Yarn CAD simulation for fashion and textile design education

This study investigates the requirements for a CAD interface to facilitate the successful education of fashion and textile students in the area of yarn design and production. YarnCAD is not a commercial software but a tool developed through previous and ongoing research and has been found to be very successful in the teaching environment. However, it was realised that the original interface had shortcomings particularly at the designer/technologist interface just as exists in the real yarn design and production process. An experiment was designed requiring individuals to use the system to design their own yarn and then to try to simulate a given real yarn. The methodology used to capture and analyse the data obtained is known as ‘Protocol Dialogue Analysis’ or ‘Think Aloud Method’. This simply means that the subject is asked to articulate their thoughts as they carry out the task. Twelve participants took part in this exercise, each having a design or textile technology background and education. This results in many pages of statements, which have to be refined and coded in order to discover trends in problems, misunderstandings, misinformation, poor navigation, etc. in the system.