier and faster alternatives such as sketching and digital modeling, the
students consider 3D physical modeling a labor intensive and time-consuming
practice in the studio studies.
As mentioned by instructor B2, resistance to giving a significant role to the physical
models in the design process has been observed several times by him. According to
him, as seen in the following quotation, if the majority of the students do not have
sufficient competence on physical modeling in the studio, they attempt to normalize
their situations by suppressing the others who are more competent on physical
modeling. Furthermore, in some cases, this majority may alienate the students
striving to do better. Consequently, from the ANT perspective, this resistance can be
assumed to be an attempt to determine the course of the studio study by disturbing
the interessement moment
Because some people are inherently capable of doing it. They do not meet
any difficulty in transforming it into an object. The others come together
round consensus y s ying th t ―no ody is le to do it, neither m I‖ If
there is no one who would like to come to the fore, then there is no problem.
… An immediate consensus are established in the classroom, in such cases
round the view th t ―no ody would do it super ly‖ nd then the consensus
expends to not to let anyone do it better even when this is possible. Such an
awkward perception that any one doing it properly gets excluded let alone
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being appreciated. This is really something which should be analyzed
sociologically in its own right. I do not know if anything could be done on
this issue but this is the case (A07)
This situation can be interpreted as a result of counter interests of the critical actors
of the studio. In any actor network, to encounter certain interest conflicting with the
actor-network goals is not a rare situation because of the nature of the assemblages.
In the interessement moment, in order to overcome any resistance and persuade the
students to develop their forms through 3D physical modeling, besides negotiations
targeting to convince the students why they should do this, two strategic attempts are
made by the instructors. The first strategy is to break the ties between the students
and digital modeling tools by rejecting their usage in the studio studies. In the second
strategy, 3D physical models are identified as a must for receiving the instructors‘
feedbacks during the studio critiques. By rejecting digital modeling tools and by
determining 3D physical models as a must for studio critiques, the instructors use the
authoritative means provided by allied actors such as laws and regulations of higher
education as well as the rules and curriculum of the department.
The exclusion of digital modeling from the formulated studio project can be
considered as an intervention of the instructors to displace the competing actor for
the aimed skills and abilities from the actor network. From the instructors‘ lenses,
although digital modeling tools could not provide the information on the physical
properties of a form, they compete with 3D physical models by providing visual
information on the third dimension of the form in a relatively fast and easy way. In
addition to rejection of 3D digital models as competing non-human actors, sketching
is manipulated by negotiating its advantages and constraints for the form
development processes.
During the first year of their industrial design education, the students mostly work on
2D compositions and 3D sculptural forms by shaping conventional modeling
materials such as paper, felt, Styrofoam, clay etc. So, as mentioned by instructor A2
and B2 the second year studio is the first course in which they should develop
products by taking into account users, materials, production processes, etc. Because
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of the instructors‘ h nds-on physical experiences and material processing skills
focused approaches, students are also challenged to produce the prototypes of their
projects. Therefore, it may be fair to assume that in the interessement moments of
the second year studio actor-networks a significant part of the negotiations and the
resistance of the students mostly revolve around these issues.
Although the usage of digital modeling tools in the second year studio studies was
barred by the instructors, student SB3 was seduced by digital modeling on the basis
of the opportunities provided by it. He accepted the importance of the 3D physical
models in the form development process, however, according to him, to spend time
by producing 3D physical models of the variations of the form in the advanced
phases of the design process to see the effects of the minor changes on the form was
an ineffective attempt, especially if there was a faster and easier alternative such as
digital modeling. In this case, 3D digital models acted on the basis of their own
capacities rather than on the basis of the roles identified by the key actors for them
and they provided the possibility to generate form variations in a short space of time
without spending any material and manual labor. In the studio project, he mentioned
that a couple of his classmates also opted for the digital modeling for generating
form variations. Furthermore, he also added that the number of the students who
behave in the same way might increase if the other students in the studio knew to use
digital modeling tools. Student SB3 and his classmates did not completely resist the
teaching interests of the instructors; furthermore they adopted all of them.
Nevertheless, they identify excluded digital modeling as a complementary tool, in
another words as an ally, and behind the scene they used it in their design processes.
If the interessement moment of the second year studio studies is reviewed by
focusing on the role and position of 3D physical and digital modeling tools in
industrial design education at METU, it is possible to conclude that, at least for the
interviewed students, despite some minor defections, interessement moment was
succeeded and the students are persuaded to integrate 3D physical modeling into
design processes in the second year studio, since their learning interests and the
instructors‘ te ching interests overlapped. They established connections with 3D
physical modeling mostly on the sis of 3D physic l models‘ identified roles, the
125
negotiations and the strategic attempts of the instructors. Nevertheless, as seen in the
narratives, some of these connections were established in unintended ways (form
analysis exercise on the photographs of the physical models) and also a connection
with the excluded actor (3D digital modeling) emerged. However, in this case, the
excluded actor acted as an allying actor rather than interrupting the ties between the
students and proposed skills and attitudes.
In so far as interessement moments of the narrated second year studio studies are
reviewed, it is possible to conclude that the instructors persuaded all of the students
who narrated their second year studio studies to integrate 3D physical modeling into
their second year studio projects. Then, they established connections with it. The
most significant connections are summarized in the following ways.
The students established connections with hand sketching because it was the
most promoted, familiar and easy reach actor for representing ideas in a fast
way.
The students established connections with 3D physical modeling because it
was the most promising actor as an ally for the expected criteria such as user
product interaction, structure of the product, etc.
Only one of the students established connections with the form analysis on
the side view photographs of the models because, among the interviewed
students, only her learning interests overlapped with the promises of the
mentioned form analysis method.
The students established connections with prototypes because it was
identified as the must actor for grading.
One of the students established connection with the excluded actor because it
was the most promising actor for generating form variations in the advanced
phases of the studio project.
On the basis of these observations, it is possible to conclude that the students tend to
establish connections more easily with certain types of representational media. They
can be categorized and listed in the following ways;
126
The most promoted ones,
The most familiar ones,
The easy reach ones,
The most promising ones
However definitions of these categories may vary on the basis of learning interest
and point of views of the students.
6.4.3 Enrolment in the second year studio studies
The persuaded students become engaged in their studio projects in the enrolment
moment of the studio studies. Each student becomes engaged in a different way
determined not only by her/his own interests and inclinations but also by the
inclinations and interests of the other connected actors such as instructors, existing
design tools, facilities, etc.
Table 6.21 Emphasized aspects of the form development processes for the second
year studio studies
In the narratives of the students, developing forms through iterative modeling and
incremental form development were the most emphasized aspects of the form
development processes in the second year studio. Although all of the students
become engaged in these two ways of form development, diverse engagements are
also revealed from their narratives on the design processes.
Outdoor
furnitureNutcracker Iron Iron
SB3 SC3 SD4 SE4
Developing form through iterative modeling
Incremental form development
Sculpting
The whole form development process
Form analysis
Structural analysis
Working with different materials
Emphasis
127
Although they selected different studio projects conducted in different semesters
‗sculpting processes of the models‘ ppe r s the third emph sized spect in the
narratives of student SC3 and student SE4. While student SC3 found very impressive
to experience different materials by processing them, to test their reflexes and
strength during the sculpting process of the model in the studio project, student SE4
identified sculpting by carving an easy shaping material as the most pleasant
experience in the narrated studio study. Additionally, the whole form development
processes are valued only by these students.
Contrary to the shared opinions on common aspects of the different studio studies,
students SD4 and SE4 are convinced on diverse learning interests from the same
translation moment. It is possible to explain this situation by touching on the
unpredictable nature of the assemblages (Fenwick and Edwards, 2010). Student SD4
and SE4 narrated the same studio project, however, while student SE4 was
impressed by form exploration through sculpting, form analysis exercises on the
photographs of the 3D physical models of the forms in the studio study is expressed
as the most impressive and instructed activity by student SD4. Although the
mentioned form analysis exercise was conducted in the same studio study, contrary
to student SD4, there is no reference to this exercise in the narrative of student SE4.
During the narrated form development processes, the students referred to certain
moments in which the most important evaluations and judgments on the forms and
certain representations on which the mentioned evaluations were made. These
representations and the evaluations are demonstrated in Table 6.22.
128
Table 6.22 The modeling tools on which the most important evaluations regarding
the narrated second year studio projects are made
To be able to see immediately how their forms and their progress were improved
through these evaluations and judgments in the narrated design processes can be
considered among the motivating factors that allowed the students to enroll in their
own ways to the introduced ways of design. For student SB3, the most critical
evaluation made by him in the narrated studio study was on how the legs and the
panels should be joined together. This evaluation was made at a relatively late stage
of the design process, so he did not have time to make a new 3D physical model to
see the effects of the cornered and carved joint details on the form in 3D in physical
world. So, the evaluation was made on the basis of the information provided by 3D
digital models of the carved and cornered variations of the form. At that moment of
his design process, 3D digital modeling appeared as one of the mediating actors for
the most critic l ev lu tion in student SB3‘s design process, lthough it is not
identified as an ally or a mediator by the instructors. Consequently, the enrolment of
student SB3 to the studio project was realized on his own way. He became engaged
in designing by thinking in 3D, however in different way from the intended.
The most import nt ev lu tion in Student SC3‘s n rr ted design process w s on how
the metal cracker should be placed in the wooden cover. She evaluated the
mentioned relationship on the prototype produced from the selected materials. In the
early phases of the form development she produced her working models in the
modeling workshop of the Faculty up until the need to process metal for the inner
129
cracker mechanism emerged. Then, she had to find a workshop in which the metal
parts could be produced. However, at that point the time devoted to nutcracker
project came to an end. Actually, before the emergence of the need to find another
workshop, the engagement in developing products by thinking in 3D, acquiring
knowledge on the materials by processing them and acquiring knowledge on the
mechanisms through working models was realized. The modeling workshop of the
Faculty, the existing easy shaping wood materials in the workshop, woodworking
machines, etc. can be considered among the mediating actors promoted by the
instructors in the conversations between the students and them. At the end of the
semester, the instructors gave extra time to the students for improving one of the
projects designed throughout the semester. This opportunity allowed student SC3 to
make trials on how to embed the metal mechanism into the wood cover. Then, to be
able to see the working prototype of her studio project strengthen her engagement in
the objectives of the studio study.
Figure 6.1 Student SA4‘s iron project
For student SD4, to be able to see how certain lines conflicted with the other
components of the form was one of the most critical aspects of her design process.
According to her, the form analysis exercise, mentioned in the previous section,
130
made it possible to see how certain 3D properties of a form influence the silhouettes
of the forms. From her point of view, until that moment, she had not been instructed
on how 3D properties of a form can be analyzed in 2D. In the exercise, the students
photographed their 3D physical models and printed them as 2D side views, and then
they made explorations on harmony of the silhouettes by drawing sketches on these
prints. The transformation from 3D into 2D provided SD4 with a chance to see and
evaluate silhouettes of her design solutions from a different perspective.
Accordingly, she became engaged in designing through 3D physical modeling by
experiencing the contribution of the introduced evaluation approach to her progress
in the studio project. By experiencing their complementarity increasing the
effectiveness of both of the representational media, student SD4 engaged in
designing by moving between 2D and 3D representational media.
Figure 6.2 Student SE4‘s iron project
131
The most critical evaluation influenced the course of student SE4‘s design process
was on the size of the form. At the advanced phases of the form development
process she realized that the handle of the product was not convenient for users who
have bigger hands. Besides the dimensions of handle, its proportional relation with
the other parts of the product also had to be changed. She claimed that without a 3D
physical model it was impossible to realize this challenging problem. The
engagement of the student was provided through the sculpting process of the model,
however she enrolled to design through 3D physical modeling by taking into account
the importance of the physical interaction between the user and the product when she
realized the fact that she could not see the problem without a 3D physical model.
From Actor-Network Theory perspective, it is possible to conclude that the studio
project criteria (user product interface), the required 3D physic l models, instructors‘
negoti tions etc get together with the student SE4‘s le rning interests nd
inclinations and she enrolled to the objectives of the studio study in her own way.
The enrolment moments of the narrated second year studio studies allow us to
conclude that, except student SB3, all of the students engaged in designing through
3D physical modeling because, in their narratives, 3D physical models and
prototypes were referred as the most critical representations which made it possible
to make critical evaluations and judgments during narrated studio studies by
providing required information on the physical properties of their forms.
To be able to experience how 3D physical models can provide the information on 3D
physical properties of a form and how this information affected the following stages
of form development and design processes in a real context could be considered as
the most significant factor for the enrolments of the students.
However, as seen in the narratives, each student engaged in 3D physical modeling in
a different way because of her/his diverse inclinations and learning interests. When
the reflections of student SD4 are reviewed by focusing on the enrollment moment
through actor-network lenses, it can be concluded that she became engaged in to
generate form variations through hand sketching by the alliance of the side view
photographs of the 3D physical models. As mentioned in the previous section, the
132
studio instructors organized an exercise on analyzing the main contours and lines on
the form of the iron on the photographs of the 3D physical models. Although the
main purpose of the exercise is to show the students how they can evaluate the
relationships between the surfaces and parts of a 3D form, two unintended
consequences also appeared. On the one hand, the need for mastery on sketching to
draw complex forms is mitigated by drawing on the silhouettes of the side view
photographs of the physical models. On the other hand, the connection between the
student and 3D physical modeling was shaped in an unintended way through the
assemblage of 3D physical models, digital cameras, the photographs of the models,
the student‘s inclin tions, etc Dep rting from this interpret tion, it c n e concluded
that rather than focusing on which actors are assembled in the studio studies it
should be focused on how the connections between the actors are established.
In line with these findings, it is possible to make two suggestions that can be used
strategically.
The students adopt new representational skills and attitudes in their own
ways because of their diverse learning interests and inclinations. Hence the
v riety of the exercises h s n import nt role in the students‘ eng gements in
them
Hands-on experiences that allow the students to see the results of their
actions have instant and significant effects on the engagement of the students
in the experienced way of acting or medium
6.4.4 Mobilization in the second year studio studies
The students, narrated their second year studio studies, expressed their opinions on
3D physical and digital modeling by touching upon four main themes; advantages,
conveniences and constraints of them and teaching of 3D physical and digital
modeling. These opinions are considered as the reflections of their knowledge, skills,
attitudes and experiences acquired from the all attended studio studies and courses
including the narrated ones until the interview dates. The summary of the regarding
opinions are demonstrated in Table 6.23 and Table 6.24.
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The potential of 3D physical models to prevent size related problems regarding the
forms emerged as one of the most agreed opinions of the students on 3D physical
modeling. All of the students commented on how they faced size related problems in
their previous studio studies if they ignored 3D physical modeling in the early phases
of their design processes. Hence in order to be sure about the size related properties
of a form they almost always preferred to model their forms physically in 3D, at
least very roughly.
Table 6.23 Opinions of students narrated their second year studio studies on 3D
physical modeling
In the second most agreed opinion, the students found it easier to evaluate 3D
physical properties of a form on its 3D physical model because of real 3D
information provided by it. Students SC3 and SE4 also valued the real time
information provided during the modeling process. They commented on how the
mentioned real time information inspired them for generating solutions, besides its
contribution to their 3D thinking abilities. At this point it might be helpful to
mention that it was the sculpting process of the models in the narratives of student
SC3 and SE4 that emerged as one of the significant factors provided their
engagement to 3D physical modeling.
Outdoor
furnitureNutcracker Iron Iron
SB3 SC3 SD4 SE4
Prevents size related problems on the form1 1 1 1
Provides information on 3D physical properties of the forms1 1 1 1
Provides real time information during the modeling0 1 0 1
Contributes to 3D thinking abilities 0 1 0 1
For the early phases of form development process1 1 1
For evaluating user product interaction 1 1 1
Modeling materials determine the forms1 1 1
Hard to model complex forms 1
Teaching The need for more extensive courses and exercises on PM 1 1 1
Eff
icacie
sB
ett
er
3D Physical Modeling
Constraints
134
Three out of the four students, SB3, SC3 and SD4 consider 3D physical modeling
more convenient for the early phases of form development processes because of its
potential to prevent essential inconsistencies regarding physical properties of a form.
For students SB3, SD4 and SE4, user product interaction should be evaluated
through 3D physical models of the products rather than their 2D or digital
representations.
From the reflections of the second year narrators, it is possible to conclude that they
internalized thinking through physical modeling and became representatives of it
especially for evaluating 3D physical properties of the forms and user product
interaction. Accordingly, they brought this way of design to their subsequent design
processes.
Except student SE4, all of the students are persuaded that only sketching and 3D
physical modeling was convenient for the relatively early stages of design processes.
Accordingly, they preferred to employ only these two physical representational
media in the early phases of their studio studies.
The mentioned constraints of 3D physical modeling mainly revolved around
competence related issues. SB3, SC3 and SD4 mentioned the determining effects of
the modeling materials on the generated form; lack of the experiences on different
modeling materials was identified by SC3 and SD4 as one of the factors increasing
the mentioned determining effects. The last constraint was mentioned by only SC3,
she found it hard to model complex forms through 3D physical modeling because of
her limited abilities in digital modeling.
Three out of the four interviewed students touched upon the need for extensive
courses and exercises on 3D physical modeling because all of them found
themselves incompetent in it, although they were in the third and fourth years of
their industrial design education.
The second year studio instructors aimed to equip the student with 3D physical
modeling skills and persuade them to design through 3D physical modeling because
they considered that only 3D physical models could provide certain information
135
reg rding 3D physic l properties of form nd contri ute to the students‘ 3D
thinking abilities.
The students‘ reflections show th t they intern lized designing through sketching
and 3D physical modeling and they brought it to their following design processes. In
other words, translation processes in the narrated second year studio studies are
succeed, the students became the representatives of designing through 3D physical
modeling and their certain attitudes are turned into more predictable forms.
However, the students‘ views lso indic te th t, lthough they re intern lized the
introduced way of design, their levels of competencies in 3D physical modeling
could not meet their needs in the ever-complicating design processes.
Table 6.24 Opinions of the students narrated their second year studio studies on 3D
digital modeling
All of the second year narrators mentioned the contributions of 3D digital modeling
to their 3D thinking abilities. As commented by them, while the exercises on
constructing 3D forms in the 3D coordinate systems of digital modeling software
Outdoor
furnitureNutcracker Iron Iron
SB3 SC3 SD4 SE4
Contributes to 3D thinking abilities 1 1 1 1
For comprehending overall form 1 1 1
Accelerates the design processes 1 1
For detailing 1 1 1 1
For materials and finishing 1 1 1
For the advanced phases of the process 1 1 1
For generating variations of forms 1 1
Hard to perceive user product interaction 1 1 1 1
Hard to perceive physical properties of a form 1 1
Hard to perceive the actual size of a form 1 1
Time consuming 1 1
Limits the students' creativity 1 1
Need for more extensive instructions and exercises on DM 1 1 1
Introduction of DM should be in the first year 1 1
3D Digital Modeling
Efficacies
Better
Constraints
Teaching
136
facilitated their perception of the third dimension, they also compensated their
incompetence in 3D thinking by employing 3D digital modeling, when they could
not imagine a detail in 3D. Three out of the four interviewees, SB3, SC3 and SE4,
commented on how 3D digital modeling software made it easier to comprehend
overall form. Although they preferred to evaluate the physical properties of the
developed form on its 3D physical model, to be able to see the forms of their
products from different directions by simply revolving it on the screen convinced
them for the evaluation of the overall form. However, all these three interviewed
students stated that they could not be sure about the consistency of the overall form
without seeing it physically in 3D. To be able to turn an idea into a finely detailed
3D form in a short time was emphasized by SB3 and SD4 as the most important
advantage of 3D digital modeling. Accordingly, they employed 3D digital modeling
in their design processes mainly on the basis of this accelerating potential.
For all of the interviewees, 3D digital modeling was the most convenient media for
detailing phases of design processes because of the scale-free environments of the
software that make it possible to focus on any detail. In addition to its contribution to
the detailing phases of design processes, scale-free environments of digital modeling
software were also referred to when three out of the four students, SB3, SC3 and
SE4, reflected their opinions on the potential of 3D digital modeling for
comprehending the overall form.
The convenience of 3D digital modeling for the visualization of the forms‘ materials
and surface finishing in a realistic way was emphasized by SB3, SC3 and SD4.
However, while student SB3 and SD4 valued this potential on the basis of the
preparation of the realistic 2D presentations, SC3 valued the mentioned realistic
visuals as the information resources that make possible to evaluate the consistency
between the form and the selected materials. At this point it might be helpful to
mention the teaching interests of the interviewed second year studio instructors
revolving around the internalization of designing by taking into account the
determining effects of the materials and their machining processes on the forms of
the products. It is possible to assume that she was mobilized and became a
representative for designing by taking into account the constraints of materials and
137
their machining processes. However, although the instructors channeled the students
to evaluate these effects through 3D physical models and prototypes, student SC3
internalized the proposed way of design in her own way and brought it to her
following studio projects by substituting prototypes with realistic 3D digital models.
Except student SB3, all of the students consider 3D digital modeling more
convenient for the advanced phases of design process. As mentioned above, they
preferred to conduct the early phases of their design processes through physical
representational media until the main decisions on the overall rough forms were
made. However, it should not be interpreted as an internalized way of acting. As
mentioned by them, they felt themselves incompetent in digital modeling and their
preferences should be considered as a strategy resulted from their awareness on their
state of competence in digital modeling that they aimed to improve.
SD4 and SE4 emphasized the convenience of 3D digital modeling to the generations
of variations of the forms. After the determinations of the main rough forms, they
mostly preferred to generate and to compare the variations of the forms in digital
modeling software.
The reflections of the students on the constraints of 3D digital modeling pointed out
the inadequacy of 3D digital models in providing information on user product
interaction as the most significant constraint resulted from its virtuality. The
interviewees also mentioned two more constraints resulted from the virtuality of 3D
digital modeling. While students SB3 and SC3 touched upon the difficulty of
perceiving and assessing physical properties of a form, student SC3 and SE4
emphasized how difficult to assess the actual size of a form in 3D digital modeling
software because of their scale-free environments.
While students SC3 and SE4 commented on how they spent long time to model their
forms in modeling software, its limiting effects on their creativity are mentioned by
SD4 and SE4. The students who mentioned these two constraints associated them
with their incompetence in 3D digital modeling. Hence, as explained by them,
student SC3 and SE4 preferred to employ 3D physical sketch models for the
intermediate stages of their studio projects because they could model their forms
138
physically faster than in digital modeling software. Student SD4 said that, in certain
studio projects, even though she generated extraordinary ideas, her forms turned into
the ordinary ones when she transformed them into digital format. Student SE4
identified her capability in 3D digital modeling as the most determining factor on the
forms of the products developed by her.
Except student SC3, all of the students pointed out the need for more extensive
instructions and exercises on 3D digital modeling in the program of the department.
In addition, SC3 and SE4 also emphasized that 3D digital modeling should be
introduced in the first year of industrial design education.
