An Experimental Investigation of the Design Process.
Abstract
College students were given a complex design problem: to design a restaurant in a building that used to be a church. A diversity of background information-sources and problem constraints were given, mirroring the situation for software design. The study was also concerned with the effects on the design solution of gradations in the modificability of pre-existing structures (ranging from exterior walls of the building to furniture and architectural detail). After completing the design, using a format of their choice, participants filled out a questionnaire concerning their strategy, goals and information sources. The primary difficulty in evaluating these designs is the same as in software design: the solution is essentially conceptual and cannot be directly tested. Although a common design-evaluation method is peer-ratings, in the current study we developed two objective methods. Particality was measured as the raio of functional requirements satisfied in the design to all requirements (the latter derived from an a priori elaboration of design goals).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA069030
Entities
People
- Ashok Malhotra
- John C. Thomas
- John M. Carroll
Organizations
- IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center