Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Conversations Around Design Sketches: Use Of Communication Channels For Sharing Mental Models During Concept Generation, Nik Shahman Nik Ahmad Ariff, Petra Badke-Schaub, Ozgur Eris

Ozgur Eris

In this paper, we present an exploratory protocol study on the use of different communication channels during design sketching. We focus on how individual designers share their mental models with other designers in a group, and analyse their use of graphical, textual, and verbal communications during concept generation.

Our findings suggest that verbal communication plays a role in the sharing of individual mental models during sketching, and complements graphical and textual communication channels. However, design teams can still function without verbal communication in that respect, and address design problems. They seem to compensate for the absence of the verbal communication …