Table 6.25 Summary of mobilization moment in the narrated second year studio
studies
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6.5 Translation processes in the third year studio studies
Three out of the 12 interviewed students selected their third year studio projects as
the design processes through which they think they developed the most satisfying 3D
product forms up to the interview dates. As demonstrated in Table 6.27, the selected
projects are the coffee maker with serving accessories and the outdoor lighting for
Metu campus.
Table 6.26 The most satisfying form narratives from the third year studio
Two of the three students who selected their third year studio studies, SD3 and SE3,
identified the same project conducted in spring 2014, coffee maker with serving
accessories. While student SD3 selected her coffee maker because of its deliberate
small details which made it more aesthetic, for student SE3, the fluent lines on the
surfaces of the form made it the most satisfying product form. Although their
explanations for their selections differed, both of them emphasized that the forms of
the coffee makers were their first deliberately designed forms. In the narratives, one
of the underlying reasons that channeled them to design more consciously is
explained by both of the students as the coincidence of ID361 Sense of Form course
and the studio study in which they developed their coffee makers. The coinciding
course, ID361 Sense of Form, was conducted by a visiting professor form Pratt
Institute, Martin Skalski, who teaches transportation design, 3d design, color theory
and drawing.
Student ID Year Project Why
SD3 2014 Coffee Maker Because of the deliberate small details made it more aesthetic
SE3 2014 Coffee Maker Because of the fluent lines on the surfaces of the form
SF3 2013 Outdoor Lighting The form met both the aesthetic and functional expectations
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The last project among the third year studio studies was the outdoor lighting project
conducted in fall 2013. Student SF3 explained why she selected her outdoor lighting
as the most satisfying form on the basis of two reasons, according to her the form
met both the aesthetic and functional expectations identified in the project briefs and
she found the design process of the product pleasant.
6.5.1 Problematization moment in the third year studio
The documents on the randomly selected and the narrated third year studio studies
show that, at least 3 full time instructors, 2 assistants and a part-time instructor
participate in the studio studies for each semester. In certain studio studies conducted
in collaboration with a partner such as industrial associations, communities and civil
society organizations, the representatives of the partners also participate in the studio
studies.
In the field study, three instructor interviews are conducted for the third year studio.
The interviewee A3 is the full-time instructor, the interviewee B3 is the part-time
instructor and the interviewee C3 is one of the assistants in the studio. For the studio,
it can be assumed that the formulations of the studio projects, introductions and
directions for the stages of the studio project processes are determined on the basis
of the shared teaching interests of the instructors.
Instructor A3 is one of the full time senior instructors of third year studio. She also
coordinates two graduate courses in the department, ID561 Product Design for
Sustainability and ID 728 Generative Design Research for Sustainability. Her vision
of industrial design education revolves around a strategy of enabling the students to
construct, to manage and to complete design processes on the basis of sustainability
criteria and to provide them with life-long learning habits, multi-dimensional
thinking abilities and enriched representational skills.
Instructor B3 is a free-lance industrial designer graduated from METU Industrial
Design Department. He also coordinates ID211 Design Communication III since
2005. The course content covers the visualization of 3D objects through technical
drawings such as sectional views as well as perspective drawings. His teaching
141
concerns are mainly on enabling the students to conduct design processes by
focusing on multi-dimensional thinking abilities and the knowledge on materials and
production methods and equipping them with enriched representational skills by
introducing different modeling media on the basis of their constraints and
advantages.
One of the assistants of the studio, instructor C3 is also working on her Ph.D. in the
department in which she also earned undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.
According to her, industrial design education should guide the students on how they
can conduct design processes while equipping them with multi-dimensional thinking
abilities, life-long learning habits, enriched representational skills by introducing
different modeling tools and knowledge on materials and production methods.
The third year studio instructors reflected their opinions on industrial design
education by emphasizing three main themes, (1) the knowledge and skills which a
student should be equipped with through industrial design education, (2) the
educational opportunities which should be provided for students and (3) emerging
needs in industrial design education. The extracted nodes and constructs from the
opinions of the instructor interviewees on industrial design education are
demonstrated in Table 6.27.
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Table 6.27 Design education related nodes and themes for the third year studio
The analysis of the opinions of the interviewed third year studio instructors points to
three shared nodes;
To equip the students with the knowledge on materials and
production methods
To equip the students with the multidimensional thinking abilities
To enable the students to internalize designing by moving between
different 2D and 3D representations
These three nodes can be considered among the essential elements of the central
objective of the third year studio studies as they play a significant role in the
identification of the studio projects, the criteria which students are expected to meet
and the required representations for most of the third year studio studies as well as
for the narrated studio project. For the students to reach their target, earning an
industrial designer title, they are expected to align their learning interests with the
essenti l elements of the studio‘s centr l o jective nd comply with the criteri nd
required representations of third year studio projects in order to pass the next stage
of their industrial design education. The most significant criteria and required
143
representations for the narrated third year studio projects, the coffee maker with
serving accessories and outdoor lighting for Metu campus, are extracted from the
interviews and the documents and listed in Table 6.28.
Table 6.28 The criteria the students are expected to meet and the required
representations for the third year studio studies
In the set of criteria and required representational skills, sustainability and selection
of the materials and production methods criteria can be considered as the
reflection of the shared opinion on the necessity of the knowledge on materials and
production processes in industrial design education (Table 6.29). These criteria are
also directly related to the opinions on the need for the integration of
sustainability criteria into design processes. According to instructor A3, it is not
possible to integrate sustainability-centered approaches in industrial design
education without a knowledge and experience of materials and their processing in
different production scales.
144
Table 6.29 The reflections of the instructors‘ te ching interests on the set of criteri
and required presentations for the narrated third year studio studies
The opinions on the significance of multi-dimensional thinking abilities in
industrial design education are reflected in the set of criteria through scenario
building, user product interaction and personalization of the product. The
variety of the identified visual representations can be considered as the reflection of
the instructors‘ opinions on the signific nce of enabling the students to internalize
designing by moving between different 2D and 3D representations in the studio
study. Through Actor-Network Theory lenses, it is possible to conclude that these
various representations are also identified as mediating actors for the internalization
of multi-dimensional thinking abilities. By putting 3D physical and digital models in
the required representation set, various physical modeling tools and materials,
modeling workshop of the faculty, computers, digital modeling software commonly
used by the students, etc. are identified as the critical actors in the studio actor-
network.
Although the interactions between the actors are the main shaping force on the roles
and positions of 3D physical and digital modeling in the studio actor network, the
initial determination of their roles and positions are made by the instructors on the
basis of their own opinions and teaching interests. Hence, in order to understand
145
which dynamics are influential on the determination of these roles and positions,
firstly, the opinions of the instructors on 3D physical and digital modeling are
examined. The summaries of the opinions are demonstrated in Table 6.30 and Table
6.31.
Table 6.30 Opinions of the third year studio instructors on 3D physical modeling in
Industrial Design Education
During the interviews, the reflections of the instructors mainly revolved around the
advantages of 3D physical modeling and only two constraints are mentioned by
instructor A3 and C3. Instructor A3 considered 3D physical modeling as a time
consuming practice for the students if they are not competent on it and, according to
her, this is one of the most significant issues regarding the position and role of 3D
physical modeling in industrial design education. Instructor C3 mentioned that 3D
physical modeling may decrease the speed of the communication because it is labor
Full-time Part-time Assistant
A3 B3 C3
Accelerates the thinking process in design process1 1
Prevents the size related problems during the form development process1 1
Facilitates to determine certain primary problems on a form 1
Facilitates to perceive user product interaction1
Facilitates to perceive the proportional relationships between the parts of a form1
Facilitates to perceive the relationships between the form and the real world 1
For teaching solid geometry 1
For comparing the imagination of the student and her/his representational abilities1
Time consuming 1
Decreases the speed of the communication1
The internalization of thinking through physical modeling should be provided1 1
The students should be equipped with easy and quick sketch modeling abilities1
The students should be informed on the types of the 3D physical models and their functions1
The students should be motivated to represent their ideas on 3D physical models1
The third year studio instructors' opinions on 3D physical modeling
Constr
ain
tsC
onvenie
nt
In industr
ial desig
n
education
Eff
icacie
s
146
intensive and time-consuming practice. However, according to her compensation of
this constraint is possible by enriching representational skills with complementary
representational tools.
According to instructors A3 and B3, 3D physical modeling can accelerate thinking
process in the early phases of form creation because of the direct flow of the 3D
information from 3D physical model to designer, which cannot be provided by any
2D representation.
The second advantage of 3D physical modeling, according to the instructor A3 and
B3, results from its capacity to prevent certain dimension problems faced with
during the studio studies because, as mentioned by instructor B3, the students can
use their bodies as referents in determining the size of the forms. According to
instructor A3, besides scale problems, the students can hardly determine various
primary problems regarding the form such as badly intersecting surfaces, weak
joints, etc. on 2D representations. On the other hand,, in her opinion, the problems
regarding the physical properties of a form can be easily perceived on 3D physical
models. Instructor B3 mentioned that 3D physical models provide more information
on user product interaction and facilitates its perception during the design process.
To facilitate the better perception of proportional relationships between the parts of a
form and the relationship between a form and the real world are mentioned by
instructor C3 as the most significant advantages of 3d physical modeling.
Instructor B3 considered 3D physical modeling as a convenient medium for teaching
solid geometry because of direct flow of 3D information. Additionally, according to
him, it is possible to understand the relationship between the imaginative abilities
and representational abilities of the students by comparing their verbal
representations and the 3D physical models made by them.
Thinking through 3D physical modeling is mentioned by instructors A3 and C3 as
one of the abilities that should be internalized by the students. However, in order to
provide its internalization, as mentioned by instructor A3, the students should be
equipped with easy and quick 3D physical modeling abilities and be aware of the
types of the physical models and their functions. Another significant issue for the
147
internalization of thinking through 3D physical modeling is mentioned by instructor
C3, according to her the students should be motivated to represent their ideas on 3D
physical models.
As mentioned above, according to instructor A3, to produce 3D physical models
takes time and the students mostly tend to give up to make them under time pressure.
According to her, if 3D sketching can be integrated into the studio studies as an
indispensable part of design process from the first ye r, pro lems such s ― eing
time consuming pr ctice‖ would not e mentioned nd the students could use it more
efficiently as a thinking medium.
For this reason, we should have given this to the students starting from the
first year. A basic skill, what we call mock up, would not develop if you do
not make exercises. Of course it takes time, but if we could cover it from the
very start, they would gain speed and use it more effectively. How do they
use different material such as p per, c rd o rd nd corrug ted c rd o rd…
(A08)
148
Table 6.31 Opinions of the third year studio instructors on 3D digital modeling in
Industrial Design Education
According to instructor A3 and C3, digital modeling makes possible to prepare more
realistic representations because of its numerous facilitating features such as material
effects and lighting alternatives. Instructor B3 and C3 emphasized that digital
modeling accelerates design processes, reflection of this advantage also can be
observed in industrial design education, in recent years, as mentioned by instructor
B3, accelerated design processes make possible to conduct more studio projects in a
semester. According to instructor B3 and C3 3D digital modeling also improves 3D
thinking abilities of the students because the students are continuously exposed to
3D information during the digital modeling.
Full-time Part-time Assistant
A3 B3 C3
Provide more realistic representations
Accelerates the design process
Improve spatial skills
Enable to imagine extraordinary forms
Have accelerated the studio studies
Through digital modeling you also prepare production related details
Compensate the lack of manual modeling skills
Facilitates PM
PM skill development process can be improved with the contribution of DM
Hard to perceive the size of a 3D form
Not so practical as sketching
Cannot be a substitute for pm
Hard to perceive the relationships between the parts of the form
Crafty features or local production scale related specialties of a product may be lost in DM
May cause loss of control on the form
The less the students competent on DM the more it limits them
Digital 3D models are still 2D
Not so efficient to some extent for the complex forms
The existing DM software are not appropriate for industrial design
For the advanced phases of design process
For demonstrating the relationship between the form and the material
For generating and comparing the variations of the forms
For fine tuning
Introduction of DM should be provided in the early phases of ID education
Should be taught in a real context such as studio projects
The instructors should be competent on the potentials of DM in order to orient students
Competence on DM requires knowledge and experiences on physical aspects of design
Competence on DM requires spatial abilities
Introduction of DM should follow the development of PM skills
Different DM strategies of the students should be appreciated
In industr
ial desig
n
education
When
Third year studio instructors' opinions on 3D digital modeling
Constr
ain
tsE
ffic
acie
s
149
In the opinions of instructor C3 on the advantages of digital modeling, the main
emphasis is on its skill enhancing features. While through digital modeling it is
possible to compensate lack of manual skills, certain features of digital modeling
tools can also facilitate 3D physical modeling process. Accordingly, she thought that
3D digital modeling can be employed as a facilitator in the acquisition process of
physical modeling skills in industrial design education. Besides skill enhancing
features of 3D digital modeling, she also commented that highly realistic
representations require highly detailed digital models and this directs the students to
focus on production related details of the forms.
Although the interviewed third year studio instructors reflected their opinions on
various constraints of digital modeling, only one of them is mentioned by all of the
instructors; the difficulty to perceive the size of a form in digital environment
because of its scale-free nature. Instructor A3 explained the effects of this constraint
by referring the outputs of the certain student projects such as miniature or giant
products developed by digital modeling alone. According to instructor B3, contrary
to the physical models in the hand, in digital environments the visual size of a 3D
digital model continuously changes during the zoom-in and zoom-out operations.
Instructor C3 mentioned that although the proportional relationships between the
parts of a 3D form can be perceived on a screen, it could not provide any information
on its size by relating it to the real world.
Instructor B3 and C3 considered digital modeling unpractical compared to sketching.
Because of this impracticality digital modeling is considered inconvenient for the
early phases of design process in which flow of the ideas should not be interrupted.
According to instructor A3, digital modeling could not provide any information on
the physical aspects of design, hence it could not be considered as a substitute for
physical modeling. She also stated that it is very hard to perceive the relationships
between the parts of a form in digital environments. The last constraint mentioned by
her can be interpreted as the reflection of her concerns on the possible effects of
digital modeling tools on the integration of sustainability criteria into design process.
150
According to her, 3d digital tools mainly represent mass-production not the other
scales of production; hence, this might be the issue for 3d digital modeling media.
Two constraints of digital modeling are mentioned by instructor B3. For the first
constraint, he emphasized certain free form sculpting features of digital modeling
tools such as grab and pull which may cause the loss of control on the form. Despite
their closeness to the hand building sculpting techniques the loss of physical
interaction and scale-free nature of digital environments can be considered as the
underlying reasons for this constraint. As a second constraint, he mentioned the
relationship between insufficient competence in digital modeling and its limiting
effects. However, according to him, both of these constraints of digital modeling can
be dealt with by increasing digital modeling competencies of the students.
Instructor C3 emphasized the dimensional conflict in digital modeling. According to
her, although they are called 3D, digital models are still 2D because they can be
manipulated only on a 2D computer screen. Then, she stated that it is hard to model
complex forms, especially organic complex forms, in a precise way through existing
digital modeling tools. She also mentioned that the existing digital modeling tools
are not convenient for industrial design processes.
Instructor A3 and C3 mentioned that digital modeling should be employed in the
advanced phases of design process. According to them employing digital modeling
in the early phases of design processes in which most of the critical decisions are
made may turn the process into a form centered styling process. Instructor A3
explained her opinion by referring to certain aspects of basic design education as in
the following quote;
This one too has some dimensions related to the basic design, to its
aims. 2D, 3D modelling, mock-up making, model making, sketching
and making observation for instance. They develop design idea and
define the problem area by benefiting from all these things, from
these means and finally they start carrying it to third dimension. If
these students go straight to the modelling without going through this
process, we believe student would encounter some problem in
benefiting from these initial means. That is, solution proposals could
remain superficial or new products would not be much different from
151
the existing products. We see this as a barrier to re-evaluation of the
problems. Of course such a view is open to contestation (A09)
According to instructor A3, one of the advanced stages of design process in which
digital modeling can be employed is the stage when a designer need to demonstrate
the form with its material without producing its prototype. Instructor C3 identified
digital modeling as a convenient medium for generating the variations of a form
involving minor changes. She stated that, to model a form in digital environment and
to generate and compare its variations in a short time is more efficient than spending
time, labor and materials to generate 3D physical models of the variations.
Additionally, she also identified digital modeling as a convenient medium for the
fine-tuning operations in which the small details such as screw holes etc. are
modeled.
Although 3D digital modeling is determined by the instructors as one of the critical
actors in the narrated studio study, as seen on the set of required representations,
there is no identified role for it at the early phases of the design process. The
opinions of the instructors on the constraints and advantages of 3D digital modeling
and the stages at which 3D digital modeling tools should be employed can be
considered as the underlying reasons for this tendency.
In addition to the opinions of the instructors on 3D digital modeling tools, instructor
A3 explained another significant underlying reason for the mentioned tendency by
referring to a common misconception among the students. According to her, when
the students are allowed to use digital modeling tools they consider that they will not
need 3D physical modeling for the subsequent phases of design process.
Although the instructors preferred to confine the role of 3D digital modeling to the
advanced phases design processes in the studio studies, all of them shared the
opinion that digital modeling should be introduced in the early phases of industrial
design education. Instructor B3 and C3 considered that rather than teaching digital
modeling in separate courses, its teaching processes should be integrated into the
studio studies. Instructor A3 supported this opinion by stating that the students learn
to use digital modeling tools more easily when they employ it in a real context such
152
as studio projects. Instructor B3 and C3 suggested that for the integration of digital
modeling in industrial design education all instructors should be aware of the
potentials of 3D digital modeling tools in order to orient students.
According to instructor A3, competence on 3D digital modeling requires certain
knowledge and experiences on the physical aspects of design such as physical
properties of materials, their production (machining) methods etc. so that they can
reflect them on 3D digital models by selecting convenient commands. Instructor B3
mentioned that being competent on digital modeling requires matching spatial
abilities. According to him, although they should be introduced in the early phases of
the education, this should occur after the acquisition of physical modeling skills,
since the students develop their creative thinking abilities parallel to the development
process of physical modeling skills. Instructor C3 considered that digital modeling
should be positioned in industrial design education on the basis of its contribution to
3D thinking abilities.
As explained above, the required representations demonstrated in Table. 6.29 are
determined in the problematisation moment on the basis of the explained opinions of
the third year studio instructors on 3D physical and digital modeling and introduced
to the students through the studio briefs.
In view of the opinions and the teaching interests of the instructors, it is possible to
summarize the attributed roles and positions of the identified modeling media in the
third year studio studies in the following way;
Sketching (a critical actor especially for the early phases of the studio studies)
The expectation is to equip the students with sketching skills because of its
speed and practicality in the visualization of the ideas.
3D physical modeling (a critical actor throughout the studio studies)
The expectations are to equip the students with 3D physical modeling skills
because only 3D physical models can provide certain information regarding
3D physical properties of a form and to provide the students with the
153
possibility to acquire the knowledge on the basic materials and their
machining through hands-on experiences.
3D digital modeling (a critical actor for the advanced phases of the studio studies)
The expectation is to equip the students with 3D digital modeling skills
because 3D digital modeling provides more realistic representations for the
advanced phases of the design processes. However, the timing of its
employment should be negotiated in order to prevent its misleading effects
on the students‘ ttitudes.
6.5.2 Interessement moment in the third year studio studies
The interessement moments of the translation processes of the third year studio
studies begin with the introduction of the studio projects and the sets of criteria and
required representations. The connections between the critical human and non-
human actors of the studio projects are established in this moment. All these
connections are established mainly on the basis of the negotiations between the
students and the instructors. Hence, it is possible to suggest that the students
establish connections with 3D physical and digital modeling at this stage of a studio
study.
Accordingly, mentioned representational tools and their functions in the narrated
third year studio studies, demonstrated in Table 6.32, are analyzed as the clues of
these connections.
154
Table 6.32 Mentioned representational tools and their functions in the third year
narratives
All of the students who selected their third year studio studies, student SD3, SE3 and
SF3, mentioned sketching as an idea generation medium. As explained in the
problematisation moments of the third year studio studies, hand sketches are
identified as one of the critical actors and promoted especially for the early phases of
design processes. Nevertheless, as seen on the set of the criteria and required
representations (Table 6.28), the students are also expected to employ 3D sketch
models for the early phases of design process.
Coffe Maker Coffe Maker Outdoor Lighting
SD3 SE3 SF3
Hand sketches
Idea generation
To generate form variations
Idea generation
Form explorations
To generate rough form variations
Idea generation
To generate rough form variations
3D physical sketch models
To test physical interaction
Form analysis
Form explorations
To test physical properties
Form analysis
3D white mockups
To test physical interaction
Form analysis
3D digital models
To generate form variations
To contribute PM
To prepare final representations
For geometric accuracy of the
form
To generate form variations
To contribute PM
To prepare final representations
To contribute PM
To prepare final representations
Modeling tools
155
Figure 6.3 Student SD3‘s prelimin ry nd fin l jury models
Students SD3 and SF3 were persuaded to employ 3D physical sketch models along
with hand sketches by aligning their learning interests with the teaching interests of
the instructors through the negotiations and supporting devices such as studio project
briefs. However, each of them employed each representational tool for different
function in the early phases of the narrated studio studies. As explained by SD3,
while for the visual aspects such as curvy details she mainly employed sketching, for
the physical aspects such as user product interaction and the size of the product, she
mainly employed 3D paper sketch models because of the constraints of sketches
such as being scale-free and 2D. It can be considered that her engagement with these
tools was established on the basis of their complementary features for form
development. During the interview she mentioned several times how unroll method8
8 8 Unroll as a physical modeling method mediated by digital modeling tools was taught through
hands-on exercises in Computer in Design course in 2013-2014 fall semester by the author. The
method is explained in the following paragraphs .
156
for paper sketch models had changed her approach to 3D physical modeling. She
told that in her previous studio studies she knew only carving Styrofoam9 as a
method to model organic forms. Hence, in order to avoid involving this material she
mostly did not make models at the expense of the feedbacks of the instructors since
the students were not allowed to participate the studio critiques in these studies
without 3D physical models of their design ideas.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, although SD3 employed 3D physical sketch
models for testing physical interaction between the user and the product, the 3D
physical sketch models were employed by SF3 for form analysis such evaluating and
comparing the variations of certain physical properties of the form such as the slopes
of certain surfaces and their intersections. It is possible to assume that, contrary to
the coffee maker, because of the limited physical interaction between the user and
the outdoor lighting element, to test physical interaction on 3D physical sketch
model was not mentioned by the interviewee.
Figure 6.4 Student SF3‘s outdoor lighting project
9 Although Styrofoam is r nd, it is used commonly inste d of term ‗extruded polystyrene fo m‘
mong the students Therefore, in the dissert tion, it is preferred to use ‗styrofo m‘ inste d of
‗extruded polystyrene fo m‘ s in the interviews
157
However, as told by her, student SE3 developed form of her coffee maker only
through sketching until the preliminary jury time. By using actor network theory
insights it is possible to identify two underlying factors behind her preferences.
