Novice-Expert Design Consultations: Findings from a Field Study

This study aimed to investigate the process of novice-expert consultation meetings in an organizational context by identifying phases of the discourse and analysing the nature of these phases. An empirical study was performed at Rolls-Royce Aerospace Engineering by capturing 7 audio-records of meetings between trainees (novices) and expert designers over the course of the design projects of 3 teams of trainees. 3 main phases, context sharing, knowledge creation and information seeking, were distinguished and it was found that these phases alternated often during consultation meetings. Furthermore, over the course of trainees’ design project, the length of the knowledge creation phases increased while the length of information seeking phases decreased and the length of the context sharing phases remained the same. Finally, the different roles of expert and novice are discussed and suggestions for further research are provided.