TOWARDS A FORMAL REPRESENTATION MODEL OF PROBLEM FORMULATION IN DESIGN

Studies on design, show that problem formulation plays a major role in creative design. We plan to construct an interactive computer system that aids problem formulation. In the current stage, to improve our understanding of problem formulation, we have conducted exploratory protocol studies of novice designers and collected data from an expert designer in the form of a depositional interview. A formal representation of the design problem is needed to improve our empirical investigation. We propose a preliminary framework for such a model and we call it a problem map. It provides a basis for comparing how different designers perceive a problem. Our study is based on the design of a model aircraft for the AIAA student design competition. This preliminary analysis shows the evolution of the problem and the solution spaces in the elaboration of the problem maps through time. The problem maps also show a richer representation of attended attributes and relations for the expert and more attributes left in vacuum for the novices.© 2011 ASME

[1]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  The Sciences of the Artificial , 1970 .

[2]  Allen Newell,et al.  Human Problem Solving. , 1973 .

[3]  John C. Thomas,et al.  The psychological study of design , 1979 .

[4]  Jane Darke,et al.  The primary Generator and the Design Process , 1979 .

[5]  Vinod Goel,et al.  The Structure of Design Problem Spaces , 1992, Cogn. Sci..

[6]  Nigel Cross,et al.  Analysing design activity , 1996 .

[7]  John S. Gero,et al.  Advances in Formal Design Methods for CAD , 1996, IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing.

[8]  Mary Lou Maher,et al.  Formalising Design Exploration as Co-Evolution , 1996 .

[9]  R. Eisentraut,et al.  Individual styles of problem solving and their relation to representations in the design process , 1997 .

[10]  Gabriela Goldschmidt,et al.  Capturing indeterminism: representation in the design problem space , 1997 .

[11]  John S. Gero,et al.  An approach to the analysis of design protocols , 1998 .

[12]  Nigel Cross,et al.  Expertise in engineering design , 1998 .

[13]  Ac Rianne Valkenburg,et al.  The reflective practice of design teams , 1998 .

[14]  Renate Eisentraut.  Styles of problem solving and their influence on the design process , 1999 .

[15]  Cynthia J. Atman,et al.  A comparison of freshman and senior engineering design processes , 1999 .

[16]  Gerd Fricke,et al.  Successful approaches in dealing with differently precise design problems , 1999 .

[17]  Chun-Heng Ho,et al.  Some phenomena of problem decomposition strategy for design thinking: differences between novices and experts , 2001 .

[18]  Simon Szykman,et al.  EVOLVING A FUNCTIONAL BASIS FOR ENGINEERING DESIGN , 2001 .

[19]  Nigel Cross,et al.  Creativity in the design process: co-evolution of problem–solution , 2001 .

[20]  John S. Gero,et al.  The Situated Function — Behaviour — Structure Framework , 2004 .

[21]  Linden J. Ball,et al.  Spontaneous analogising in engineering design: a comparative analysis of experts and novices , 2004 .

[22]  Nigel Cross,et al.  Solution driven versus problem driven design: strategies and outcomes , 2006 .

[23]  C. Dorst.  Design research: a revolution-waiting-to-happen☆ , 2008 .

[24]  Rob H. Bracewell,et al.  Guiding Engineering Design Activities Through a Question Based Approach , 2009 .

[25]  Johan Malmqvist,et al.  CUSTOMIZING PRODUCT DATA MANAGEMENT FOR SYSTEMS ENGINEERING IN AN INFORMAL LEAN-INFLUENCED ORGANIZATION , 2010 .

[26]  Alberto J. Cañas,et al.  A TEORIA SUBJACENTE AOS MAPAS CONCEITUAIS E COMO ELABORÁ-LOS E USÁ-LOS * THE THEORY UNDERLYING CONCEPT MAPS AND HOW TO CONSTRUCT AND USE THEM , 2010 .

[27]  P. Langley,et al.  A structure for representing problem formulation in design , 2011 .