Firstly, she declared that sketching was her favorite representational tool for design
processes since the first year of her industrial design education because of her
personal interests. During the interview, she referred to Design Communication I-
II-III and Design Presentation I-II several times as the most effective courses on
the development of her spatial and representational skills. Her reflections on these
courses can be considered as the traces of the strong connection between her and
sketching since the content of all of the mentioned courses are on 2D
represent tion l skills nd she enrolled in ll of the modules of the courses, ―I have
taken this starting from the first year and I continue taking it. It is now for three
years. It is elective at the moment but I have taken it as an elective course for two
semesters. This is the fifth time I am taking it‖ (A10)
On the other hand, it can be assumed that she could not be persuaded to adopt to
generate forms through 3D sketch modeling in the early phases of design process
because, from her point of view, while sketching provided her with the possibility to
draw rough form variations side by side and to evaluate them, 3D physical modeling
required spending time, material and manual labor. Consequently, sketching
appeared as a competing actor against 3D sketch modeling for idea generation and
she became engaged in the most promising media.
The three of the students referred to the 3D physical sketch models for testing the
physical interaction and form analysis. However they made them at different stages
of the studio project. Student SD3 accepted the teaching interests of the instructors
and was persuaded to test user product interaction and to analyze the form on the
basis of its aesthetical aspects from the early phases of form development process.
By accepting to focus on user-product interaction she also accepted to employ
convenient representational media that can provide the information on physical
aspects of a form.
158
Besides user product interaction criteria, student SD3 also accepted the significance
of sustainability criteria and decided to develop a customizable product, a coffee cup
with a felt envelope that wrapped around the cup and closed with a special tie.
Nevertheless, as mentioned by her, it was not possible to represent this customizable
part through sketching or digital modeling because of her intermediate level skills.
One more time, 3D physical modeling emerged as one of the critical actors for her
studio study. From the Actor Network Theory perspective, it can be assumed that the
ssem l ge of mentioned criteri , the existing convenient tools nd the student‘s
learning interests enabled her to establish a connection between the student and 3D
physical modeling, however still fragile at this stage of the studio study.
Contrary to student SD3, it was the full-scale 3D physical preliminary jury model of
student SE3‘s coffee m ker th t convinced her out the enefits of 3D physic l
models. From Actor Network Theory perspective, selecting the 3D white mockups
as the must representations for preliminary jury can be considered as an
interessement strategy to force the students who did not accept to employ 3D
physical models until that stage because of the existing competing actors such as
sketching and 3D digital modeling.
In all of the third year studio narratives, the students mentioned 3D digital modeling
mainly when they referred to the advanced phases of their design processes and the
four functions of 3D digital modeling emerged as significant; to prepare realistic
final presentations, to facilitate 3D physical model making, to generate variations of
the forms, and to facilitate to control the geometric accuracy.
All of the students employed 3D digital modeling for the preparation of final
presentations since the instructors identified orthographic and exploded drawings
and realistic visuals of the products as must for the final presentations.
For the second significant function, 3D digital modeling was employed by all of the
third year interviewees to facilitate physical model making process before
preliminary jury. As told by them, in order to make more precise preliminary jury
models, all of the students modeled their forms in digital modeling software and then
159
they used these models to produce the templates of their full-scale 3D physical
models.
At that point, to explain the unroll and layer by layer methods will be helpful
because they are referred by several student interviewees during the interview
processes. The author attended to ID311 Computer in Design course in the fall terms
in 2013 and 2014 to conduct two exercises on converting a digital 3D form into a
physic l model y using ordin ry m teri ls (p per nd c rd o rd) nd dep rtment‘s
equipment (inkjet printers and the laser cutter).
ID311 was a must course given in the sixth semester, hence, most of the students
attending the course were in their third year and they developed outdoor lighting
elements for an industrial partner in their studio projects.
In the unroll exercise, the students:
Modeled their current studio projects through digital modeling software by
ignoring certain details such as fillets between the intersecting surfaces etc.
Converted their digital models into mesh models composed by polygonal
surfaces
Unfolded their models as a flat pattern by preserving connections between
the intersecting surfaces as much as possible
Printed generated patterns through the printers in the computer lab
Made the scaled paper 3D physical models of their outdoor lighting elements
by cutting and folding the printed patterns
Except digital modeling process, the exercise took approximately three hours. At the
end of the exercise the students submitted their models and production drawings in
digital format and 3D physical models.
160
Figure 6.5 3D Digital model of a cube and drawing of its unfolded format
In the layer by layer exercise, the students:
Modeled any one of existing coffee cup and saucer sets without any detail
limitation in 1:1 scale
Divided their models into layers according to the thickness of the corrugated
cardboard to be used
Generated contours of these layers as curves and laid down them on the sheet
templates to be cut through laser cutter
161
Made the real scale cardboard 3D physical models of their cup and saucer
sets by cutting the layers through laser cutter and stacking up these layers
according to their sequence
Except digital modeling process, the layer by layer exercise took approximately two
hours and the laser cutting process for each student took 15 minutes. However,
because of the total laser cutting time of the models, the students submitted their
physical models in the following course although they submitted their models and
templates in digital format at the end of the exercise.
Figure 6.6 3D Digital model of a coffee cup and drawing of its layers
162
Although this type of model building exercises were conducted in the previous years
in various courses, it was the first exercise conducted in such a way that employ
CAM systems (laser cutter) and newly developed features of the modeling software,
which facilitate this type of process.
In the first usage of 3D digital modeling in the narrated third year studio studies as a
complementary medium for physical modeling, The students modeled their forms in
one of the most common digital modeling software and then turned them into their
forms‘ physic l models for the prelimin ry jury of the project y employing unroll
method (Figure 6.7).
Figure 6.7 Preliminary jury model of student SE3
In the following usage of 3D digital modeling as a mediator for physical modeling
student SD3 and SE3 applied layer by layer method (Figure. 6.8) for the final jury
models.
163
Figure 6.8 Final jury model of student SE3
Contrary to the narrated second year studio studies, in the narratives of student SD3
and SE3, it emerged that although the third year studio instructors did not identify
3D digital modeling as an actor for the intermediate stages of the design process.
they encouraged the students to employ 3D digital modeling as allying actor in the
advanced phases of form development if the students made progress in their design
processes and made the essential decisions on their forms.
Consequently, through negotiations between the instructors and the students on the
third function of 3D digital modeling in the narrated third year studio studies, SD3
and SE3 were persuaded to generate variations of their determined main forms
through digital modeling and made decisions by compering all the alternatives on a
single screen view. However, besides the negotiations, it is possible to assume that
3D digital modeling itself also convinced the students by providing the possibility to
generate form variations in a short time without spending any material and any
manual labor.
The coffee maker project of student SD3 and SE3 was conducted in the following
semester of the lighting project narrated by SF3. Although SD3 and SE3 did not
164
receive any comment from the studio instructors on the timing of employment of 3D
digital modeling, the instructors found too early to employ digital modeling at an
intermediate stage in which student SF3 was used it to solve the joint details of her
outdoor lighting element. Departing from the opinions of the instructors on digital
modeling, it is possible to interpret this strategy in tree ways. In the first
interpretation, it can be considered that the instructors negotiated with the student to
delay 3D digital modeling until enough progress in her form development process
was made. In the second interpretation, the instructors intended to delay the
employment of digital modeling tools until she became more familiar with 3D digital
modeling because the semester of outdoor lighting project was the semester in which
the students are introduced with first must course on 3D digital modeling in the
program. In the third and last interpretation, the potentials of 3D digital modeling as
physical model making facilitator may not be so obvious at the time when the
narrated design process was conducted and accordingly the instructors attempted to
interrupt the link between the students and 3D digital modeling for such an
intermediate stage because of their concerns on the potential negative effects of 3D
digital modeling on the physical modeling related skill development processes of the
students.
The fourth function of 3D digital modeling was mentioned only by student SE3. She
utilized digital modeling also to ensure the geometric accuracy of the form of the
coffee maker. However, although student SD3 did not employ 3D digital modeling
on the basis of this function she referred to its potentials regarding the mentioned
function when she criticized her own tendency to postpone employing 3D digital
modeling till the end of the design process.
The second and fourth significant functions of 3D digital modeling were not
foreseen and not identified by the instructors in the formulation of the studio studies,
nevertheless the instructors did not reject 3D digital modeling when it demanded
more critic l position in the studio studies except student SF3‘ c se
For the studio study narrated by student SD3 and SE3, it is possible to assume that,
as a consequence of the reflexive nature of the studio studies, the teaching interests
165
of the instructors and the possibilities on industrial design education provided by 3D
digital modeling overlapped and new connections between the instructors and 3D
digital modeling have been established on the basis of the certain criteria such as the
levels of the progress acquired by the students, types of the products, etc.
When the interessement moment of the narrated third year studio study is reviewed it
is possible to conclude that the students who narrated their third year studio studies
were persuaded to design through 3D physical and digital modeling in their projects
by focusing on certain sustainability criteria. Then they established connections with
the critical actors of the studio studies regarding 3D physical and digital modeling,
however certain differences emerged between some of the identified and actualized
connections. Through Actor-Network Theory lenses, it is possible to summarize
these connections on the basis of the main underlying reasons in the following way.
The students established connections with sketching because it was the most
promoted, familiar and easy-reach actor for representing ideas in a fast way.
The students established connections with 3D physical modeling because of two
emphasized reasons.
Firstly, it was the most promising actor as an ally for the identified
sustainability criteria such as user product interaction, customizable features
and biomimicry.
Secondly, 3D white mock-ups were identified as must for the preliminary
jury.
The students established connections with 3D digital modeling tools for five main
reasons.
Firstly, realistic renders of 3D digital models were identified as a must for
final jury.
Secondly, it was the most promising actor as an ally for the production of the
required 3D physical models.
166
Thirdly, it was the most promoted and promising actor for generating form
variations on the minor changes and for comparing finishing alternatives.
Fourthly, it was the most promising actor as a mediator for the geometric
accuracy of the forms of the coffee makers.
It should be reminded that the second and last reasons were not foreseen and 3D
digital modeling was not promoted by the studio instructors on the basis of the
functions mentioned in these reasons. Nevertheless, the employment of 3D digital
modeling for these unexpected functions was welcomed by instructors in the
narrated third year studio studies.
6.5.3 Enrolment moment in the third year studio studies
During the field study two different third year studio projects were narrated, coffee
maker and outdoor lighting, nevertheless, as demonstrated in Table 6.33, all of the
students narrated these projects emphasized similar aspects of their design processes;
developing form by moving between 2D and 3D representations and form analysis.
The similarities in the emphasized aspects of the narrated third year studio projects
can be considered as clues to the substantially stabilized objectives that give weight
certain types of knowledge, skills and attitudes in the third year industrial design
studio in METU.
Table 6.33 Emphasized aspects of the form development processes in the third year
studio studies
Coffee maker Coffee makerOutdoor
Lighting
SD3 SE3 SF3
Developing form by moving between 2D and 3D representations
Form analysis
Significance of small details
Incremental form development
Progress in the development of her form creation related skills
Emphasis
167
As explained in the problematization and interessement moments of the narrated
third year studio studies, the instructors provided the students with hands-on
experiences on targeted 2D and 3D representational media on the basis of certain
strategies.
During the interviews, each third year student interviewee commented on how
different representations provided different information and how that information
contributed to his/her progress. To be able to observe immediate results of the
mentioned hands-on experiences strengthened the connections between the students
and the experienced 2D and 3D representational media. Then, all of them became
engaged in designing by moving between 2D and 3D representations.
Another emphasized aspect of all of the narrated third year studio studies was the
significance of form analysis. All of the students commented on the efficiency of the
form analysis through 3D physical models and how these analyses led them in their
design processes.
When student SD3 commented on how her eyes caught an inconsistency on the form
of the coffeemaker during the form analysis process, she touched upon the presence
of 3D physic l models of her form‘s v ri tions on her desk in the studio environment
throughout the studio study. Accordingly, it is possible to assume that to keep 3D
physical models of variations of the form ideas in sight in the studio environment
can be considered as a significant factor that incre se the students‘ involvement with
their forms and influence the depth of their form analyses.
The significance of the small details in overall form aesthetics was emphasized in
both of coffee maker project narratives. Student SD3 and SE3 were impressed when
they realized how the changes in small details made big difference to the form.
Accordingly they considered the forms of their coffee makers as their most
deliberately designed forms because, as expressed by them, in their previous studio
projects it was the general shape of a form they focused on rather than its details.
Incremental form development was emphasized by student SD3 and SE3 because, as
mentioned by them, they could observe how their form became better step-by-step
168
through interventions on the small details. It is possible to conclude that the
underlying reason that channeled the students to engage in incremental form
development was ID 361 Sense of Form course because both of the students referred
the mentioned course when they explained why they developed their form in the
narrated ways.
During the interviews, SD3 and SE3 referred to their past design processes in order
to emphasize the transformation in attitudes. They commented on how they tended to
leave aside the progressed forms and started to develop brand new ones when they
discovered a problem with the form of their products or received a critique regarding
it rather than attempting to solve the identified problems.
As demonstrated on Table 6.34, student SF3 did not touch upon this way of design,
nevertheless, it can be assumed that by accepting significance of the small details
and internalizing iterative form analysis, she tacitly adopted incremental form
development.
In the third year studio narratives, it emerged that all of the interviewed students
made the best or most critical decisions regarding their forms mainly on the basis of
the information provided by the 3D physical models of their forms.
Table 6.34 The modeling tools on which the most critical evaluations and judgments
were made in the narrated third year studio studies
Coffe Maker Coffe Maker Outdoor Lighting
SD3 SE3 SF3
Hand sketches
3D physical sketch models
In which way the
proportional relationships
between the components
of the coffee cup should
In which ways the angles
of certain surfaces should
be changed
3D white mockupsWhich lines on the form
should be more fluent
3D digital models
Modeling tools
169
Student SD3 employed 3D physical modeling and hand sketching together
throughout the design process of the coffee maker. She stated that almost all of the
important evaluations and judgments regarding the forms of her coffee maker and its
accessories were made on the 3D physical paper sketch models of them. SD3
commented that to decide to change the proportional relationship between the top
and the bottom parts of the coffee cup was her best decision in her process. In the
first form of her coffee cup, the mouth of the cup was wider than the bottom part
covered with a felt envelope. At a certain moment when she examined the 3D
physical model of the coffee cup visually, she realized that the mouth dominated the
bottom part and its felt envelope. She then decided to widen the bottom part and to
narrow the mouth. According to her, it might be very hard to realize the mentioned
proportional problem on the form of the coffee cup without seeing it in 3D in the
physical world. She was impressed by the consequences of the evaluations and
judgments on 3D physical models. Being able to observe how her form was
improved and how she progressed on the basis of these evaluations strengthened her
connection with 3D physical modeling and she became engaged in designing
through 3D physical modeling.
Student SE3 made the best decision regarding her form of coffee maker at a
relatively late stage of the design process. As explained by her, she insisted on to
develop her form through sketching until the advanced phases of the design process
and she made the first 3D physical model of her coffee maker for the preliminary
jury She converted her coffee m ker‘s digit l model into its unfolded templ te nd
cut it through the F culty‘s l ser cutter When she m de the mentioned model she
realized that certain lines on the form were not as fluent as she thought, then she
changed them.
However, although student SE3 experienced how a 3D physical model made
possible the most critical evaluations and judgments by providing 3D information,
she preferred to continue to her design process mainly by relying on hand sketching
and 3D digital modeling. She became engaged in designing by moving between 2D
and 3D representations, but still her connection with 3D physical modeling stayed in
fragile state among the 3D modeling media.
170
In the outdoor lighting project of student SF3, the instructors demanded an instant
3D sketch model of the form during a studio critique. She made the most critical
evaluation and judgment on this model. When she made the model by folding
cardboard she realized that if she changed the angles of certain surfaces, the lighting
element would be visually more pleasant and would illuminate in a better way.
According to her, if the instructors did not demand mentioned sketch model, to
realize such a problem through only 3D digital modeling would not be that easy. The
demand of the instructors led her to experience how 3D physical models provided
3D information regarding the form. Then she became engaged in designing by
moving between different 2D and 3D representations but giving more weight to 3D
physical modeling among the 3D representational media.
Table 6.35 Summary of enrollment moment in the third year studio studies
6.5.4 Mobilization moment in the third year studio studies
During the interviews, all of the third year interviewees were at the end of their third
years. Accordingly, it was not possible to examine if the interviewees would be the
representatives of the third year studio objectives and bring their newly adopted
ways of acting to the su sequent studio studies Hence, the interviewees‘ reflections
on 3D physical and digital modeling are analyzed and interpreted as the clues of
their stabilized design behaviors acquired in the third year studio studies, in other
words their mobilizations.
171
Like the second year narrators, the students narrated their third year studio studies
reflected their opinions on 3D physical modeling on the basis of four main themes;
advantages, conveniences and constraints of 3D physical modeling and its teaching.
The summary of the opinions are summarized in Table 6.36.
Table 6.36 Opinions of students narrated their third year studio studies on 3D
physical modeling
The two of the mentioned advantages are emphasized by both student SD3 and SF3.
They considered that only 3D physical models could provide sufficient information
on the actual size of the form of a product. Hence, to evaluate size related properties
of their forms, they relied only on 3D physical models. They also emphasized the
flow of real-time information during the modeling process and commented on how
3D physical models enable them to feel the form through all their senses during
model making that made possible to evaluate their design ideas just as they
visualized them. Accordingly, they considered this as one of the significant
advantages of 3D physical modeling that increase their progress in form
development.
Coffe
Maker
Coffe
Maker
Outdoor
Lighting
SD3 SE3 SF3
Prevents size related problems on the form 1 1
Provides real-time information during the modeling 1 1
Facilitates to perceive 3D physical properties 1 1
Contributes to 3D thinking abilities 1 1
For evaluating physical user product interaction 1 1
For evaluating product environment relationships 1
For the early phases of design processes 1
Modeling materials determine the forms 1 1 1
Incompetence in PM affects the students' progress negatively 1 1
Need for the exercises on quick 3D physical sketch modeling 1 1 1
Need for modeling experience with different materials 1 1
PM related skills should be acquired in the first year 1
3D physical modeling
Constraints
Teaching
Eff
icacie
sB
ett
er
172
Student SE3 and SF3 emphasized the advantage of 3D physical models that make
easy to perceive 3D physical properties of a form during the development process.
Although student SE3 mainly employed hand sketching till the advanced phases of
her design processes, she acknowledged the limited capacity of 2D representations to
provide information on 3D physical properties of a form. For student SF3, without
3D physical models it was hard to perceive proportional relationships between the
depth, width and height of a form. For student SE3 and SF3, by helping to perceive
3D physical properties of a form 3D physical modeling also contributed to their 3D
thinking abilities.
While both student SD3 and SE3 considered that only real scale 3D physical models
were convenient for evaluating physical user product interaction, SE3 found them
convenient for evaluating product environment relationships. Although student SD3
and SE3 did not imply any specific phase of design process for the employment of
3D physical modeling, student SF3 found 3D physical modeling more convenient for
the early phases of design processes in which she determined the rough proportional
relationships between the components of the forms.
In the interviews conducted with third year narrators, the students touched upon only
two constraints of 3D physical modeling. Three of the interviewees said that, in the
early phases of design process, the materials from which 3D physical sketch models
are made determine the main characteristics of the forms. They explained the
mentioned effect by commenting on how difficult to model imagined organic forms
from paper or cardboard and accordingly how they had to give up to apply certain
details on these types of forms. Student SD3 and SF3 emphasized how being
incompetent in 3D physical modeling affected the students‘ progress neg tively in
the studio studies. As mentioned by them, besides not being able to communicate
their ideas properly, they may also lose their motivations because of disappointing
models resulted from their insufficient competence in 3D physical modeling.
The interviewees associated mentioned constraints of 3D physical modeling with the
certain instructional needs in their industrial design education. All of the students
emphasized the need for more exercises on quick 3D physical sketch modeling.
173
According to them the more they were provided with these types of exercises the
more they may become familiar with 3D physical sketch modeling and make
progress in their studio projects. Departing from their past studio experiences,
student SD3 and SF3 emphasized the necessity for more exercises with different
modeling materials as well as different modeling techniques. Student SD3
commented that she had to use only Styrofoam in her second year studio studies
because it was the only modeling material which she learned to shape. According to
her, if she had known how to use other modeling materials she would have made
more progress in the second year studio projects. Hence, she considered that the
students should become competent on 3d physical modeling and familiar with
different techniques and materials at the end of the first year. Student SF3 said that
she preferred to employ only familiar modeling materials in most studio projects
even though they were not convenient for shaping or they had limiting effects on her
creativity, because of her limited experiences with different physical modeling
techniques and materials.
When the interviewees commented on the mentioned needs, all of them referred to
‗unroll‘ nd ‗l yer y l yer‘ methods s the only relatively practical modeling
techniques that they had experienced.
174
Table 6.37 Opinions of students narrated their third year studio studies on 3D digital
modeling
All of the interviewees agreed on three significant advantages of 3D digital
modeling. The potential of 3D digital modeling media to facilitate to perceive overall
form is one of these shared advantages. For student SD3, to evaluate aesthetical
aspects of a form entails to perceive the overall form. Hence she preferred to
evaluate aesthetical aspects of her product forms in digital environments because of
their zoom and orbit view facilities. To be able to see all side views on a single
screen view by means of digital modeling software is considered by student SE3
among the significant potentials of digital modeling. As explained by her, this
potential makes it easier to perceive overall form during form development. She
preferred sketching in the early phases of form creation process, however in order to
evaluate proportional relationships between the elements of the forms she
transformed her forms into digital format because she could evaluate these
Coffe
Maker
Coffe
Maker
Outdoor
Lighting
SD3 SE3 SF3
Facilitates to perceive overall form 1 1 1
Contributes 3D thinking abilities 1 1 1
Risk free 1 1 1
Easier and faster than PM 1 1
More controllable form development 1 1
Facilitates to perceive product environment relationships 1
Facilitates 3D physical modeling 1
Increases the interaction between the designer and the form 1
For the advanced phases of design processes 1 1 1
For generating variations of forms 1 1
For detailing 1 1
For materials and finishing 1
Limits the students' creativity 1 1 1
Could be disturbing because of its virtual and scale-free environments 1 1 1
Hard to perceive the actual size of a form 1 1
Could not provide information on user product interaction 1
Could not provide information on product environment relationship 1
Need for more extensive instructons and exercises on DM 1 1 1
should be given parallel to the studio studies 1
3D digital modeling
Bett
er
Constr
ain
ts
Teaching
Eff
icacie
s
175
relationships only by perceiving overall form, in other words when she could see all
side views on a single screen. The views of SD3 and SE3 suggest that they found 3D
digital modeling superior to 3D physical modeling in overall form perception to a
certain extent because of promises of digital modeling media. Student SF3
commented on the potential of 3D digital modeling to facilitate to perceive overall
form y emph sizing the simil rity etween digit l modeling softw re‘s or it view
and turning over objects by hand in physical world.
