Constructing design activity in words
Exploring linguistic methods to analyse the design process
Senthil Chandrasegaran (TU Delft - DesIgning Value in Ecosystems)
Almila Akdag Salah (Universiteit Utrecht)
P.A. Lloyd (TU Delft - DesIgning Value in Ecosystems)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Analysing transcripts of design activity typically involve either close reading or manual coding of data, which limits the amount of data that can be analysed. In contrast, we explore a machine-learning based linguistic analysis tool called Empath to identify patterns of reasoning in design talk. The data we use derives from the Design Thinking Research Symposium (DTRS) shared-data workshops which we analyse to look at two contrasting aspects of design talk: the expression of tentativeness, characterising designers' generative thinking; and the articulation of explanations, characterising their deductive or analytical thinking. We show, at the level of speech turns, how tentativeness and explanation relate to, and overlap, each other. Finally, we discuss the limitations of this ‘linguistic analysis at scale’ approach.
help_outline