Knowing and Designing: Understanding Information Use in Design Industry Through the Lens of Information Archetypes
Advisor Information
Christine Toh
Location
UNO Criss Library, Room 225
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Start Date
3-3-2017 2:30 PM
End Date
3-3-2017 2:45 PM
Abstract
Researchers and practitioners have regarded the early phases of the product design and development process as crucial to the success of design outcomes. Importantly, information gathered and utilized during idea development has tremendous potential to impact the direction of the final design. However, there is a lack of a holistic framework describing the types of information designers in industry utilize during conceptual design, making it challenging to develop and teach methodologies that support the design of competitive products. As a first step in understanding the types of information utilized during the design process, this study focuses on developing and empirically testing a framework of Information Archetypes utilized by designers in industry. This was accomplished through in-depth qualitative interviews with large software engineering companies, and analysis using the principles of inductive content analysis. The result of these analyses reveals five archetypes of design information utilized by decision-makers within these companies during the development of new products and services. The findings of this study provide the foundation for an Information Archetype framework of design information as is observed in situ, and allow for future research that investigates the role of information during the product design process.
Knowing and Designing: Understanding Information Use in Design Industry Through the Lens of Information Archetypes
UNO Criss Library, Room 225
Researchers and practitioners have regarded the early phases of the product design and development process as crucial to the success of design outcomes. Importantly, information gathered and utilized during idea development has tremendous potential to impact the direction of the final design. However, there is a lack of a holistic framework describing the types of information designers in industry utilize during conceptual design, making it challenging to develop and teach methodologies that support the design of competitive products. As a first step in understanding the types of information utilized during the design process, this study focuses on developing and empirically testing a framework of Information Archetypes utilized by designers in industry. This was accomplished through in-depth qualitative interviews with large software engineering companies, and analysis using the principles of inductive content analysis. The result of these analyses reveals five archetypes of design information utilized by decision-makers within these companies during the development of new products and services. The findings of this study provide the foundation for an Information Archetype framework of design information as is observed in situ, and allow for future research that investigates the role of information during the product design process.