Similar to the first and second ye r n rr tors‘ opinions, the third ye r n rr tors
emphasized the potential of 3D digital modeling in contributing their 3D thinking
abilities. All of the three interviewees employed 3D digital modeling when they
could not imagine their forms thoroughly in 2D hand sketches. They used rough
digital models of their imagined forms as references for their sketching and 3D
physical modeling practices.
The interviewees appreciated the risk free working environments of 3D digital
modeling. Student SD3 said that she never felt she made a mistake when she worked
with digital modeling media because of undo command. She found creativity
boosting to develop forms in a risk free environment. To be able to intervene to the
components of the forms, to be able to generate variations without risking the main
form is considered by student SE3 as one of the most significant advantages of 3D
digital modeling. Student SF3 explained her opinion on the mentioned advantage by
comparing the results of the mistakes made on both digital and physical models.
Hence, during the design processes, she preferred to generate variations of the forms
through digital modeling.
Student SD3 and SE3 found 3D digital modeling easier and faster than 3D physical
modeling. Student SD3 said that digital modeling media simplified her design
processes by providing the opportunity to see any imagined form in third dimension
in a short time contrary to 3D physical modeling. For student SE3, to work on any
details and to produce their alternatives through 3D digital modeling was easier and
faster than 3D physical modeling.
176
Student SE3 and SF3 considered that digital modeling provides more controllable
form development because of its coordinate system based working principles.
Accordingly, in certain cases, student SE3 employed 3D digital modeling in order to
ensure geometric accuracy of her forms. For student SF3, through 3D digital
modeling you can change every detail in a way what you exactly intend, however in
physical modeling, there were more possibility for unintended hand movements that
may change the details.
In addition to some of the advantages of 3D digital modeling identified commonly
by the interviewees, three further advantages are pointed by different interviewees.
Student SD3 considered that 3D digital modeling facilitates to perceive product
environment relationship by providing the opportunity to generate real like
environments virtually. For student SE3, 3D digital modeling facilitates 3D physical
modeling by providing templates of the forms and 3D information on them. Student
SF3 commented that 3D digital modeling increases designer product interaction
although 3D digital models are virtual.
All of the interviewees considered 3D digital modeling convenient for the advanced
phases of design process although all of them somehow used 3D digital modeling in
the relatively early phases of their studio projects in order to see rough main forms of
their design ideas in a short time. Accordingly, they stated that they preferred to
transform their form into digital format after all form related main decisions are
made.
Convenience of 3D digital modeling for generating variations of forms was
mentioned by student SD3 and SE3. While student SD3 preferred 3D digital
modeling on the basis of its potential to visualize how intended changes affected her
forms in a short time, to be able to determine exactly the intended changes on the
basis of coordinate system such as to change radius of a curve by giving the exact
value rather than by rule of thumb.
Student SD3 and SF3 found 3D digital modeling superior over physical modeling in
detailing of their design ideas. Scale free environment and virtuality of 3D digital
modeling software are mentioned by them as the most significant facilities that made
177
it convenient for detailing in their studio studies. In addition to these three
conveniences, student SD3 pointed to 3D digit l modeling‘s convenience to
visualize and evaluate materials and finishing alternatives of the forms. She said that
she could reflect how materials and finishing affect the forms only through digital
modeling. Hence she preferred realistic digital models for evaluating aesthetical
aspects of a form related to the materials and finishing.
All of the interviewees mentioned the limiting effects of 3D digital modeling on their
creativity. Student SD3 and SE3 commented that it was their incompetence in digital
modeling that made them unable to develop the imagined forms. Student SF3 got
confused when she had to consider which command should be used while thinking
on the solutions. Besides limiting effects of 3D digital modeling, virtual and scale
free environments of 3D digital modeling software are also identified as disturbing
by all of the third year interviewees although the mentioned features make possible
certain mentioned advantages and conveniences of 3D digital modeling such as
being convenient for detailing and facilitating to comprehend overall form. As
mentioned by student SD3 and SE3, another constraint resulted from the virtual and
scale-free environments of digital modeling media is the difficulty of assessing
ctu l size of form through digit l modeling medi 3D digit l models‘ virtu lity is
also mentioned as one of the constraints that made it hard to evaluate user product
interaction (SD3) and product environment relationship (SE3).
When they expressed their opinions on the constraints of 3D digital modeling, all of
the third year narrators commented on the need for more extensive instructions and
exercises on DM in the program. In addition to this mentioned need, student SE3
considered that to give these instructions and exercises on 3D digital modeling
parallel to the studio studies might be more beneficial.
When the students were asked which modeling method they prefer in their design
processes, rather than identifying a specific one they commented that they selected
the most convenient methods according to the phases of design process and their
form.
178
Table 6.38 Summary of mobilization moment in the third year studio studies
As indicated by the third year narrators, they internalized to develop forms by
moving between 3D physical and digital modeling media and brought this way of
design to the subsequent studio studies. However, they could apply this way to their
projects to a certain extent because of their limited knowledge and experiences in
different 3D physical and digital modeling techniques and materials.
6.6 Translation processes in the fourth year studio studies
In the field study, four of twelve students selected their fourth year studio studies as
the design processes in which they thought they developed the most satisfying 3D
forms until the day of the interview. The referred studio projects, the year of the
studio studies and the mentioned reasons for the selections are demonstrated in Table
6.39.
Studio
Studies
Studio
Studies
3rd 3rd
Contributes to 3D thinking abilities 2 Contributes 3D thinking abilities 3
Provides real time information during the modeling 2 Facilitates to perceive overall form 3
Prevents size related problems on the forms 2 Risk free 3
Easier and faster than Physical Modeling 2
More controllable form development 2
Facilitates 3D physical modeling 1
For evaluating physical user product interaction 2 For the advanced phases of the process 3
For the early phases of form development process 1 For generating variations of forms 2
For evaluating product environment relationships 1 For detailing 2
For materials and finishing 1
Modeling materials determine the forms 3 Limits the students' creativity 3
Incompetence in PM affects the students' progress negatively 2 Virtual and 2D 3
Hard to perceive the actual size of a form 2
Hard to perceive user product interaction 1
Hard to perceive product environment relationships 1
Teaching Need for more extensive instructions and exercises on 3D PM 3 Need for more extensive instructions and exercises on DM 3
The Students' Views On 3D Digital Modeling As
Clues Of Its Internalization
The Students' Views On 3D Physical Modeling As Clues Of Its
Internalization
Mobilization
Translation Of The Internalized Skills And Abilities To The Other Design Processes
Ad
va
nta
ge
sC
on
ve
nie
nce
Co
nstr
ain
ts
179
Table 6.39 The most satisfying form narratives from the fourth year studio
As seen in the following explanations, since university-industry collaboration10
intensive educational approach has been adopted for the fourth year of industrial
design education in METU, all of the referred projects are conducted in collaboration
with the industrial partner firms.
Student SA4 selected his hand held massager as the most satisfying form developed
for bathroom usage. According to him there were two factors which made the form
of his massager satisfying. The first was the proportional relationships between the
parts of the form. He found the form coherent with its function and this coherence
was identified by him as the second factor which made the form of his massager
satisfying.
Student SB4 selected his playground equipment as the most satisfying form. The
selected studio study was conducted with an industrial partner that produces
playground equipment mainly through rotational molding. To be able to develop the
selected form freely was identified by him as the most significant factor which
makes it so satisfying. In his point of view, the limitations of identified production
10 The detailed information can be found in the web site of the department.
http://www.id.metu.edu.tr/en/department/undergraduate-program/undergraduate-program-information
Student ID Studio Year Project Why
The form fitted the function
Because of the proportional relationships between the parts of
the form
SB4 2014Playground
equipmentIt was my most freely developed form
It was the embodied form of the accumulation of my educational
attainments
Because of the refined details and smoothly intersecting
surfaces of the form
SF4 2014
Bachhoe
Loader
Workstation
It was pleasant to be able to see the satisfying outputs of my
(our) efforts
2014 Excavator
SA4 2014Hand Held
Massager
SC4
180
methods, materials, expected functions, etc. in the previous studio studies were the
factors that inhibit creative form development.
The interview conducted with student SC4 was held shortly after he had completed
the graduation project and he selected the form of the excavator, which he developed
in this project, as the most satisfying form. The project was conducted in
collaboration with an industrial partner that produces construction machineries.
While the refined details and smoothly intersecting surfaces of the excavator are
mentioned by him as the significant physical properties of the form which made it
satisfying, he emphasized that his excavator design was also the embodied form of
the accumulation of his educational attainments. To be able to cope with the
challenge of developing such a complex form and managing to conduct a design
process by meeting the design expectations of an industrial partner in a limited time
period was expressed by him as the most impressive experience in his industrial
design education. Since his professional aim was working on automotive design, to
design a product for automotive industry motivated him throughout the design
process.
Student SF4 selected the form of his previous studio project, backhoe loader
workstation, as the most satisfying form. The project was conducted in collaboration
with construction m chinery producer, which w s lso student SC4‘s gr du tion
project partner. In the narrated studio project, as distinct from the other narrated
design processes, the workstations were designed by the groups rather than
individual students. student SF4 emphasized that it was the first project in which the
form of the product had a significant place and he and the other three members of the
group exerted their efforts on the design process. According to him being able to see
satisfying output of their efforts was pleasant.
181
6.6.1 Problematization moment in the fourth year studio studies
In the first semester of the fourth year studio studies, ID401, the students are
expected to develop individual or team solutions for a design problem identified by a
collaborator from industry.
In the second semester, ID402, graduation projects, each student is expected to
develop an individual design solution by collaborating with her/his industrial partner
and to reflect her/his own design approach on the design process.
The most significant difference between ID401 and ID402 can be explained by the
differing roles of the instructors and the industrial partners. In ID401, although both
the instructors and the representatives of the industrial partners formulate the studio
projects and conduct the studio studies, the key actors can be considered as the full
time instructors in the studio studies. In the graduation projects, when we compare
them to ID401 projects, it seems the students and the industrial partners have more
critical roles that can influence the courses of the design processes.
As seen in the documents of the narrated and randomly selected fourth year studio
studies (Appendices F), most of the fourth year studio studies are conducted by at
least 3 full time and 2 part time instructors and two assistants. Besides the
instructors, there are also the representatives from the industrial partners who have
critical roles in the fourth year studio studies. However the number and the
combination of the representatives of the partners and their roles in the design
processes of the students differ according to the semesters and the identified design
problems.
For the fourth year studio studies, it is possible to assume that the formalization of
the studio projects, introductions and directions for the stages of the studio project
processes are determined on the basis of the shared teaching interests of the
instructors and the professional interests of the representatives of the industrial
partners.
182
During the interview phase of the field study, three interviews were conducted with a
full-time instructor, a part-time instructor and an assistant from the fourth year
studio.
The full-time instructor interviewee, A4, is one of the senior instructors in the fourth
year studio team. Besides the studio studies, she also coordinates a graduate course
on design methods. She has conducted several studies on university-industry
collaboration in industrial design education. To equip the students with the abilities
‗to construct, m n ge nd complete design process‘ nd ‗to communic te their
design ide s to the other st keholders‘ y providing the internalization of iterative
and incremental design behaviors mainly through studio studies can be considered as
the most significant aspects of her teaching interests.
The part-time instructor interviewee, B4, is a free-lance designer graduated from the
same department. She has participated in most of the fourth year studio studies since
2005. As mentioned by her, she considers design as a practice which can be evolved
by educational approaches. Her teaching interests mainly revolve around enabling
the students to conduct any design process by equipping them with multidimensional
thinking abilities, knowledge on production processes and materials and
representational abilities.
The assistant interviewee, C4, is one of the two assistants in the fourth year studio
team. He has undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the same department and
he is working on his PhD. To enable the students to develop their own problem
solving styles by providing required knowledge and skills can be considered as the
main part of his teaching interests.
183
Table 6.40 Design education related nodes and themes for the fourth year studio
It is possible to classify the opinions of the interviewed fourth year industrial design
studio instructors under the four main themes; (1) remarks on industrial design
education, (2) the knowledge and skills which a student should be equipped with
through industrial design education, (3) the educational opportunities which should
be provided for students and (4) emerging needs in industrial design education.
All the interviewed fourth year studio instructors expressed their opinions on
industrial design education mainly touching upon different aspects. Among the
nodes extracted from their opinions, only four were shared by at least two of the
instructors;
To equip industrial design students with the abilities to construct, manage
and complete a design process
To equip industrial design students with the ability to communicate their
ideas to the others
To equip industrial design students with multidimensional thinking abilities
Full-time Part-time Asst.
A4 B4 C4
Studio is at the core of the program 1
Design is a process which can be evolved by education 1
The abilities to construct, manage and complete a design process 1 1 1
The ability to communicate their ideas to the others 1 1 1
The multidimensional thinking abilities 1 1
The knowledge on the practices in the industrial production field 1 1
The knowledge and skills on how to approach a design problem 1
The knowledge on production processes of materials 1
The skills on the production related digital modelilng tools (such as CATIA) 1
The enriched representational skills 1
To internalize iterative and incremental design behaviours _ mainly through PM and sketching 1
To internalize thinking through sketching 1
To be aware of the affordances and the constraints of the modeling tools for the effective usage of them 1
To develop their own problem solving styles - To approach design problems in radical ways 1
To increase their visual literacy 1
The internalization of moving between DM and PM during the design process 1
The integration of DM in the early phases of ID education 1
The exercises on how to express the ideas on 3D PM 1
The exercises on how to map their knowledge with their designs 1
The exercises on how to use 3D models as information sources / thinking medium 1
The exercises on various modeling techniques and materials 1
The courses on form analysis and the language of form 1
Rem
ark
sT
o e
qu
ip t
he s
tud
en
ts w
ith
To
en
ab
le t
he
stu
den
tsT
he n
eed
fo
rThe fourth year studio instructors' opinions on industrial design education
184
To equip industrial design students with the knowledge on the practices in
the industrial production field
In the previously explained studio studies the shared opinions of the instructors on
industrial design education have been deemed among the essential elements of the
central objects of the studios. For the fourth year, essential elements of the central
object of the studio can be associated with the central object of industrial design
education since it is the final phase of the educational process and the students are
expected to execute their accumulated knowledge, skills and attitudes. In the fourth
year studio studies, rather than focusing on the developments of the specified skills
and abilities and acquisition of the certain type of knowledge, all members of the
studio team focus on the abilities of the students to combine all educational
acquisitions and to reflect them on their design processes.
Table 6.41 The criteria and required representations for the narrated fourth year
studio projects
Scenario building
User product interaction
Presenting and justifying ideas in a compact way
Existing production capabilities of the collaborator
Brand identity of the collaborator
Attitudes of the students throughout the process
PowerPoint presentations (research presentation)
Sketches (idea generation, scenario building - Final presentation)
3D physical sketch models (idea generation and presentation)
Story boards (idea presentation and final juries)
Posters (alternative visualization methods-idea generation and presentation)
3D physical models (1:1 and scaled - Final presentation)
Written descriptions (Final presentation)
Photorealistic visuals (Final presentation)
Exploded view (Final presentation)
Digital animation (Final presentation)
Scaled elevation line drawings (Final presentation)
rep
rese
nta
tio
ns
The criteria and required representations for the narrated fourth year studio projects
crit
eria
185
In the final phase of their professional education, the students have to prove they can
manage a design process and have their own design approaches as well as the
required knowledge and skills. The most significant criteria the students expected to
meet and the required representations mentioned in the interviews, studio briefs and
instructions of the narrated studio studies can be considered as the reflections of the
the studio instructors‘ main teaching interests. The mentioned reflections are
demonstrated in Table 6.41.
Table 6.42 The reflections of the instructors‘ te ching interests on the set of criteri
and required presentations for the narrated fourth year studio studies
Scenario building
User product interaction
Brand identity of the collaborator
Existing production capabilities of the collaborator
Attitudes of the students throughout the process
Presenting and justifying ideas in a compact way
PowerPoint presentations (research presentation)
Sketches (idea generation, scenario building - Final presentation)
3D physical sketch models (idea generation and presentation)
Story boards (idea presentation and final juries)
Posters (alternative visualization methods-idea generation and presentation)
3D physical models (1:1 and scaled - Final presentation)
Written descriptions (Final presentation)
Photorealistic visuals (Final presentation)
Exploded view (Final presentation)
Digital animation (Final presentation)
Scaled elevation line drawings (Final presentation)
The reflections of the instructors' teaching interests on the set of the
criteria and required representations
The shared teaching interests of
the fourth year studio
crit
eria
rep
rese
nta
tio
ns
To e
qui
p in
dust
rial
des
ign
stud
ents
wit
h th
e ab
ility
to
com
mun
icat
e
thei
r id
eas
to t
he o
ther
s
To
eq
uip
in
dust
rial
des
ign
stu
den
ts w
ith
mu
ltid
imen
sio
nal
thin
kin
g a
bilitie
s
To e
qui
p in
dust
rial
des
ign
stud
ents
wit
h th
e ab
iliti
es t
o co
nstr
uct,
man
age
and
com
plet
e a
desi
gn p
roce
ss
186
It is possible to assume that the most significant shared opinion, to equip the
students with the abilities to construct, manage and complete a design process,
encompasses all of the listed criteria and the required representations on Table 6.42.
Although ‗to equip the students with the ilities to construct, m n ge nd complete
design process‘ w s mentioned by all of the interviewed fourth year studio
instructors, only instructor A4 touched upon the ability to complete a design process
on time.
In the previously analyzed studio studies, the roles of representational media are
identified on the basis of the aimed skills and experiences. In this phase of industrial
design education in the research site, the teaching interests of the instructors on the
necessity of the abilities to communicate their ideas to the others emerged as the
most significant factor on the identification of the roles of the representational media
in the studio studies.
The variety of the identified representations from written descriptions to digital
animations and presenting and justifying ideas in a compact way criterion can be
considered as the reflections of the mentioned teaching interests of the instructors.
In the briefs and written instructions of the narrated studio studies, 3D physical
sketch models are identified as the critical actors for idea generation and idea
presentation phases. Furthermore, the user product interaction criterion makes
them a must because, as mentioned by all of the interviewed instructors, during the
design process adequate information on the physical interaction between the user and
the product cannot be acquired without 3D physical models of it.
Although photorealistic visuals are identified in the written documents for the final
presentation, it is possible to say that none of the interviewed fourth year instructors
limited the role of 3D digital modeling media to the preparation of the photorealistic
visuals. By putting the presenting and justifying ideas in a compact way in the set
of criteria, the instructors welcomed any design media in the early phases of the
design process if they are employed effectively.
187
For the n rr ted fourth ye r studio studies, the interviewed instructors‘ te ching
interests and opinions on 3D physical and digital modeling are handled as the initial
dynamics which shape their roles and positions. In the following tables, Table 6.43
and Table 6.44, the themes and nodes extracted from the interviewed fourth year
studio instructors‘ opinions on 3D physic l nd digit l modeling re demonstr ted
Table 6.43 Interviewed fourth ye r studio instructors‘ opinions on 3D physic l
modeling
The interviewed fourth year studio instructors expressed their opinions on 3D
physical modeling by mainly emphasizing its advantages. For instructor A4 and B4
the most significant advantage of 3D physical modeling comes from its
concreteness. They stated that the information regarding physical properties of a 3D
form can be provided by only 3D physical models. Although only an advantage of
3D physical modeling is mentioned commonly, the interviewed instructors also
mention the more six advantages of 3D physical modeling. According to instructor
A4, employing 3D physical modeling in the early phases of form development
Full-time Part-time Asst.
A4 B4 C4
Provides information on physical properties of a form1 1
Prevents the dimensional problems during the form development process1
Facilitates to test working principles 1
The students aware of the benefits of PM make more progress1
Facilitates to test the structure of the form1
Facilitates to perceive the relationships between the forms and the real world1
Facilitates to determine certain primary problems on a form1
To communicate design ideas properly through 3D physical models requires at least partially competence1
Existing physical modeling tools are not so practical as sketching for idea generation1
For the form exploration1 1
For the early phases of design process1
In industrial
design education Internalization of idea generation through 3D physical sketch modeling should be provided1
Physical models are considered as final representations1
Physical modeling skills may gradually disappear because of digital modeling1
Convenient
Eff
icacie
s
The fourth year studio instructors' opinions on 3D physical modeling
Concerns
Constraints
188
processes can prevent the form related dimensional problems because the students
can evaluate dimensional properties of their forms by bodily interacting with them
and using their body and the environment as the references which guide them. The
other advantage of 3D physical modeling mentioned by instructor A4 is on its
potential that make possible to examine working principles of the products through
abstracted partial 3D physical models. However she thought that the students could
not utilize this potential sufficiently in their design processes. For instructor B4, the
students can test the structure of a 3D form, perceive the relationships between the
forms and the real world and determine certain primary problems on a form through
3D physical models during the design processes. She considered these three
advantages of 3D physical modeling as essential parts of the form development
related skill acquisition processes. However, according to her the students tend to
employ 3D physical models to convince the audiences rather than to let them to
show the problems regarding the structure, the relationships between the real world
and the form etc..
A metal bar is circulating around and a table is standing upon it, also a chair
is placed upon it, he brought something like this. This single metal bar and
table is standing on this metal bar. We dare to model it. How he model this?
He cut a straight rectangular cartoon and attach it to sticks and obviously
table could not stand still and then he stick it to the surface forcefully. We
told him th t ―look, it does not stand, what model tells you to think about this
once again. What does this means? It means a table has at least three legs.
(A11)
As seen in Table 6.43, only two interviewed fourth year studio instructors touched
upon the constraints of 3D physical modeling. For instructor B4, to be able to
express design ideas properly through 3D physical models requires at least partial
competence on 3D physical modeling. According to her, the quality and materials of
3D physical models influence the first impression of the audiences and accordingly,
she found possible that certain potentially bright design ideas of the students could
be refused because of their incompetence in 3D physical modeling or the selected
modeling materials. For instructor C4, 3D physical modeling through existing tools
and materials is not convenient for idea generation phases of design processes
because it is not as practical as sketching and the flow of the ideas could not be
189
caught through such a labor intensive and time consuming practice. He thought that
form exploration, similar to idea generation, requires iterative distractions of
previous ideas and their representations whereas the students do not prefer to leave
aside such time consuming and labor intensive 3D physical models and make new
ones for the flowing new ideas. In such cases certain students tend to avoid
producing new 3D physical models for the new ideas and stick to their modeled
forms at the expense of the better new solutions and ideas.
