Does sketching stand alone as a communication tool during concept generation in design teams?

Does sketching stand alone as a communication tool during concept generation in design teams?

Nik Ahmad Ariff, N.S.
Badke-Schaub, P.G.
Eris, O.

Industrial Design Engineering

Product Innovation Management

2012-12-31

The present study investigates the relation between sketching and communication in teams during the idea generation process in early concept generation. A quasi-experiment study has been conducted with Masters students of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands. Six groups consisting of three students had to solve a design problem in a given time. Whereas the experimental groups (n=3) were not allowed to talk during the design process, the control groups (n=3) did not face any restrictions. The experiments were recorded, observed and analyzed. As expected, both groups used communication to transfer and support their individual ideas. For the experimental groups, the written language became the medium of communication in detailing the information of sketches. These findings show that sketching cannot stand alone; design teams need to use sketching and verbal communication in conjunction not only to produce well-developed ideas, but also to transfer them.

sketching
design thinking
design process
creativity
communication

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6aaa10fb-6cda-4ce0-8040-41a58a4ce443

Design Research Society

DRS 2012: Proceedings of the International Design Research Society conference, Bangkok, Thailand, 1-4 July 2012; authors version

Institutional Repository

conference paper

(c) 2012 The Authors