Elsevier

Design Studies

Volume 21, Issue 5, September 2000, Pages 451-464
Design Studies

Using concept sketches to track design progress

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0142-694X(00)00018-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Sketching is one of the most important activities in the design and development of new products. Designers produce sketches, from concept design ideas through to highly detailed representations of product artifacts, product sub-assemblies and so on, to communicate with themselves and with others. To this end, the focus of this paper is the description of a study of student designers at work in the early stages of design, with particular emphasis on the visible sketching component of the design process. The study has been carried out to firstly investigate the sketching activity and secondly to explore methods or techniques which might improve the efficiency of this activity. In particular, the paper describes a technique, based upon three types of operation, namely lateral transformations, vertical transformations and duplication, that occur between designer's sketches. These transformations can be used to help track the designer's thinking mode which, it is envisaged, will increase the efficiency of the sketching activity.

Section snippets

Sketching in conceptual design

During the early (conceptual) stages of design, the sketchpad is used widely to express ideas and has been referred to as the medium of reflection-in-action[12]. In his work, Schon[12]suggests that through drawing, designers construct a `virtual world' where the drawing reveals qualities and relations unimagined beforehand. Sketches are representations which will often allow the designer to `try out' a new idea on paper, quickly and cheaply. Schon also notes that while drawing can be rapid and

Transformation typology

One of the most detailed studies of the act of sketching was conducted by Goel[16]. He identified two types of operation occurring between successive sketches in the early stages of design, namely lateral transformations and vertical transformations shown in Fig. 1.

In a lateral transformation, movement is from one idea to a slightly different idea. In a vertical transformation, movement is from one idea to a more detailed and exacting version of the same idea. Fig. 1 shows sketches made as part

Methodology

In the study described here, eight students were selected from a class of 22 by teaching staff. This paper will only describe the sketching activities of three of the eight students that were initially selected. This selection is intended to illustrate a range of activity and varying scale of project. In line with recent work on ethnographic methods17, 18, the students were observed at work on their individual, self-driven projects. These projects constitute a major part of the MEng. Product

Results and discussion

This section presents results of the three student designers' sketching activities involved in the study. The results achieved have been separated into two elements. First the number and transformation balance (i.e. lateral against vertical percentage) of sketches produced during the observation period (Section 4.1) and, second, a week by week record of the complexity and transformation progress of each student's sketching activity is presented (Section 4.2).

The observer (third author) studied

Conclusions and future work

This study has confirmed that freehand sketching is prevalent in the conceptual phase of design and that the sketching activity has peaks and troughs of both lateral and vertical transformations over time. In this way, sketches can provide insight into the designer's mode of thinking at any particular point in the design process. It is hoped that this reflexive analysis will provide a basis to support more effective and efficient use of the designer's time and effort.

In addition, the work

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the M. Eng. Product Design Engineering students at the University of Glasgow who participated in the study for their cooperation and for the loan of sketchbook material.

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