3D physical models are considered convenient for the form exploration phases by
instructor A4 and C4. According to instructor A4, form exploration and all decisions
regarding the physical properties of a product should be made through physical
modeling. However, for instructor C4, the success of form exploration through 3D
physical modeling depends on the speed of the student in the employed physical
modeling medi in other words the student‘s competence in it
Instructor A4 emphasized the importance of 3D physical modeling as thinking
medium and she considered that the internalization of thinking through 3D physical
modeling should be provided in industrial design education. On the basis of her own
observations, she stated that the percentage of the students who employ 3D physical
modeling as thinking medium in their studio studies is very low although she and
other members of the studio team channeled the students to think through physical
modeling by negotiating with them.
During the interview, instructor A4 also touched upon her concerns on the
vulnerable position of 3D physical modeling in industrial design field. Her first
concern is about or with misconceptions on 3D physical modeling. According to her,
most of the students consider 3D physical models as final representations perfectly
processed and finely finished. Consequently, they tend to ignore to employ 3D
physical modeling in the early phases of design processes. Her last concern is on the
future of 3D physical modeling skills, she thought that these skills and hands on
experiences in the modeling workshops may disappear gradually because of the
facilities of digital modeling media.
190
Table 6.44 Interviewed fourth ye r studio instructors‘ opinions on 3D digit l
modeling
The potenti ls ‗to f cilit te nd cceler te design processes‘ nd ‗to provide more
re listic represent tions‘ re referred to y ll of the interviewed fourth ye r studio
instructors as the most significant advantages of 3D digital modeling. For instructors
A4 and C4, the students can make more progress because of the facilities of 3D
digital modeling media such as to be able to focus on the details and the components
of the forms, to test working principles etc. According to instructor B4, besides the
practical contribution of these features, they also may be turned into motivating
factors for the students who are more competent on digital modeling. She thought
that to be able to express their ideas and to receive relevant feedback increases the
engagement of these types of students in the studio projects and the engaged students
make more progress. According to instructor C4, the facilitating and accelerating
features of 3D digital modeling media and its realistic visuals make 3D digital
modeling closer to 3D physical modeling to a certain extent in detailing phases
because 3D digital modeling media show the details of a form as they are in reality.
Instructor A4 and C4 emphasized the contribution of 3D digital modeling to
multidimensional thinking abilities of the students since related software makes
Full-time Part-time Asst.
A4 B4 C4
Facilitates and accelerates design process 1 1 1
Provide more realistic representations 1 1 1
Contributes to multidimensional thinking in design process 1 1
Makes possible to work together with the engineers by providing common language 1
Makes more economical to represent design ideas 1
Hard to perceive the size of a 3D form 1 1
Directs students to the ordinary solutions_Standardize 1 1
Digital environments are intangible and isolated 1
Cannot provide sufficient information on physical user product interaction 1
May turn into an obstacle for the flow of the creative ideas - dm is not as practical as sketching 1
Not convenient for the creation of the complex forms 1
For the advanced phases of design processes - 1 1
For dimensional exploration 1
For generating and comparing alternatives 1
For detailing 1
Introduction of DM should be provided in the early phases of ID education 1 1
Introduction of DM should begin with 2D digital graphic design tools 1 1
Competence on DM requires competence on PM 1
DM should be employed in a continuous manner in the studio studies 1
The fourth year studio instructors' opinions on 3D digital modeling
Eff
icacie
sC
onstr
ain
tsW
hen
In industr
ial
desig
n
education
191
possible to design through highly detailed representations and this makes inevitable
for the students to think on v rious f ctors from the m teri ls‘ eh viors to the
joining of the parts of the forms. Both of the instructors, A4 and C4, noted that to
reach the level of the detailing provided by 3D digital modeling may not be possible
through traditional 2D and 3D modeling. Instructor A4 explained this positive effect
by comparing the present studio projects with the past on the basis of the levels of
the detailing of the projects.
That is, introduction of these programs to our life, to education environment,
their inclusion to the curriculum, and their usage in the studio environment
for the projects have dramatically changed the quality of things and the level
of sophistication of the projects. To be able to get technical drawings from
them, how its components are separated, even being able to separate it into its
components, let me say, you can check if it is convenient for molding. You
can make decisions about if the parts fit or how you should join them
together. In our times, everything remained in the conceptual level. (A12)
Besides previously explained significant advantages of 3D digital modeling, the
interviewed fourth year studio instructors also touched upon diverse advantages
provided by 3D digital modeling. Being familiar with or being competent on digital
modeling employed commonly in the industrial production field is considered by
instructor A4 as the factor which makes it possible for industrial designers to work
together with the engineers in the professional field and to improve the position of
the novice industrial designers in the early periods of their professional lives.
Instructor B4 found 3D digital modeling more economical to represent design ideas
contrary to physical modeling. According to her, the amount of the money the
students had to spend for modeling materials when she was a student in the
dep rtment w s signific ntly more th n tod y‘s ―You could see the all your
alternatives on the screen till the last minute, but in our case we had to spend money
and visualize each alternative.‖ (A13)
In the interviews conducted with the fourth year studio instructors, the difficulty to
perceive the actual size of an imagined form in digital environments and to direct the
students to develop ordinary solutions are emerged as the most mentioned
constraints of 3D digital modeling. For instructors A4 and C4, the students could not
perceive the actual size of their forms in digital modeling software because of their
192
scale free environments. They thought that it might be possible to solve this problem
to a certain extent by providing the internalization of the usage of the references such
as human figures in the digital environments. However, instructor C4 added that,
although they provide various advantages in design process, 3D digital models could
not provide sufficient information on the dimensional properties of the 3D forms.
Instructor B4 and C4 explained how 3D digital modeling direct the students to
ordinary solutions by referring modeling 3D organic/complex forms which entails
competence on 3D digital modeling media. The student interviewees said that they
mostly tend to develop basic forms which they can model by only using basic form
creation facilities of 3D digital modeling software rather than challenging both their
nd digit l modeling softw re‘s capabilities.
The isolated and intangible environments of digital modeling software are mentioned
by instructor A4 as one of the constraints of 3D digital modeling. According to her
to develop forms in such an environment may cause loss of control on the form
during the design process. She also found 3D digital modeling incapable of
providing information on the physical user product interaction, especially for the
students who have limited experiences on user product interaction.
For instructor C4, 3D digital modeling is not so practical as sketching to catch the
flow of the ideas, it entails focusing on the commands rather that the ideas and may
turn into an obstacle. He also found existing 3D digital modeling software
inconvenient for the creation of complex forms because of their working principles.
3D digital modeling is found convenient for the advanced phases of design processes
by instructor A4 and C4, they considered that 3D forms developed by the students in
the studio studies should be reached a certain level of maturity before transferring
them into digital models, then 3D digital modeling should be employed for
dimensional explorations or detailing on these forms. Unlike the others, instructor
B4 did not refer to the advanced phases of design process for digital modeling, she
considered that 3D digital modeling should be employed when the need to generate
and compare the variations of the forms appears.
193
Instructor A4 and C4 emphasized the necessity of the introduction of digital
modeling in the early phases of industrial design education. They thought that, the
students should be competent in 3D digital modeling in the advanced phases of their
education processes. Hence, according to instructor C4, 3D digital modeling should
be introduced as early as possible because being competent in 3D digital modeling
takes time. Instructor A4 and C4 also suggested that digital modeling tools could be
introduced incrementally starting from simplest 2D graphic software in the
beginning of the education process because, as they pointed out, the students also
need 2D graphic design software for the preparation of layouts of their presentation
boards.
For instructor C4, competence in 3D digital modeling requires also competence in
3D physical modeling because, according to him, without sufficient experiences on
physical manipulation of forms it is almost impossible to manipulate 3D forms in
digital environments. Another comment made by him on the integration of 3D digital
modeling in industrial design education is emphasized how intermittent employment
of 3D digital modeling affect negatively the skill development processes of the
students, hence, he concluded that it should be employed in the studio studies in
continuous manner from the beginning of their education processes.
As seen on Table 6.44, although the opinions of instructor A4 and C4 on the
integration of 3D digital modeling in industrial design education have been reflected
on the table, there is no node on the opinions of instructor B4, since, according to
her, the students are somehow sufficiently competent in 3D digital modeling and
they can utilize it whenever they need. Hence, she suggested that rather than
focusing on developing new approaches on the integration of a certain modeling
medium in industrial design education, the internalization of 3D models as sources
of information should be provided.
The required representations, demonstrated in Table 6.41, for the analyzed fourth
year studio studies are identified and introduced to the students mainly on the basis
of the objectives of fourth year studio studies.
194
The objectives of the fourth year studio studies that determine the position of 3D
physical and digital modeling in the studio studies can be considered as the
reflections of the opinions of interviewed fourth year studio instructors on 3D
physical and digital modeling and their teaching interests explained in the previous
paragraphs. Accordingly, by reviewing the opinions and teaching interests of the
interviewed fourth year studio instructors the following four significant objectives
has been identified.
The students should be equipped with sketching skills because of speed and
practicality of sketching in the visualization of the ideas.
The students should be equipped with 3D physical modeling skills because
only 3D physical models can provide sufficient information on the user
product interaction and the size of a form.
The students should be equipped with 3D digital modeling skills because 3D
digital modeling provides more realistic representations for the advanced
phases of design processes.
The students should be equipped with enriched representational abilities in
order to enable them to present and to justify their design ideas in a concise
way.
6.6.2 Interessement moment in the fourth year studio studies
When the identified studio projects, the set of criteria and the required
representations are introduced, the interessement moment of the translation
processes of the fourth year studio studies begin. In order to understand the
connections established between the interviewed students who narrated their fourth
year studio studies and 3D physical and digital modeling, the mentioned
representational media and their functions in the narrated design processes are
analyzed as clues of the established connections and the findings are demonstrated in
Table 6.45.
195
Table 6.45 Mentioned representational media and their functions in the fourth year
studio narratives
In the set of the required representations introduced through the studio briefs,
sketching and 3D physical sketch modeling are identified among the critical media
for idea generation phases of the narrated studio projects. Besides being identified as
one of the critical actors for idea generation phase, 3D physical models were also
promoted by the instructors on the basis of their potential to provide information on
physical properties of the forms. However, as demonstrated in Table 6.45, all of the
students who narrated their fourth year studio studies pointed to sketching as the
only employed medium in the idea generation phases of their studio projects.
As seen in Table 6.45, three main functions of sketching have emerged from the
students‘ n rr tives; to gener te ide s, to m ke form exploration, to generate the
form variations.
All of the interviewed students, except student SF4, commented on how they were
fond of sketching. Student SB4 and SC4 explained their sketching preferences on the
basis of its speed and practicality which make it convenient for idea generation, form
exploration and generation of the form variations. Besides potentials of sketching,
students SC4 and SF4 identified the time constraint in the narrated studio studies as
one of the underlying factors that channel them to employ sketching dominantly in
the narrated design processes.
Hand Held Massager Playground equipment Excavator Bachhoe Loader Workstation
SA4 SB4 SC4 SF4
Hand sketches
Idea generation
Form explorations
To generate form variations
Idea generation
To generate form variations
Idea generation
Form explorations
To generate form variations
Idea generation
Form explorations
To generate form variations
3D physical sketch models To test size of the form
To compare selected form
alternatives
Form analysis
To test physical interaction
Form analysis
To contribute DM
To test physical interaction
Sketches drawn on the
photographs of the 3D
physical models
Form analysis
To generate form variations
3D digital models
To generate form variations
To test physical interaction
To prepare final presentations
To generate form variations
To generate finishing variations
To prepare final presentations
Form analysis
To generate form variations
To prepare final presentations
To prepare final presentations
Modeling tools
196
Although 3D physical sketch models are identified by the instructors as one of the
critical non-human actors for the early phases of narrated design processes and
promoted by them through negotiations, the three out of the four student
interviewees, SA4, SC4 and SF4, postponed employing 3D physical modeling to the
late stages of their design processes. The students mentioned four main functions of
3D physical modeling in their narrated design processes; form analysis, to test
physical user product interaction, to test size of the form and to contribute 3D digital
modeling.
Student SA4 started to generate her design ideas through sketching at the beginning
of the narrated design process. When the rough form of the massager was emerged,
he passed to digital modeling in order to see it in 3D, since he could not receive
sufficient information on the physical properties of the generated form from the 2D
sketches. Before the preliminary jury, he made a very simple cardboard 3D physical
model of the form for a studio critique. As told by him, it was the only 3D physical
model which he made except the one made for the final jury. Student SA4 explained
the underlying reason for the weak connection between him and 3D physical
modeling in his design process on the basis of two significant factors. Firstly, he
believed that when he made 3D physical model of a form alternative, he mostly
stuck in it, so he avoided making 3D physical models of his initial form ideas and
preferred to create his forms through mental models and sketches until he reached a
satisfying rough form. And lastly, the project was a four-week studio study, and he
identified time as a pressure to force him to select shortcuts.
Only student SB4 established connection with 3D physical modeling at a relatively
early stage of his design process. He made form explorations through sketching and
selected the best two forms among the alternatives created through hand sketching.
At that point, he wanted to know if there were any inconsistencies between the parts
of the forms or on its structure. He found sketches insufficient to provide the
required information on the 3D physical properties of these forms because of their
constraints such being 2D and scale free. Accordingly, he made 3D physical scale
models of these two forms by carving Styrofoam in order to analyze and compare
these forms.
197
Student SC4 felt more confident at sketching and accordingly, he preferred to
communicate his ideas mainly through it. However, in his graduation project
narrative, besides his personal interest on sketching, two more significant underlying
factors that shape his connection with the representational media emerged. Firstly, to
be expected to design such a complicated product, excavator, in a short time can be
considered as the pressure compelling him to choose the less time-consuming design
media despite the potentials of 3D physical modeling. Lastly, he said that he was
expected to design the exterior of the excavator; physical user product interaction
related features were mainly developed on the basis of the standards of the product
type and this situation is identified by him as the factor which made him less
dependent on 3D physical models in the design process. Consequently, although he
was very aware of the potentials of designing through 3D physical modeling he
postponed to see his form through its 3D physical models until the advanced phases
of his graduation project. He made the first 3D physical model of the determined
main form of his excavator by carving Styrofoam, then took the photographs of the
model and generated the variations of the main form by drawing on the sketching
papers laid on the photographs. He added that those photographs also helped him in
the digital modeling phase. After the preliminary jury, in order to see the
relationships between the components of the form in physical world, he made two
more 3D physical models from Styrofoam by using cardboard templates gathered
from the 3D digital model of the form.
Student SF4 narrated a group project in which he and his group mates designed a
backhoe loader workstation mainly through sketching until the very advanced stages
of the design process. He said that he and the other members of the group influenced
each other and this made them to draw a lot of sketches especially in the form
exploration stage. Except the 3D physical model required for final presentation, his
group made two more 3D physical models from mainly corrugated cardboard
throughout the design process since they were identified by the instructors as must
for the critics in which each group was expected to demonstrate their physical user
product interaction solutions. When student SF4 explained the criteria on which the
feedbacks were given in the critics with physical models, he emphasized that the
198
instructors gave weight to the user product interaction and did not touch upon the
other properties of the forms.
When the connections between the students and 3D digital modeling are examined in
the fourth year studio narratives, it is seen that the students established connections
with it on the basis of four main aims; to generate variations of the main form, to
generate finishing variations, to prepare final presentations and surprisingly to test
physical interaction.
Three out of the four students narrated their fourth year studio studies, students SA4,
SB4 and SC4, employed digital modeling to generate variations of their form,
although there were significant diversities on the basis of various aspects of their
design processes. While student SA4 created his form mainly through digital
modeling, SB4 and SC4 employed 3D digital modeling after the determination of the
outlines of the rough main forms of their design solutions. While SB4 generated the
variations of the form on the basis of the finishing alternatives, student SC4
generated the variations of the intersections between the certain surfaces of the form
through digital modeling.
After the idea generation phase, student SA4 preferred to develop the form of his
hand held massager through digital modeling. For the size related decisions, he
referred to the dimension of the existing similar products. According to him, at a
certain moment of the design process, he was able to identify a size problem on the
screen by rule of thumb. He also preferred to test the physical user product
interaction in digital environment. He examined the curve of the surface that will
touch the user‘s ck y using digit l hum n figure s reference On the basis of
his explanations and narrative, it is possible to conclude that his learning interests
channeled him into shortcuts and his connection with 3D digital modeling was
established on the basis of its promises of bypassing 3D physical modeling in his
design process.
Student SB4 preferred to continue through only sketching and 3D physical modeling
in his design process until a certain moment at which the need to see the effects of
the imagined textures on the overall form emerged. At that point, because of the time
199
constraint in the studio project he converted his form into digital model for
generating the variations of the selected form mainly on the basis of the materials
and finishing alternatives without using any manual labor, time and material.
Although he found 3D digital modeling easier and visually more realistic than
physical modeling for that stage, he felt the need to mention again the significance of
physical interaction between the designer and the form such as to be able to size by
hand, to turn it around, etc. during the design process.
Student SC4 started to transfer his form to digital environment on the basis of the
outlines on the photographs of the first 3D physical sketch model of the rough main
form of his excavator. Although he developed his form mainly through sketching
until the late stages of the design process, the need to check how the surfaces are
intersected entailed the employment of 3D digital modeling. He explained that,
although the real scale 3D physical clay models are employed for the developments
of these types of detail in automotive design, neither 2D sketches nor rough 3D
physical sketch models made by the available materials and tools were convenient
for representing such delicate details. When the form was converted into digital
format, he had to make certain changes on the form. He made two more physical
models in order to be sure about the changed components of the form during the
transformation. In his narrative, each significant change entailed new representations
and, although he tended to minimize the employment of 3D physical modeling he
could not resist against its potentials because of his learning interests. He utilized 3D
physical and digital modeling on the basis of their complementary potentials;
furthermore he also generated certain details of the form by sketching on the
printouts of the digital models.
Student SF4 and his group-mates employed 3D digital modeling at the last moment
of the studio project process in order to prepare their final presentations because
realistic visuals of the designs were identified as must in the studio briefs. Student
SF4 felt himself lacking confidence in 3D digital modeling and found himself and
his group-mates insufficient in digital modeling. From his comments, it is possible to
conclude that their incompetence in digital modeling caused them to postpone
converting their form into digital format. To model their form in digital environment
200
on the basis of the 2D information provided by the sketches was identified by him as
another factor that made digital modeling process hard for them. He commented that
rather than to compel all the students to employ digital modeling, to provide the
students with the possibility to design through preferred representational media may
increase the enrolment of the students in their studio studies.
As mentioned above, unlike in the narrated early and intermediate studio studies in
which the students were channeled to employ certain modeling media for certain
stages of the design processes, there were limited negotiations to persuade the
students to act in a certain way in their design processes, since it was considered that
the central objectives of the previous studio studies were succeeded, the students had
internalized certain ways of acting in their own ways and they were expected to
bring their acquired skills, knowledge and abilities to the fourth year studio actor
networks.
Accordingly, as communicated in the fourth year narratives, the students brought
their acquired skills, knowledge and abilities into their fourth year studio studies and
they established connections with the actors on the basis of their internalized design
behaviors.
Based on the fourth year studio narratives, it is possible to conclude that the
interessement moments of the narrated fourth year studio studies were succeeded and
the interviewed students were persuaded to establish connections with 3D physical
and digital modeling in their design processes on the basis of the identified roles and
requirements which enabled them to present their design proposals in a compact
way. Then, accordingly, they established connections with the expected
representational media as non-human actors in their studio studies. These
connections can be summarized in the following ways.
The students established connections with hand sketching because sketches were;
The most internalized representational media because of their experiences of
the students in their previous studio studies and courses.
The most promising representational media because of their practicality
201
The students established connections with 3D physical modeling because 3D
physical models were;
The most convenient representational media to provide the required
information on both the physical user product interaction and the physical
properties of the forms
The allying representational media for 3D digital modeling because 3D
physical information provided by 3D physical models of the forms facilitates
3D digital modeling processes
Identified as must for the final presentations
One of the students established connections with the sketching on the photographs of
3D physical sketch models of his form because he internalized it in his second year
studio studies and brought it into his graduation project as the most promising media
to generate form variations on the minor changes.
The students established connections with 3D digital modeling because it was;
The most promising medium for generating variations of forms and surface
finishing because of its risk-free environment
The most promising medium for form analysis because of its virtual and
scale-free environment
Photorealistic visuals of the design solutions were identified as must for the
final presentations.
6.6.3 Enrolment moment in the fourth year studio studies
As in the other studio narratives, the most emphasized and valued aspects of the
n rr ted studio studies re n lyzed s clues out the students‘ eng gements in the
central objectives of the fourth year studio studies.
202
Table 6.46 The most emphasized aspects of the form development processes in the
fourth year studio studies
In all of the fourth year studio narratives, form analysis emerged as the most
emphasized aspect of the studio project processes. All of the students commented on
how they ev lu ted nd m de judgments on the consistency etween their forms‘
components.
For student SA4, the analyses of the proportional relationships between the
components of his hand-held massager led him to the satisfying final form. He made
these analyses mainly through 3D digital models of his form.
Student SB4, SC4 and SF4 attended the same studio studies and same must courses
during their industrial design education. On the other hand, each one analyzed their
forms in diverse ways on the basis of diverse representational preferences.
According to student SB4, he made the most critical form analysis on the possible
inconsistencies between the components of his playground equipment. For the
mentioned analysis, he preferred mainly 3D physical models carved from Styrofoam.
Student SC4 analyzed the form of his excavator in different stages. He analyzed the
relationships between different surfaces of the form on the photographs of its 3D
physical models and printouts of its 3D digital models. However, for analyzing
overall form he preferred to employ 3D physical scale models.
According to student SF4, he and his group-mates could maintain the consistency
between the components of their backhoe loader workstation mainly through
Hand Held
Massager
Playground
equipmentExcavator
Bachhoe
Loader
Workstation
SA4 SB4 SC4 SF4
Form analysis-consistency between the components of the form
Visual identity of the form
Developing form by moving between 2D and 3D representations
Incremental form development
Significance of small details
Emphasis
203
iterative form analyses. He referred mainly to hand sketches and 3D digital models
of their form as the main representations employed for these analyses.
As explained above, all of the students became engaged in form analyses in their
fourth year studio studies. However their engagements occurred in diverse ways
because of their different inclinations and interests. These diversities influenced also
their enrollment with 3D physical and digital modeling media.
Each student was impressed by the advantages of certain types of form analyses
through certain representations. Consequently, their connections with the regarding
representational media and the way of form analysis were reinforced.
From this example, it is possible to conclude that there is a clear reflective evolution
between the form analysis abilities of the students and 3D physical and digital
modeling skills.
The forms‘ visu l identities were the second emph sized spect of the n rr ted
fourth year studio studies. Three out of the four student interviewees, SB4, SC4 and
SF4, commented on how they succeeded in developing their forms by focusing on
the details that determined the visual identities of their products.
Student SB4 aimed to provide visual compatibility between his playground
equipment and its physical environment, i.e. playgrounds. Hence, his form
explorations and generations of the form variations were mainly on the basis of
providing a natural appearance. He found hand sketching and 3D digital modeling
adequate for developing the visual aspects that could provide the aimed natural
appearance.
For student SC4, the most important details that determine the visual identity of his
form were the quality of the surfaces and intersections between them. According to
him to make form explorations on such details entailed generating numerous
alternatives. It would not be possible to conduct such a process through labor
intensive and time-consuming representations. Hence he employed hand sketching
and 3D digital modeling to develop visual aspects of the form of his excavator.
204
Figure 6.9 Student SC4‘s excavator
However, it should be mentioned that although both student SB4 and SC4 found
hand sketching and 3D digital modeling sufficient for developing visual aspects of
their forms, they controlled the most critical visual features on 3D physical models
of their forms in order to be sure about their accuracies and coherences.
Student SF4 expressed that he and his group-mates aimed to give their backhoe-
loader workstation a mechanical appearance with fluent lines. To achieve these aims
SF4 and his group-mates made iterative form explorations mainly through hand
sketching.
Among the four students only SB4 and SC4 emphasized form development by
moving between 2D and 3D representations. Both of the students acquired diverse
information by transforming their representations into the other dimension. In other
words when they could not receive required information from 2D representations
they transformed them into 3D or vice versa. On the one hand, student SB4
transformed his hand sketches into 3D physical models when he felt a need to
control the physical properties of the form alternatives. On the other hand, in order to
205
see the relationships between the surfaces from a different angle, student SC4
tr nsformed his exc v tor‘s 3D physic l model into 2D side views y t king the
photographs of the model.
It can be assumed that being able to observe and experience immediate
consequences of the contribution of these transformations to the design processes
strengthen the connection between the students and the relevant representational
media. Consequently, student SB4 and SC4 became engaged in form development
by moving between 2D and 3D representations.
Table 6.47 The modeling tools on which the most critical evaluations and judgments
were made in the narrated fourth year studio studies
When the most critical and effective decisions regarding the forms of the products
and the representations they employed during these evaluations are analyzed it was
seen that, none of the four students referred to 3D physical models for their most
critical decision.
For student SA4, the most critical evaluation and judgment were made on the size of
the hand-held massager. In order to prevent size related problems resulted from
working in scale free environments; he checked the dimension of the massager
iteratively on its 3D digital model and compared with the average dimension of the
Hand Held Massager Playground equipment ExcavatorBachhoe Loader
Workstation
SA4 SB4 SC4 SF4
Hand sketches
In which way the
relationships between
the parts of the form
should be designed
In which way the
lines on the form
could be fluent but
also seemed
mechanical
3D physical sketch models
Hand sketches on the photographs of the 3D physical
models
How the relationships
between the surfaces
of the form can be
harmonic
3D digital models
To which size the
hand-held massager
should be scaled
Modeling tools
206
existing hand-held massagers. Being aware of the constraints and advantages of 3D
digital modeling software allowed him to avoid size related problems in a scale free
digital modeling environment. To be able to cope with such a constraint turned his
connection with 3D digital modeling into a more stable state and he became engaged
in designing by moving between 2D and 3D representational media however by
excluding 3D physical modeling.
Figure 6.10 Student SA4‘s h nd-held massager
Student SB4 considered that the most important evaluation regarding his playground
equipment was on the relationship between the bottom and upper parts of the form.
While the form should have a robust base, the upper part should be thinner. Then, he
decided to bring them together in a fluent way so that the joint detail would be
concealed. According to him it was practicality of the hand sketching that made
possible the mentioned evaluation and judgments because it provided him with the
instant information on the joint detail. From his comments, it is possible to assume
that to experience how quick sketch models allowed him to make such a critical
decision impressed him and turned his connection with hand sketching into a more
207
robust form. In other words, for student SB4, hand sketching eliminated 3D physical
and digital modeling for evaluating certain visual properties.
Figure 6.11 Student SB4‘s pl yground equipment project
For student SC4, the most critical evaluations and judgments in his graduation
project were on the intersections between the surfaces of his excavator. He made his
evaluations through the hand sketches he drew on the photographs of the 3D
physical model of the form. This is the second appearance of this form analysis
method since it is mentioned in student SD4‘s second ye r studio iron project
narrative. Student SC4 and SD4 were classmates and they attended the same studio
studies. From their overlapping narratives, although student SC4 did not narrate his
second year studio project it can be concluded he internalized this form analysis
method and used it for compensating shortcomings of hand sketching and 3D
physical modeling. While the inadequacy of 3D physical rough models in
representing delicate details was compensated by hand sketches drawn on the
208
photographs of these models, 3D physical models compensated the shortcomings of
2D hand sketches in providing 3D information.
Figure 6.12 Student SF4‘s ckhoe lo der workst tion
The most emph sized form rel ted ev lu tions in student SF4‘s n rr tive were m de
on the lines of the form of the backhoe loader workstation. As explained in the
previous parts of the section, he and his group-mates iteratively evaluate the lines on
form variations on the basis of its overall shape in order to provide a mechanical
appearance with fluent lines. Because of the time constraint in the project process
they had to make evaluations and judgments on the overall shape in a short time.
Accordingly, they relied on the most familiar and promising representational
medium, hand sketching. Their expectation was met and their connection with hand
209
sketching was strengthened. Student SF4 became engaged in thinking through
sketching however he could not be persuaded to internalize designing by moving
between different 2D and 3D representations. Probably, he would be a representative
of thinking through sketching and bring it into the subsequent design processes.
6.6.4 Mobilization moment in the fourth year studio studies
Fourth ye r studio studies in METU re the fin l st ges of the students‘ industri l
design education. Accordingly, the mobilization moments of the fourth year studio
narratives are examined by taking into account this peculiarity. The fourth year
interviewees narrated their design processes just after completing them. Hence, it is
not possi le to e sure whether the students‘ 3D physic l nd digit l modeling skills
and regarding attitudes acquired in the narrated studio projects are stabilized.
Nevertheless, their opinions are interpreted as clues about the stabilizations of these
skills and attitudes in their professional lives.
Fourth year studio interviewees reflected their opinions on 3D physical modeling on
the basis of three main themes; advantages, conveniences and constraints of 3D
physical modeling. The summary of the opinions classified according to these
themes are demonstrated in Table 6.48.
210
Table 6.48 Opinions of students narrated their fourth year studio studies on 3D
physical modeling
The most significantly mentioned advantage of 3D physical modeling is its critical
role in preventing size related problems of the forms in design processes. All of the
interviewees employed 3D physical models of the forms of their design ideas in
order to check the size and proportion of their forms at certain moments in design
processes. Nevertheless, student SB4 felt the need to mention that there may be
exceptions for certain types of product entailing very limited physical user product
interaction. For him, it could be possible to evaluate size related properties of these
forms through their digital models by comparing their dimension with certain
reference objects.
Except for student SB4, all of the fourth year studio interviewees commented on
how 3D physical models provide real time information during the modeling and
affect their thinking process positively. Student SC4 and SF4 considered that this
advantage makes 3D physical modeling essential representational media for
industrial designers. SB4 and SF4 mentioned that only 3D physical models can
Hand Held
Massager
Playground
equipmentExcavator
Backhoe
Loader
Workstation
SA4 SB4 SC4 SF4
Prevents size related problems on the forms 1 1 1 1
Provides real time information during the modeling 1 1 1
Provides information on physical properties of the forms 1 1
Facilitates digital modeling process 1 1
Easy to modify 1 1
Increase designer-form interaction 1 1
For evaluating user product interaction 1 1 1 1
For checking essential problems on the forms 1 1 1
For the early phases of design process 1 1 1
For organic forms 1 1
For evaluating product environment relationship 1
Time consuming and labor intensive 1 1 1
Hard to represent finishing and materials 1 1
Modeling materials determine the form 1 1
3D physical modeling
Eff
icacie
sB
ett
er
Constr
ain
ts
211
provide 3D physical information about a form and facilitate the transformation of the
forms into digital format thank to this information.
Student SA4 and SB4 found it easier to modify 3D physical models according to the
required changes in certain details. They commented that to change a detail on a
digital model entails making all changes precisely or in certain cases to model the
entire form again. The potential of 3D physical modeling to increase designer form
interaction is mentioned by students SA4 and SF4 as one of its most significant
advantages. Both of the students emphasized the effects of mentioned interaction on
the progress in design processes.
All of the fourth year studio interviewees considered that user product interaction
has determining effects on the forms of products. Accordingly, they identified 3D
physical models as the most convenient representational media for evaluating user
product interaction. By internalizing user centered design approach and by putting
user product interaction among the central criteria which a design solution should
meet, they also stabilized their connection with 3D physical modeling because of its
potentials such as providing real 3D physical information.
Student SB4, SC4 and SF4 touched upon the necessity to check the potential
problems and inconsistencies on the imagined forms before detailing phases in
design processes and they found 3D physical models better for the mentioned
problem checks. The same students also found 3D physical modeling more
convenient for the early phases of design processes because of both the mentioned
potentials and constraints explained in the following paragraphs.
3D physical models are also identified convenient for evaluating the product
environment relationships by student SB4 because of its potential to provide physical
information on the form. Hence, he found it almost impossible to make these
evaluations without seeing the forms in the physical world.
Student SA4, SB4 and SC4 deemed 3D physical modeling labor intensive and time
consuming and explained why they postponed employing 3D physical models to the
relatively late stages of their design processes by referring mainly this constraint. For
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student SB4 and SC4 this constraint also made it inconvenient for form exploration.
The second significant constraint, mentioned by student SB4 and SF4, is the
determining effects of modeling materials on the forms. According to student SB4
certain modeling materials such as paper and cardboard channeled them to generate
more plain forms if they made form exploration through 3D physical modeling. In
the last significantly mentioned constraint, student SA4 and SB4 touched upon the
difficulty of representing materials and finishing through 3D physical models. All
these mentioned constraints can be considered as the factors affecting their ways of
acting in their following design processes. Although it seems that they internalized
developing physical properties of the forms mainly through 3D physical modeling,
the mentioned constraints might prevent its frequent use in practice.
The fourth year studio interviewees reflected their opinions on 3D digital modeling
on the basis of four main themes; advantages, conveniences, constraints of it and
teaching 3D digital modeling. In Table 6.49, extracted opinions of the students are
demonstrated on the basis of these four main themes.
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Table 6.49 Opinions of the students narrated their fourth year studio studies on 3D
digital modeling
All of the students narrated their fourth year studio studies mentioned the
contribution of 3D digital modeling to their 3D thinking abilities in two different
ways. They commented on how their perception of third dimension had been
improved by the introduction of digital modeling, they also expressed how they
employed 3D digital modeling when they could not imagine certain details of their
forms in third dimension even in the early phases of design processes. Hence, it is
possible to assume that they would bring 3D digital modeling as a 3D thinking
ability enhancer into their future design processes in their professional lives although
the mentioned potential is not promoted obviously by the instructors throughout their
industrial design education.
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Except student SF4, all of the interviewees mentioned the potential of 3D digital
modeling to provide more clear and accurate visuals. Student SB4 and SC4
explained their opinions on this advantage mainly on the basis of its potential in
visualizing finishing and materials of the forms. For student SA4, the possibility to
miss a promising design idea because of misleading information provided by
incompetently produced physical models could be eliminated through this potential
of 3D digital modeling. According to the same students, SA4, SB4 and SC4, 3D
digital modeling media also facilitates to comprehend overall form by virtue of their
scale free environments.
The potential of 3D digital modeling in accelerating design process is emphasized by
student SA4, SB4 and SF4. For student SB4 and SF4, to be able to see the effects of
imagined changes on the whole in a short time without spending so much time and
hand labor even in the early phases of design process is one of the most important
advantages of 3D digital modeling.
Besides the shared opinions on the advantages of 3D digital modeling, student SA4
and SC4 mentioned two more advantages individually. While student SA4
considered that to model a 3D form through digital modeling software is easier than
to model it physically, student SC4 found it stimulating. According to him it is
possible to observe its stimulating effects only by comparing the forms designed
before and after the entrance of digital modeling media in design field.
All of the students narrated their fourth year studio studies found 3D digital
modeling significantly superior to physical modeling in visualizing surface finishing
and materials. For student SB3 and SC3, besides this advantage helpful for the
advanced phases of design processes, to be able to see the selected material on the
imagined 3D form and then to make decision about the overall form in the early
phases is also very important.
Three out of the four students, SB4, SC4 and SF4, mentioned the convenience of 3D
digital modeling for manipulating visual aspects of the forms of the products such as
high quality surfaces or delicate visual details. They commented that it is very hard
to represent and manipulate such aspects through 3D physical models although a lot
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of time and labor are spent because of accessible modeling facilities, materials and
their physical modeling skill levels.
Student SB4 and SC4 found 3D digital modeling more convenient for detailing. For
them, zooming and coordinate system based form manipulation features of the
software make possible to develop real like details on the forms. Accordingly, the
same students, SB4 and SC4, identified 3D digital modeling as convenient for the
advanced phases of design processes.
Student SC4 and SF4 emphasized that digital modeling software enable the
designers to imitate certain environments hard to represent in physical world. Hence,
according to them, this potential makes 3D digital modeling convenient for
evaluating form-environment relationships.
The last emphasized convenience of 3D digital modeling is mentioned by only
student SB4. For him, 3D digital modeling is more convenient for evaluating
relationships between the components of a form than physical representational
media. He commented on how being able to see all side views on a single screen
make it possible to analyze these relationships from different angles without drawing
all these side views. In his comments on the mentioned convenience, he compared
3D digital modeling with only sketching and did not touch upon 3D physical
modeling.
Except student SA4, all of the interviewees narrated their fourth year studio studies
mentioned the limiting effects of 3D digital modeling on their creativity especially in
the early phases of design processes. However, they related most of the mentioned
limiting effects to their incompetence in 3D digital modeling.
Student SA4, SB4 and SC4 found 3D digital modeling inconvenient for form
creation. For student SC4, to create forms through digital modeling software can
channel the designer, especially for the novice ones, to the easy and usual solutions.
Student SA4 and SB4 commented on the inadequacy of 3D digital modeling in
providing information on physical user product interaction and product environment
relationship by referring virtuality of digital models. Although student SA4 preferred
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to evaluate the physical user product interaction through 3D digital models of his
hand held massager in his narrated design process, he mentioned the inability of
digital models to provide information on physical user product interaction. He
explained the emerging conflict between his opinions on representational media and
modeling practice in the narrated design process on the basis of two underlying
reasons. Firstly, he admitted his laziness in physical model making although he was
totally aware of all of the contributions of 3D physical modeling to design processes.
Secondly, as explained in the section regarding the mentioned advantages of digital
modeling, he worried about the possibility to miss a promising design idea during
the idea generation through sketching and physical modeling because of his
insufficienct competence in these representational media.
Student SB4 and SC4 found 3D digital modeling time consuming. They commented
that, in certain cases, to correct certain failures made in the early phases of digital
modeling or to change a small detail entail to model entire form over again. Hence,
they prefer to ignore to correct the failure or to change a detail for a better solution.
Student SF4 problematized the 2D nature of digital modeling media although they
are named 3D. Accordingly, he found difficult to comprehend certain 3D physical
properties of the forms through digital models.
During the interviews, only student SC4 and SF4 touched upon teaching of 3D
digital modeling and mentioned the need for the instructions and exercises on
different digital modeling software. Both of the students considered that familiarity
with different modeling software can prevent limiting effects of digital modeling.
Although most of the interviewed instructors and students mentioned the constraints
of 3D digital modeling they hardly mentioned the advantages of 3D physical
modeling which meet this constraints as the contraries.
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Table 6.50 Summary of mobilization moment in the fourth year studio studies
218
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CHAPTER 7
CONCLUSION
Technological advances have changed the field of industrial design immensely
during the last couple of decades by providing the designers with highly
sophisticated tools and equipment. Although these changes have created new
opportunities for designers, it is also clear that the relationship between technology
and designers is not without its problems. In so far as industrial design field is
concerned one of important areas where technology enters into a complex
relationship with designers is the modeling which involves both physical and digital
ones as we do not yet satisfactorily understand the dynamic interaction of 3D
physical and digital modeling and such a gap calls for theoretically informed and
empirically oriented research in this underexplored area.
This dissertation makes an attempt in this direction to fill the gap. It explores the
existing role and position of 3D physical and digital modeling in the skill acquisition
processes of industri l design students from the instructors‘ nd the students‘
viewpoints by problematizing mutual dependency and conditioning between them.
The empirical research designed as a part of this thesis has aimed at understanding
the current dynamics of using 3D physical and digital modeling in industrial design
education in METU by focusing on the design studios and then, by drawing on the
existing stock of knowledge and findings of the research, to develop suggestions in
order to contribute to the development of new approaches leading to the integration
of 3D physical and digital modeling in industrial design education.
220
To this aim the field study has placed two objectives at the center of the research;
To reveal the facts about the employment of the digital and physical
modeling practice in the skill development processes in industrial design
education.
To examine the factors shaping the position of digital and physical 3d
modeling practice in the early phases of the form development processes in
studio studies in industrial design education.
Within the scope of the aim of the dissertation the following main question guided
and structured the study.
How can digital and physical 3D modeling be employed more effectively
and efficiently to contribute to the development of form creation related
skills of the students in the studio studies in industrial design education?
As mentioned in section 1.2, in order to provide a satisfactory and convincing
answer to this vital question, the field study was conducted on the basis of the
following research questions.
What skills and abilities do industrial design students need to create and
develop 3D forms in the design process in their studio studies?
What are the existing roles and positions of 3D physical and digital modeling
in the studio studies?
What are existing inclinations of the students for the employment of 3D
physical and digital modeling in the 3D form development phases of design
processes?
Which factors affect these inclinations?
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While problematizing these issues and questions, the dissertation is built upon a
conviction that neither social actors nor technology intensive; on the contrary, all the
parties plays some part in shaping the position of 3D physical and digital modeling
media and they should be analyzed through a lens that can fit to this approach.
Theoretical sections put a claim that the Actor-network Theory could be an
important ground for the field study by providing theoretical, methodological as well
as empirical insights. Hence, the answers to all the research questions were sought
through these insights.
As the main concern of the dissertation revolves around the effective and efficient
employment of 3D physical and digital modeling in form development related skill
acquisition processes in industrial design education, industrial design studio actor-
networks in METU are examined around the four moments of the translation process
of an actor-network:
Problematisation: Formulation of the studio studies as knowledge and skill
development processes and their introduction to the students
Interessement: Persuasion of the students to design in the expected way
through negotiations etc.
Enrollment: Internalization of the proposed way of design and relevant
knowledge and skills
Mobilization: Reflections of the acquired knowledge, skills and abilities on
the su sequent st ges of the educ tion process nd the students‘ design
practice
By examining industrial design studio studies as the translation processes, the aim is
to understand how 3D physical and digital models and modeling take place in the
skill acquisition processes of the students in the complex studio assemblages and
how their positions and roles in these skill acquisition processes are affected by the
human and non-human actors.
222
In Figure 8.1, tr nsl tion processes of the students‘ skill cquisition processes re
demonstrated. Then, in what follows a brief summary of the answers provided to the
research questions, how this dissertation contributes to the field of industrial design
education, its limitations and suggestions for further studies are presented
223
Figure 7.1 Translation processes of the development of 3D physical and digital modeling skills in the studio studies
225
7.1 What skills and abilities do industrial design students need to
create and develop 3D forms in their studio studies?
The answer to this question drew on the existing literature review and findings of the
field research reflecting the existing approaches of the interviewees to the essential
skills, knowledge and experiences that an industrial design student should have for
their studio studies. By answering the question the aim is to understand the positions
of 3D physical and digital modeling among the essential skills, experiences and
knowledge for industrial design students.
In the literature, the following abilities are identified as the core ones that a designer
should have:
The ability to analyze and reframe design problems
Multidimensional and solution focused thinking ability
Non-verbal graphic/spatial modeling abilities
Although representational abilities are identified as separate, the other core abilities
entail conversations with design problems and their solutions and these conversations
cannot be conducted without representational abilities.
As mentioned in section 2 2, Schön defines design process by focusing on the
"reflective conversation with the materials of a design situation" ongoing throughout
the process. In this conversation, designer develops specifications of design ideas
through iter tively gener ted represent tions (Schön, 1991; Goldschmidt, 2004;
Visser, 2006). In the mentioned conversation, a designer employs representations:
To represent design solutions for testing their specifications
To make decisions by making inner conversations with these representations
To determine gaps and inconsistencies between the different forms of
representations
To transform uncertain specifications of design solutions into certain and
concrete specifications through representations
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To represent design solutions in a convincing way to the decision makers
through representations in different forms
To narrow the working space for understanding hidden problems on design
solutions through abstracted representations
To catch serendipity moments in design process through different form of
representation
The mentioned conversation is a cognitive activity. Representing 3D physical
specifications of design ideas and evaluating them throughout this activity require
certain cognitive abilities such as to be able to think in 3D (Lawson, 2004; Oxman,
2004; Eastman, 2001).
Throughout the industrial design education, students learn to design by developing
design solutions in their studio studies. In order to conduct the mentioned iterative,
incremental and reflective conversations in their ever complicated studio studies, an
industrial design student needs ever increasing cognitive abilities and competencies
on representational skills over the years as well as ever increasing theoretical and
technical knowledge. However, the importance of representational skills in industrial
design education does not result only from their potential in making possible the
mentioned reflective conversations between the students and their design solutions
but also from their potential in the developments of certain cognitive abilities of the
students although there is very limited number of the studies focusing on these
potentials.
The reviewed literature indicates that an industrial design student should have the
following five cognitive abilities and three essential representational skills for
developing 3D forms in their studio studies as well as for their professional lives.
Essential cognitive abilities:
Visual thinking abilities
3D thinking abilities
3D form manipulation abilities
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3D design knowledge
Ability to read and evaluate representations of design ideas
Essential representational skills:
Sketching especially for the early phases of design processes because of
practicality and speed of the sketching facilitating to catch flow of ideas as
well as its creativity boosting ambiguity.
3D physical modeling, for evaluating certain 3D physical properties of an
imagined product form such as its volume and geometry, user product
interaction, etc.
3D Digital modeling, especially for the advanced phases of design processes
because it enables the student to model every detail of the forms even they
are micro scale and to prepare high quality realistic visuals of design ideas
etc.
These abilities and skills are frequently emphasized in the literature with reference to
their potential for practicing. Accordingly, their positions as the essential
competencies in profession l industri l design field m kes ‗to equip the students with
these skills nd ilities‘ inevit le for industri l design educ tion
In most of the studies, sketching and its influences on visual thinking abilities are
frequently emphasized. However, there are few studies focusing on the contribution
of 3D physic l nd digit l modeling to the development of the students‘ relev nt
knowledge and cognitive abilities such as 3D design knowledge, 3D thinking and 3D
form manipulation abilities. This thesis points to this gap and emphasizes the need
for more studies investigating these complex relationships between 3D modeling and
development of cognitive abilities of the students.
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7.2 Existing roles and positions of 3D physical and digital modeling in
the studio studies
After the examination of the studio studies as translation processes, it is possible to
conclude that there are two types of positions and roles of 3D physical and digital
modeling.
The identified / intended positions and roles
The actualized positions and roles
The identified / intended positions and roles
The positions of 3D physical and digital modeling and their roles in the studio
studies are identified in the problematization moments of the studio studies by the
instructors in relation with the other identified critical representational media and the
criteria the students are expected to meet.
Sketching and 3D physical modeling appeared as the most appreciated
representational skills in almost all of the interviews conducted with the studio
instructors. They are identified as the core abilities for an industrial designer that
make possible to visualize and evaluate design ideas. Accordingly, in all of the studio
studies, sketches and 3D physical models are identified as the essential
representations.
Sketches are identified for every stage of design processes on the basis of its
potentials such as its speed and practicality in visualizing generated ideas and its
contri ution to the students‘ visu l thinking ilities However, their role in the e rly
phases of design processes, especially for idea generation, emerged as the most
emphasized one.
3D physical models are identified for almost every phases of the design processes in
which 3D physical information is required for evaluating 3D physical properties of
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design solutions. The most mentioned 3D physical information entailing properties
of design solutions are:
Structures of 3D forms
User-product interface / interaction
Product-environment relationship and
Certain types of physical properties such as volume and size of the products
In addition to their potential in providing 3D physical information, especially in the
early phases of the education process, 3D physical models are also identified among
the critical actors in order to provide the students with hands-on experiences in
manipulating 3D forms and shaping certain materials such as wood and cardboard.
The findings shows that, along with their identification as the required
representations, the instructors intended to make their employment inevitable by
identifying physical modeling and sketching entailing criteria that the students are
expected to meet.
Importance of 3D digital modeling as a representational skill and its integration in
industrial design education has been acknowledged by the instructors with reference
mainly to its potential in providing realistic visuals of design solutions, preparing
production related representations etc. and its appreciated position in the professional
field. However, unlike sketching and 3D physical modeling, it has a relatively
secondary position among the representational skills that a designer should have.
Furthermore, 3D digital modeling is considered by some of the instructors to be
avoided in the early phases of industrial design education because of the concerns on
its potential negative effects on the students‘ design approaches and on preserving
the essential position of 3D physical modeling in the education process. Hence, while
3D digital models are excluded from the basic design and second year studio studies,
in the third and fourth year studio studies, they are identified among the required
representations especially for the advanced phases of design processes.
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The actualized positions and roles
All of the student interviewees identified sketching as their fundamental and favorite
representational skill and they employed sketches as the essential representations
during their studio projects. Accordingly, it is possible to assume that the findings
address sketching as the most robustly positioned representational medium. From the
findings, the most significant underlying reasons for its robust position can be
identified in the following way:
1- Identification of sketches among the required representational media
2- Positioning of certain criteria entailing the employment of sketching within
the criteria set the students are expected to meet during the studio project
process
3- Negotiations between the instructors and the students about the potentials of
sketching such as its speed and practicality in the visualization of the ideas
especially for the early phases of design processes
4- The weighted place of the courses developing sketching ability in the
curriculum (there are three must courses and two elective courseson free-
hand drawing and 2D visualization, supporting development of sketching
skills in the program and they are given regularly)
Similar to sketching, 3D physical modeling has been recognized by all of the student
interviewees as the other essential representational skill that they should have. As
demonstrated in Figure 8.2, they employed 3D physical models in their narrated
studio projects mainly on the basis of their roles identified by the instructors in the
formulation of the studio studies.
231
Figure 7.2 Intended and actualized roles of 3D physical modeling
From the findings, it is possi le to conclude th t the students‘ opinions on 3D
physical modeling and overlapping intended and actualized roles of 3D physical
models in the narrated studio studies are influenced mainly by the following factors.
1. Identification of 3D physical models among the required representations
2. Positioning of certain criteria entailing the employment of 3D physical
modeling within the criteria set the students are expected to meet during the
studio project process
3. Negotiations between the instructors and the students about the advantages of
3D physical models such as their potential in providing 3D physical
information and convenience for representing user-product interaction
These f ctors re sic lly the instructors‘ str tegies for providing the internalization
of designing through 3D physical modeling mainly on the basis of the identified roles
of 3D physical models in the formulated studio studies. The match between the
232
intended and actualized roles of 3D physical modeling shows that the instructors‘
strategies worked.
However, s indic ted y the findings it is h rd to identify 3D physic l modeling‘s
position as robust as sketching. While almost all of the student interviewees found
their competencies in 3D physical modeling insufficient, the instructor interviewees
pointed to inefficient use of 3D physical models as thinking medium. Although there
may be various factors influencing the relatively weak position of 3D physical
modeling in the department, from the findings, the following two factors emerged as
the significant ones:
1. Lack of extensive instructions and exercises on 3D physical model making in
the program
2. Lack of exercises on using 3D physical models as thinking media and
information resource for design processes
Interviews show that 3D digital modeling is consciously avoided in the first half of
the education process, in order to prevent the potential negative effects of 3D digital
modeling on the students‘ design ppro ches Hence, 3D digit l models re identified
as the excluded representations in the first and second year studio studies. However,
some students admit that in certain cases, they used 3D digital modeling to
complement representational media for their studio projects without instructors
consent. Accordingly, as demonstrated in Figure 8.3, the roles of 3D digital modeling
in the students‘ design processes differed from its identified roles
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Figure 7.3 Intended and actualized roles of 3D physical modeling
The findings addressed three more actualized roles of 3D digital modeling in
addition to its intended roles identified in the formulation of the studio studies. In
these roles, 3D digital modeling worked together with 3D physical modeling rather
than competing with it nd contri uted to the students‘ knowledge nd skill
acquisition process. Digital modeling strengthened the connections between the
students and physical modeling by providing alternative ways facilitated by digital
modeling even for the very early phases of the design processes. The students
enhanced their 3D form manipulation abilities and control on the forms by working
together with 3D digital modeling without disregarding form development through
3D physical modeling. 3D digital modeling contributed to the development of the
students‘ 3D thinking ilities y providing the students with coordin te system
based 3D environments imitating physical world.
By exploring these unintended roles and their effects on the students‘ engagement in
the development processes of the aimed knowledge skills and abilities in the studio
studies, it is demonstrated that the students and 3D physical and digital modeling
234
could work together by complementing each other. These demonstrated
collaborations between the human and non-human actors of the studio studies also
highlights the complexities of the relationships in the studio assemblages.
7.3 Existing inclinations of the students for the employment of 3D
physical and digital modeling in their design processes and the
factors affecting these inclinations
Sketching has emerged as the significantly appreciated and promoted
representational tool for the early phases of design processes. As mentioned in
section 8.1, the studio instructors have identified sketching as the most convenient
medium for the early phases of design process because of its potential to keep up
with the speed of the flow of ideas.
However, in certain cases especially in which the subject is a novice designer who
strives to develop her / his form development skills, sketching could not provide
adequate information regarding 3D physical aspects of imagined forms that have
significant effects on the following stages of form creation. Consistent with this
concern, most of the student interviewees asserted that when their limited sketching
abilities come together with their limited 3D thinking abilities, they could not
imagine certain details of their forms and they tend to employ the most promising
and existing modeling media.
As explained in the previous section, the roles of 3D physical and digital modeling in
the studio studies are identified by the instructors in order to provide their
employment on the basis of the aimed professional acquisitions for the students. For
instance, all of the interviewed instructors identified 3D physical sketch models as
the most convenient modeling medium for representing user-product interaction.
Accordingly, user-product interaction is placed in the studio project briefs among the
most critical criteria. By doing this, the instructors intended to provide the students
with hands-on experiences on the determining effects of user-product interaction on
the form development process. However materials and their physical properties could
235
not be represented through abstracted 3D physical models. Additionally, they could
not provide the possibility to experience how materials and their physical properties
influence form development. In order to provide hands-on experiences on the
determining effects of materials and their physical properties on form development,
the instructors determined the prototypes as the must representation for final jury in
certain studio studies.
Although at first sight, it seems that the students tend to establish connections more
easily with the must modeling media, it is seen that in certain cases they preferred to
ignore the must modeling media by taking the risk to get low grade if their interests
and inclinations channel them to behave in this way as in the comments of student
SD3 narrating her third year studio study and student SA4 narrating his fourth year
studio project. Accordingly, the findings pointed to certain types of representational
media with which the students tend to establish connections more easily. These types
can be categorized in the following ways;
The most promoted representational tools,
The most familiar representational tools,
The easy reach representational tools,
The most promising representational tools.
However, it should be added that definitions of these categories may change
according to learning interests and inclinations of the students. For instance, in the
third year studio coffee maker narratives, while student SE3 identified sketching as
the most promising representational media in her form development process, student
SD3 commented on contributions of 3D physical modeling to her progress.
The roles and positions of 3D physical and digital modeling are experienced by the
students on the basis of the established connections between these media and them.
Hence, the actualized roles and positions of 3D physical and digital modeling are
identified on the sis of the students‘ eng gements in them
The students engaged in new representational skills and attitudes in their own
ways because of their diverse learning interests and inclinations
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Hands-on experiences that allow one to see the results of the actions instantly
have significant effects on the engagement of the students in the experienced
way of acting or medium.
7.4 Employing 3D physical and digital modeling to contribute to the
development of form creation related skills of the students in
industrial design education
The existing literature on the role of 3D physical and digital modeling provides us
with considerable knowledge and insight on the potentials and pitfalls of their
complementary and combined usage. However such an accumulation of knowledge
is far from providing a satisfactory guidance on how and in what ways they should
be used to minimize the drawbacks and maximize the benefits in the skill acquisition
process in industrial design education.
In so far as educational field in Turkey is concerned, a pragmatic approach
dominates the studio environment. Instructors have considerable experience and
knowledge they accumulated in their educational life. In most cases, these
knowledge and insights are well informed and guide the students in their experience
with 3D physical and digital modeling. In the case of students, while they try to
follow the framework and rules provided by the instructors in the studio and other
relevant courses environment by using these modeling strategies, they are also
tempted to develop their own strategies in the face of concrete situations, at times by
violating the rules imposed on them. Even if such interactions between the
instructors and students produce some good results in effective usage of 3D digital
and physical modeling, it is still fair to argue that we are still far away from a
convincing comprehensive framework that inform the instructors and guide the
students on this issue.
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Each modeling medium either physical or digital has its particular constraints and
advantages. The constraints they pose should not minimize their usage; it would be a
wise strategy to encourage their utilization by taking their constraints into account.
Various form manipulation exercises through digital and physical modeling
conducted as part of the studio studies even in the early phases of the form
development would give the students with the chance to become aware of their
advantages and constraints since knowing in action also involves being aware of the
constraints of the media which a practitioner may face during the practices as well as
the advantages. When this awareness turns into an intuition and becomes invisible
for the designer, it is possible to assume that the designer has internalized 3D
physical and digital modeling as complementary design media.
As mentioned by various scholars in the field and the instructor interviewees in the
research site, the aimed 3D physical and digital modeling competencies for the
students should not be reduced to the abilities to produce models both in physical and
digital format. To be able to think through 3D modeling and to use these models as
information sources for evaluating imagined solutions should be placed at the center
of the mentioned competencies.
In line with such an educational approach, providing the students with 3D physical
and digital modeling competencies requires to equip the students with the abilities to
think through 3D modeling and to use 3D models as information sources besides to
equip them with the abilities to produce 3D models in a certain quality.
An industrial design student starts to internalize her/his attitudes and to establish
her/his 3D design world through various basic design exercises at the beginning of
her/his industrial design education and then continues to evolve through ever-
complicating design processes in the studio studies. As explained in the previous
sections, 3D physical and digital modeling has been positioned in different phases of
design education. These separated positions of 3D physical and digital modeling
result partially from the concern about the potential negative effects of digital
modeling media on the development of the students‘ physic l represent tion l skills
and attitudes.
238
To a certain extent, this is an understandable concern. However, internalization of 3D
physical modeling as the main ability cannot be realized by eliminating the
competing media and practices. As seen in the findings, the instructors employ very
effective and working strategies to provide the students engagement in the aimed
knowledge and skills. Accordingly, by identifying 3D digital modeling as an ally for
3D physical modeling or vice versa and positioning it by using certain strategies such
as identifying certain project criteria that make inevitable the complementary
employment of 3D physical and digital modeling through ever-complicating studio
studies can provide their internalization as complementary representational media.
In addition to their communicative and information providing potentials, 3D physical
and digital modeling also have important influences on 3D design knowledge of the
designers. Representations are cognitive artifacts evolved in an interactive process in
which their producers re lso evolved reflectively (Schön, 1991; Visser, 2006) This
also involves co-evolution of representational skills and cognitive abilities. Hence,
the reflective evolution of 3D physical and digital models and cognitive abilities of
their producers (the students) adds another dimension to their role in industrial
design education in general and in the studio studies in particular. Accordingly, co-
evolution should be taken into account in the integration of 3D physical and 3D
digital modeling in industrial design education.
The students should be introduced with 3D design world and to develop their 3D
thinking abilities through combined 3D physical and digital modeling exercises.
In reality, although 3D physical and digital modeling have been positioned separately
on the basis of the concerns mentioned in the previous paragraphs, the students
employ 3D digital modeling as a complementary tool for sketching and 3D physical
modeling and enhance their 3D thinking abilities. Accordingly, rather than
positioning 3D digital modeling mainly on the basis of its representational potentials
it is possible to employ it to facilitate the development of 3D thinking abilities of the
students by benefiting from its potentials such as three dimensional coordinate
systems of digital modeling software. Transformations between 3D physical and
digital models throughout the exercises targeting the development of 3D thinking
abilities can make possible their complementary internalization.
239
The dissertation has been concerned with the existing roles of 3D physical and digital
modeling in the knowledge and skill acquisition processes of industrial design
students through the lens of Actor Network Theory. The findings have shown
emerging complexities in knowledge and skill acquisition processes in industrial
design education and highlighted the critical roles of 3D physical and digital
modeling and their mutual dependencies. However, findings of the research do not
allow identifying a step-by-step detailed procedure for the integration of 3D physical
and digital modeling in industrial design education by providing their internalization
as complementary media. Nevertheless, such a limitation does not prevent to propose
a general framing model for the procedure as provided in Figure 8.4.
240
Figure 7.4 Complementary instructions and exercises in 3D physical and digital
modeling in industrial design education
241
In Figure 8.4, the foreseen approach for the combined and complementary
development of 3D physical and digital modeling skills through hands on exercises is
demonstrated. In such an approach, the students should be introduced with 3D design
world in both physical and digital environments by also emphasizing their
complementarity on the basis of the exercises on the manipulation of simple 3D
forms in the beginning of the education process.
In the subsequent processes, similar to the ever-complicating studio studies, the
combined and complementary development of 3D physical and digital modeling
skills should continue through ever-complicating exercises on thinking through 3D
modeling in physical and digital formats as well as 3D form manipulation exercises.
In order to provide the students engagement in the exercises and introduced
knowledge and skills, in the exercises the students may be provided with the
opportunity to manipulate the forms that they develop in the studio studies. Year by
year, while the instructions become more advanced and forms become more
complicated; various constraints should also be added to the formulated exercises.
In addition to their complementarity, 3D physical and digital modeling should be
introduced to the students as their allies with which they work together throughout
their education as well as their professional lives. To allow the students to conceive
modeling practice and media as the actors that are capable of shaping their
knowledge and skill acquisition processes and the development of their various
cognitive abilities may increase the students engagement in the complementary
employment of 2D and 3D modeling practice.
7.5 Analyzing studio studies through Actor Network Theory lenses
Industrial design studio is a dynamic environment where different human and non-
human actors come together. Industrial design students develop their knowledge,
skills and attitudes through interactions among these actors in the studio studies. In
analyzing such a dynamic environment Actor Network Theory provides us with a
highly sophisticated framework.
242
Existing studies on design education acknowledge the significant roles of 3D
physical and digital models and modeling in knowledge and skill acquisition
processes of the students. However, in most of the studies the researchers approach
social (human) and technological (non-human) aspects of these processes by giving
priority one of them. Accordingly, they could not demonstrate deeply enough the
complexity of the relationships among the actors (human and non-human), their
potentials to act upon each other and the influences on knowledge and skill
acquisition of the students. In this thesis, human and non-human actors in the studio
studies, in other words the instructors, students, studio briefs, physical and digital
modeling media, etc. are approached symmetrically as entities capable to act upon
each other, to work together and to shape the translation processes of the aimed
professional knowledge, skills and attitudes from a novel perspective provided by
Actor Network Theory lenses. To approach all the actors in the studio studies in such
a way;
1. allows the author to analyze the studios as networked environments where
different actors work together by establishing connections with each other
2. provides a unique opportunity by joining human actors with non-human
actors as complementary elements of knowledge and skill development
processes in industrial design education
3. allows us to understand how actors are integrated into actor-networks such as
interessement and enrollment
7.6 Limitations and suggestions for further studies
The research has shown how the insights from Actor Network Theory provide a
framework through which the analysis of knowledge and skill acquisition processes
in industrial design education could be carried out in a novel way.
243
In this attempt, the main focus was placed on the translation processes of the
students‘ knowledge nd skills in studio contexts. Translation of the targeted
knowledge and skills to the students and their development processes are analyzed
by focusing on the flow of the studio studies. On the other hand, the research had
some shortcoming in observing the translation of the internalized skills to the
subsequent stage, namely mobilization in a detailed way. Such an evaluation requires
more comprehensive information going beyond the students narratives regarding
their best studio studies in terms of their outputs and their current opinions of 3D
physical and digital modeling as the clues about the mobilizations of these
acquisitions. Hence, a deep understanding of the existing roles of 3D physical and
digital modeling in the knowledge and skill acquisition processes of the students
requires a further research study which would repeat the very same research carried
out by this thesis but adding the subsequent studio narratives of the students as a new
dimension. As shown in Figure 8.1, there is also another kind of flow between the
studio studies and such a research would capture this flow as a translation process.
To evaluate applicability of the generated frame model for the integration of 3D
physical and digital modeling as complementary modeling media could not be
possible because it is generated at final stage of the research. Accordingly, another
required further study would be to explore the applicability of the generated frame
model.
In Chapter 2, it is mentioned that certain new technologies such as haptic modeling
tools are excluded from the scope of the thesis because they are still in the
development stage and their cost is too high to integrate into industrial design
education at least in Turkey. Nevertheless, in the future, when these technologies
become available, a further study would be required to understand their effects on the
roles and positions of 3D physical and digital modeling in the skill acquisition
processes in industrial design education.
In addition to these limitations and further studies, there were various study
limitations faced with throughout the research process. One of these limitations
concerned the number of the student interviews. In the initial phases of the research
244
process it was intended to conduct at least twenty interviews with the third and fourth
year students. However, because of their course schedule only twenty interviews
could be conducted although more students accepted to participate to the research.
The research study is conducted in METU, however there are different industrial
design departments following different schools in Turkey. Accordingly, the findings
and conclusions are limited to similar situations and cannot be generalized.
245
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APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
STUDENT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS IN TURKISH
Bu ç lışm ODTÜ End stri Ür nleri T s rımı Böl m eğitim progr mı k ps mınd
y r t len st dyo derslerinde; form geliştirme ile ilgili yetkinliklerin
k z ndırılm sınd 3 oyutlu fiziksel ve dijit l modellemenin rol , mevcut progr md
n sıl kull nıldığı ve öğrenciler ve st dyo y r t c leri t r fınd n n sıl lgıl ndığını
r ştırm yı m çl m kt dır
Bu ç lışm d n elde edilmesi m çl n n veriler; end stri r nleri t s rımı eğitiminde
form geliştirme ile ilgili yetkinliklerin k z ndırılm sınd dijit l ve fiziksel 3 boyutlu
modellemenin ir r d ve etkili kull nımın od klı ir öğretim y kl şımı
geliştirmeyi m çl y n ve t r fımd n y r t len doktor ç lışm md kull nıl c ktır
Eğer k ul ederseniz gerçekleştirilecek gör şme ses k yıt cih zı ile k ydedilecektir
Meht p Özt rk Şeng l
Ort Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi
End stri Ür nleri T s rımı Böl m
3. St dyo ç lışm l rın içinde sence en y r tıcı ve ort y çık n form ile seni en çok
memnun eden form geliştirme y d oluşturm s recin h ngisi idi?
a. Hangi tekniklerle ç lıştın?
b. H ngi m lzemeleri kull ndın?
c. S reç oyunc t s rl dığın form ile ilgili değerlendirmeleri n sıl y ptın?
Formunu değerlendiren şk kimler oldu?
d. En iyi değerlendirmeyi formunu geliştirirken kull ndığın görselleştirme
yöntemlerinden h ngisi ile y ptığını d ş n yorsun?
4. Form y r tm y d form verme ç lışm l rınd fiziksel y d dijit l modelleme
r çl rınd n h ngisini kull nm yı tercih ediyorsun? Neden?
a. Bu tercihin formun k rm şıklık d zeyine y d org nik olm sın göre
değişiklik gösteriyor mu?
b. Tercih ettiğin modelleme r çl rının r n geliştirme s recinde ç
oyutlu form geliştirmek için yeterli olduğunu d ş n yor musun?
c. Yeterli olm dığını d ş n yors ; Neden? Sorunu n sıl ve h ngi
t m ml yıcı uygul m l rl gideriyorsun?
260
5. Form yaratma ya da form verme ç lışm l rınd değişik teknikleri ir r d
kull nıyor musun? N sıl?
a. Bu gidip gelmeler şeklinde mi yoks elirli ir sır ile ve doğrus l
geçişler h linde mi oluyor?
b. H ngi duruml rd y d sorunl rl k rşıl şıldığınd u geçişlere ihtiy ç
duyuyorsun?
c. Bu geçişler form oluşturm s recine sence ne gi i k tkıl r y pıyor?
6. Form oluştururken kull ndığın model y d görselleştirme m lzemesinin s rece
ve ort y çık n form etkisi olduğunu d ş n yor musun?
a. En çok h ngi m lzemeyi kull nıyorsun? Neden?
b. En çok h ngi m lzemeyi kull ndığınd r h t ç lışıyorsun?
7. End stri r nleri t s rımı eğitimin s resince k tıldığın dersler, etkinlikler, tölye
ç lışm l rı, ç lışt yl r v k ps mınd y pıl n egzersizler içinde uz ms l
ecerilerinin gelişmesi zerinde senin için ç rpıcı etkisi olduğunu d ş nd klerin
oldu mu?
a. Bunl r ne t r egzersizlerdi? b. H ngi yöntem ve r çl rl ç lışıldı?
c. S re ne k d rdı? (Bu sorud hsedilen uz ms l eceriler kişinin iki ve ç oyutlu ir formu zihninde c nl ndırm ; onun
her çıd n ve değişik pozisyonl rd n sıl gör ne ileceğini, p rç l rı r sınd ki ilişkileri v ve y pılm sı
pl nl n n değişikliklerin formu n sıl etkileyeceğini zihninde kurgul y ilme ecerilerini k ps m kt dır )
8. End stri r nleri t s rımı eğitimin s resince k tıldığın dersler, tölye ç lışm l rı,
ç lışt yl r v k ps mınd y pıl n egzersizler içinde ç oyutlu form geliştirme-
oluşturm ecerilerinin gelişmesi zerinde senin için ç rpıcı etkisi olduğunu
d ş nd klerin oldu mu?
a. Bunl r ne t r egzersizlerdi? b. H ngi yöntem, r ç ve m lzemeler ile ç lışıldı?
c. S re ne k d rdı?
9. Geleneksel t s rım r çl rının uz ms l eceri ve yeterliklerinin gelişimi zerinde
etkisi olduğunu d ş n yor musun? N sıl?
a. En etkili olduğunu d ş nd ğ n r çl r h ngileri? Neden? (Bu soruda kull nıl n geleneksel t s rım r çl rı ile t sl k çizimleri, ç oyutlu t sl k modeller,
kull nımd ol n o jeler v k stedilmektedir )
10. Dijit l t s rım r çl rının uz ms l eceri ve yeterliklerinin gelişimi zerinde
etkisi olduğunu d ş n yor musun? N sıl?
a. En etkili olduğunu d ş nd ğ n r çl r h ngileri? Neden? (Bu sorud kull nıl n dijit l t s rım r çl rı ile ilgis y r destekli t s rım progr ml rı, t let v
r çl r k stedilmektedir )
11. Bir o jenin fiziksel özelliklerini dijit l ort md k vr m k konusunda ne
d ş n yorsun? Neden?
a. Eğer sorunlu uluyors : Bu sorunl rın neden k yn kl ndığını d ş n yorsun?
261
b. Eğer d h kol yl ştırıcı uluyors : H ngi f ktörlerin kol yl ştırdığını d ş n yorsun? (Bu sorud ir o jenin fiziksel özellikleri ile k stedilen; o o jenin formu y d içimi, p rç l rı
r sınd ki ilişkiler, oşluk doluluk v dir )
12. T s rl n n ir o jenin kull nıcısı ve çevresi ile fiziksel etkileşimini dijit l
ort md k vr m k konusund ne d ş n yorsun? Neden?
a. Eğer sorunlu uluyors : Bu sorunl rın neden k yn kl ndığını d ş n yorsun?
b. Eğer d h kol yl ştırıcı uluyors : H ngi f ktörlerin kol yl ştırdığını d ş n yorsun?
262
263
APPENDIX B
STUDENT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH
This research aims to investigate the role of 3D physical and digital modeling in the
acquisition of form development related competencies, in which ways they are
utilized in the existing educational program and approaches of the students and
studio instructors towards them in the studio studies in the Department of Industrial
Design at METU.
The data and information obtained in this research will be used in my PhD thesis
which aims to contribute to the development of an educational approach focusing on
the employment of 3D physical and digital modeling in form development related
skill acquisition processes in industrial design education.
The interviews are to be recorded depending on your consent.
Meht p Özt rk Şeng l
Ort Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi
End stri Ür nleri T s rımı Böl m
1. In your view, in which form development process among your studio studies
did you develop the most satisfying and creative form?
a. Which techniques did you employ?
b. Which materials did you use?
c. How did you make the evaluations regarding the form during the
development process? Was there any one evaluating your form?
d. Through which representational media did you make the most critical
evaluation?
2. Do you prefer physical or digital modeling media in your form creation or form
giving processes? Why?
a. Do your preferences change according to the level of the complexity of
the forms?
b. Do you think these preferred modeling media are adequate for
developing 3D forms during product development process?
c. If not, why? How do you cope with this problem? Which complementary
media do you use?
264
3. Do you use different techniques during the form creation/form giving processes?
How?
a. Do you move constantly between them or do you follow a linear process?
b. In which situations or problems do you need such moves between these
techniques?
c. How do these moves contribute to your form creation processes?
4. Does the modeling or visualization material that you use during the form creation
process influence the created form?
a. Which materials do you use most often? Why?
b. What modeling materials do you feel at ease in working with?
5. Is there any exercise conducted during the courses, workshops and activities etc.
in which you participated during your education process that you think made a
significant impact on the development of your spatial abilities?
(In this question, spatial abilities means a person’s abilities to imagine a 3D
form in her/his mind, how it looks like from different point of views, the
relationship between its components and how the intended changes affect the
form.)
a. What types of exercises are they?
b. Which methods and materials are employed during them?
c. How long did it take?
6. Is there any exercise conducted during the courses, workshops and activities etc.
to which you participated during your education process that you think made a
significant impact on the development of your 3D form creation skills?
a. What types of exercises are they?
b. Which methods and materials are employed during them?
c. How long did it take?
7. Do you think traditional design tools influence the development of your spatial
abilities and competencies?
(In this question, traditional design tools involve sketches, 3D physical
models and sketch models, ready-made objects, etc.)
a. What are the most effective ones? Why?
8. Do you think digital design tools influence the development of your spatial
abilities and competencies?
(In this question, digital design tools involve CAM (Computer Aided Design)
software, tablets, etc.)
265
a. In your point of view, which digital design tools are the most effective
ones?
9. What is your opinion on comprehending the physical properties of an object in a
digital environment? Why?
(In this question, physical properties of an object involve its form/shape,
relationships between its components and full and empty parts, etc.)
a. If s/he found it problematic: what could be the reason?
b. If s/he found it facilitating: what makes it facilitating?
10. What is your opinion on comprehending the physical interaction between a
product and its user and a product and its environment?
a. If s/he found it problematic: what could be the reason?
b. If s/he found it facilitating: what makes it facilitating?
266
267
APPENDIX C
INSTRUCTOR INTERVIEW QUESTIONS IN TURKISH
Bu ç lışm ODTÜ End stri Ür nleri T s rımı Böl m eğitim progr mı k ps mınd
y r t len st dyo derslerinde; form geliştirme ile ilgili yetkinliklerin
k z ndırılm sınd 3 oyutlu fiziksel ve dijit l modellemenin rol , mevcut progr md
n sıl kull nıldığı ve öğrenciler ve st dyo y r t c leri t r fınd n n sıl lgıl ndığını
r ştırm yı m çl m kt dır
Bu ç lışm d n elde edilmesi m çl n n veriler; end stri r nleri t s rımı eğitiminde
form geliştirme ile ilgili yetkinliklerin k z ndırılm sınd dijit l ve fiziksel 3 boyutlu
modellemenin ir r d ve etkili kull nımın od klı ir öğretim y kl şımı
geliştirmeyi m çl y n ve t r fımd n y r t len doktor ç lışm md kull nıl c ktır
Eğer k ul ederseniz gerçekleştirilecek gör şme ses k yıt cih zı ile k ydedilecektir
Meht p Özt rk Şeng l
Ort Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi
End stri Ür nleri T s rımı Böl m
11. T s rım eğitiminin temel m çl rı konusund ki fikirleriniz nelerdir?
Sizce u m çl r nelerdir? Geleneksel ve yeni görselleştirme
r çl rının u m çl r ul şm d ki yeri nedir?
12. T s rım öğrencilerine k z ndırılm sı gerektiğini nc k mevcut eğitim
progr mınd yer lm dığını d ş nd ğ n z yetkinlikler v r mı?
Bunl r neler? N sıl geliştirile ilir?
13. Fiziksel ve dijit l modelleme ecerilerinin mevcut end striyel t s rım
eğitimi progr ml rınd ki yeri nedir sizce?
a. H ngi ş m l rd verilmeye şl nm lıl r?
b. H ngi d zeylerde?
14. St dyo derslerinde y pıl n ç lışm l r d ş n ld ğ nde Sizce ir
t s rım öğrencisi –t s rım s recinin ilk ş m l rınd - form
geliştirirken h ngi yetkinliklere s hip olm lı? (Bu soruda yetkinlikler terimi
ile form geliştirme ç lışm l rı sır sınd kull nıl n ilgi, eceri ve d vr nışl r
kastedilmektedir.)
268
15. Form geliştirirken s hip olm l rı gerektiğini d ş nd ğ n z
yetkinliklerin öğrencilere k z ndırılm sı s recinde 3 oyutlu
modellerin rol olup olm dığı konusund ne d ş n yorsunuz?
a. Görselleştirmede fiziksel y d dijit l r çl rın kull nılmış
olm sı ç oyutlu forml rın lgıl nm sı ve geliştirilmesinde
f rk y r tır mı? Açıkl r mısınız?
16. T s rımcının kull ndığı görselleştirme r çl rın ne k d r h kim
olduğu/ r çl rın ilişkin yetkinlik d zeyi, t s rl dığı r n
olgunl ştırırken sizce ne k d r etkilidir?
a. Bu etkiyi -t s rım s recinin erken ş m l rınd form
geliştirme söz konusu ise n sıl değerlendirirsiniz?
17. Yeni (dijit l) görselleştirme r çl rı t s rım pr tiğini n sıl etkiledi?
Bu konud geleceğe d ir ir öngör n z v r mı?
18. St dyo derslerinde, öğrencilerinizin (kendilerinin ve) sınıf rk d şl rının t s rıml rını değerlendirmedeki ecerileri ve eğilimleri
konusund ne d ş n yorsunuz?
a. Bu durum t s rım s recinin erken ş m l rınd ki form
geliştirme ç lışm l rı için de geçerli mi?
b. Bund görselleştirmenin fiziksel y d dijit l görselleştirme
r çl rı ile y pılmış olm sının ir etkisi olduğunu d ş n r
m s n z?
19. Sizce fiziksel ve dijit l görselleştirme r çl rını kull nm
ecerilerinden h ngileri end stri r nleri t s rımı eğitiminde
k z ndırılm lı? Sizce n sıl/ne şekilde irlikte verilmeleri daha etkin
olur?
20. Kendi t s rım s recinizi d ş nd ğ n zde, geleneksel ve dijit l
görselleştirme r çl rının u s reçteki yeri ve v rs f rklı
ş m l rd ki öncelikleri h kkınd ir z ilgi vere ilir misiniz?
269
APPENDIX D
INSTRUCTOR INTERVIEW QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH
This research aims to investigate the role of 3D physical and digital modeling in the
acquisition of form development related competencies, in which ways they are
utilized in the existing educational program and approaches of the students and
studio instructors towards them in the studio studies in the Department of Industrial
Design at METU.
The data and information obtained in this research will be used in my PhD thesis
which aims to contribute to the development of an educational approach focusing on
the employment of 3D physical and digital modeling in form development related
skill acquisition processes in industrial design education.
The interviews are to be recorded depending on your consent.
Meht p Özt rk Şeng l
Ort Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi
End stri Ür nleri T s rımı Böl m
21. What is your opinion on the main objectives of design education in
general, industrial design education in particular? What would be the
role(s) of traditional and digital visualization media in the realization
of these objectives?
22. Are there certain new competencies which should be integrated into
the design education but not yet so? What are they and how could
they be developed?
23. What should be the role and position of digital and physical modeling
skills in the current programs in industrial design education?
a. At what stage should they be introduced?
b. At what degree and sophistication?
24. As far as studio studies are concerned, what kinds of competencies the
design students should have for form development in the early stages
of design processes? (In this question, competencies means the knowledge, skills and attitudes
of the students that they employ during their form development processes)
270
25. Is there any role of 3D modeling in the development processes of the
students‘ from cre tion rel ted competencies?
a. Does using digital or physical modeling media creates a
difference in the perception and development of 3D forms?
26. How important, in your opinion, are the level of competence / level of
mastering of the designer in visualization media in improving the
design of the product?
a. What would be this effect in the early stages of form
development?
27. What is the impacts new digital visualization tools have made on the
design practices?
28. Wh t do you think out the students‘ ilities nd inclin tions to
ev lu te their own nd piers‘ design solutions?
a. Is this valid for the early stages of form development studies?
b. Do you think physical or digital visualization tools make a
difference on this situation?
29. In so far as your opinion is concerned, which of these digital and
physical visualization skills should be integrated into industrial design
education.
a. In what ways/ how would they be introduced more
effectively?
30. If you take your own design processes into consideration, could you
tell us about respective places of traditional and digital visualization
media in your design process and employment priority of them in
different stages of your work?
271
APPENDIX E
IMPORTANCE AND CROSS-TABULATION TABLES FROM
THE PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE DISSERTATION
Table E. 1 Importance table of the four elements of the preliminary study
Table E. 2 Rel tionship etween university nd ‗closeness to re lity‘
272
Table E. 3 Chi-square Test for University-‗Closeness to re lity‘
Table E. 4 Rel tionship etween University nd ‗Inter ction with the form‘
273
Table E. 5 Chi-square Test for University- ‗Inter ction with the form‘
Table E. 6 Rel tionship etween University nd ‗incre sing the skills‘
Table E. 7 Chi-square Test for University- ‗Incre sing the skills‘
274
Table E. 8 Rel tionship etween University nd ‗control on the system‘
E. 9 Chi-square Test for University- ‗ control on the system‘
275
APPENDIX F
MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL
DESIGN UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM
276
277
278
279
APPENDIX G
BRIEF AND DOCUMENTS OF STUDENTS SE3’S AND SD3’S
COFFEE MAKER STUDIO PROJECTS
280
281
282
283
284
285
APPENDIX H
BRIEF OF STUDENT SB4’S PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT
PROJECT
286
287
APPENDIX Ġ
BRIEF OF STUDENT SC4’S GRADUATION PROJECT
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
APPENDIX J
BRIEF OF STUDENT SF4’S BACKHOE LOADER
WORKSTATION PROJECT
296
297
APPENDIX K
ORIGINAL VERSIONS OF THE NUMBERED QUOTATIONS
REFERRED IN CHAPTER 7
A01 V kit h rc m k istemiyor, h ni ir t ne y p c ğım ve ol c k duygusu
olduğu için ir t ne y pıyor Onun zerine olm dı deyince u sefer iyice
morali bozuluyor.
A02 Elle y pıl m y n şeyleri y pıyoruz or d Çok d h y k ş nsl r,
k z l rd n ile ilginç ir fikir çıkıp ir şey oluştur iliyor Y d fiziksel
ol r k elinde hş pl oyn rken unu kmek klın gelmeye ilir, k lse
n sıl dururdu, y p mıyor Oys dijit l ort md sınır yok, her şeyi
yapabiliyor. (A02)
A03 Y ni istediği k d r dijit l olsun, istediği k d r y ksek teknoloji olsun
Teknoloji şeyi ezemiyor, fiziksel ol nı ezemez ç nk or d sic ir core
v r, siz ins nı Y ni t ht yl uğr ş n ir d mı… T ht nın ir kokusu
v rdır, f rklı cins t ht nın ğırlıkl rı v rdır Y ni fiziksel property‘i dijit l
ort m hiç ir z m n size vermez ‖ (A03)
A04 İzin vermiyoruz, ç nk dediğim gi i, diğer şeylerde olduğu gi i t rihsel
s m kl rı çıkm sı l zım… Ben ilk önce hep eskinin verilmesini sonr
yeninin girilmesini öylece m ymun-ins n gi i progressin nerede olduğunu,
nerede yeninin eskiyi y p m dığını vey nerede eskinin rtık niye yeniye
geçtiğini nl tm k çısınd n sır l m nın d ynı t rihsel ir şeyi t kip
etmesi… (A04)
A05 Y ni işte şimdi siz de iliyorsunuz, ıhl mur s pelliden f rklıdır, meşe
g rgenden f rklıdır, k v k işte u ing d n f rklıdır (…) Bunu siz ilirsiniz,
298
t ht ile uğr şırken ilirsiniz (…) Y ni dol yısıyl unl rın hepsi ‗physic l
property‘ ve iz nesnelleştirme ile uğr şıyoruz, An uğr şımız u ve
m lzemeyi t nım k dijit l ort md m mk n değil Y ni, siz o malzeme ile
neler y pıl c ğının örneklemelerini göre ilirsiniz m ir şey y p c ks nız
o m lzemeyi önce ir hissedeceksiniz ( ) Dol yısıyl en özellikle de
t s rım eğitiminin şınd fiziksel tem sı çok d h önemseyen ekoldenim
diyeyim. Yani simdi ilgis y rın pek çok şeyi kol yl ştırm dın surecin
dışın sidiğini ve o ilginin ir şekilde k y olduğunu d ş n yorum ‖(A05)
A06 (…) neyle y p c ksın? M lzemeyi hen z d ş nmedim Simdi kin o k d r
komik şeyler ki unl r N sıl l n diyorsun, unu n sıl y ptın m lzemeyi
d ş nmeden? H ni urun y pılır, m lzeme t nır, yni ilgis y r, dikk t edin,
photoshop‘d m lzeme tıyorl r y Y ni urun t s rl nıyor, m lzeme
r nıyor O urunun m lzemesine göre t s rl n c ğını ilmiyor 3DMax de
malzeme atayan zihniyet ( ) Evl dım m lzemesi ne unun diyorum Hen z
onu d ş nmedim Y ni n sıl diyorum, P z rtesi g n urunu y p rsın ş li
g n m lzeme mi d ş n l r, u er er y pılır diyorum, h tt on göre
y pılır u ‖ (A06)
A07 Ç nk zı ins nl r doğ l ol r k y p iliyor, onu o jeye dön şt rme
silkintisi çekmiyorl r Onl rın h ricindekiler için ir konsens s oluşuyor
sınıft , ―z ten kimse y p mıyor, en de y p mıyorum‖ Eğer sivrileşmeye
ç lış n yoks ir sorun yok Mesel or d hemen sınıf içinde ir konsens s
oluşuyor, ―n sıl ols kimse s per y p m y c k‖, ve y p nı d y ptırtm m k
zerine ir konsens s oluşuyor Öyle g rip ir lgı, y p n t kdir edilmiyor,
dişleniyor O d çok g rip ir şey, onun sosyolojik ir f ktör ol r k yrıc
incelenmesi gerekli Bir şey y pıl ilir mi h kkınd ilmiyorum m durum
bu. (A07)
A08 Dol yısı ile demek ki izim unu 1 den iti ren k z ndırmış olm mız
gerekiyor, temel bir beceri ve mock-up dediğiniz şeyde t ii y ni hiç
y pm zs nız gelişmez, y ni y pm zs nız t ii ki z m n lır m onu s recin
ir p rç sı ol r k en şınd n iti ren d hil etmiş ols ydık d h hız
299
k z n c kl rdı, d h etkili kull n c kl rdı, k ğıdı n sıl kull n c k,
muk vv yı, oluklu muk vv yı f rklı m lzemeleri unl rı…‖ (A08)
A09 Bunun d zı temel t s rım eğitimi ile ilgili şeyleri v r, m çl rı ile ilişkisi
v r Örneğin 2 oyutlu, 3 oyutlu modelleme, mock-up yapma, model
y pm , eskiz y pm , t n işte gözlem y pm T m u şeylerden
f yd l n r k, r çl rd n f yd l n r k t s rım fikirlerini geliştiriyorl r,
pro lem l nını t nımlıyorl r, fikirleri geliştiriyorl r ve unu 3 oyut
t şım y şlıyorl r Eğer u s reçten geçmezsek öğrencilerin doğrud n
modellemeye geçerlerse slınd şt ki ölç tleri y nsıtm l rı konusund
sorunl r y ş y c ğımızı d ş n yoruz Y ni, yine çöz m önerileri çok
y zeysel k l ilir y d mevcut r nlerden çok f rklıl şm y ilir Y ni
yeniden sorunu ele lm mız engel ol n ir şey gi i de göre iliyoruz T ii
u d t rtışm y çık ir konu (A09)
A010 Ben bunu birinci sınıft n iti ren ldım, h l lıyorum 3 yıl oldu Su n
seçmeli m iki donemde ldım seçmeliyi Bu eşinci lışım‖ (A10)
A011 Bir t ne profil dol şıyor fil n, o profilin zerine m s oturuyor, ir yerde
koltuk onun zerine oturuyor şeklinde ir şey getirdi Ve tek profil, yani
m s şu tek şeyin zerinde duruyor, u‘nun zerinde duruyor Bunu ir de
modellemiş, n sıl modellemiş, işte d md z dikdörtgen k rtonu kesmiş,
çu ukl rı şöyle tutturmuş, t ii m s y kt durm mış, s ll nıyor m onu
d g zelce yere y pıştırmış zorl mış Şur d ntl rl tutturmuş onu
Diyoruz ki ‗ k durmuyor, unu ir def d ş n r m s n? Model s n unu
söyl yor Bu demektir ki m s dediğin şey en z ç y klı ol c k (A11)
A012 Y ni u progr ml rın h y tımız girmesi, eğitim ort mın girmesi,
eğitiminin veriliyor olm sı ve st dyol rd h ni projeler için kull nılıyor
olm sı işlerin niteliğini çok değiştirdi, ort y çık n projelerin gelişim
d zeylerini çok etkiledi Onl rın teknik çizimlerini l ilmek, y p ilmek,
iste p rç l rın n sıl yrıştığını, p rç l rını ile yır ilmek, iste k lıpt n
çıkıp çıkm dığın k iliyorsunuz İşte irleşip iyi oturup oturm dığın
300
n sıl irleştireceğinize d ir k r rl r vere iliyorsunuz Bizim z m nımızd
her şey çok k vr ms l d zeyde k lmış
A013 Son ana kadar t m ltern tiflerinizi h l ekr nd göre iliyorsunuz, m iz
her ltern tif için o p r yı h rc yıp görselleştirmek zorund ydık (A12)‖
301
CURRICULUM VITAE
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Surn me, N me: Özt rk Şeng l, Meht p
Nationality: Turkish (TC)
Date and Place of Birth: 8 July 1969, Ankara
Marital Status: Married
Phone: +90 312 2107282
Fax: +90 312 210 7963
Email: [email protected]
EDUCATION
Degree
MS
BS
Institution
Department of Industrial Design, METU
Department of Architecture, Trakya University
Year of Graduation
2009
1992
WORK EXPERIENCE
Year
1992-1993
1993-1995
1995-1996
1996-2000
2001-2002
2002-2004
2004-2006
2006-2008
2009- …
Place
Ekol Architecture, Ankara
Pemos n A Ş , Eskişehir
Tepe Mutfak, Antalya
SMT T s rım, Ant ly
T rz T s rım, Ank r
B rmek A Ş , Ank r
MG İnş t, Ank r
Adore Mobilya, Ankara
Department of Industrial Design, METU
Enrollment
Architect
Furniture designer
Architect
Owner-Designer
Furniture designer
Architect
Architect
Furniture designer
Specialist
FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Advanced English
PUBLICATIONS
Özt rk Şeng l, M., 2009, K ç k ve Ort Ölçekli Mo ily End strisinde T s rım
S reçleri ve T s rımcının Konuml nışınd K lt r Boyutu, Er, H.A. et.al (Eds)
Proceedings of 4. National Design Congress 2009: Design or Crisis, ITU
Department of Industrial Product Design, Istanbul, 341-354