The purpose of the study was to identify perceptions of the contributions made by superintendents and architects respectively when programming a new school. Areas of collaboration were determined by a qualitative analysis of the responses of superintendents and architects to questions regarding their perceptions of areas to discuss when collaborating in the designing of a new school. Ninety-four Texas superintendents and forty-six architects participated in the survey. Major research findings from this study addressed the areas of knowledge needed to enhance the collaboration process. Budget is the driving force within the collaboration between superintendents and architects when designing a school. The superintendent is the key communicator in the design process. Architects are the individuals most concerned with using the instructional delivery methods used by teachers to guide the design process. Three main areas to address when designing a school to support student safety are accessibility, surveillance and visibility. Instructional specialists, specifically at the district-level, are often not included as a part of the facilities committee. Superintendents obtain knowledge and the skill to collaborate with architects on a school design process through on-the-job experience. Recommendations are made to further enhance the collaboration. Superintendents and architects need to view budgets as a way to prioritize needs rather than to limit possibilities when designing a school. Superintendents must continue to be aware that they are the lead communicator in the school design process and must continue to work to effectively communicate their district�s and community�s needs, expectations, and vision. Superintendents must be prepared to communicate instructional delivery methods and expectations to architects when designing a school. Superintendents and architects need to consider accessibility, camera surveillance, and visibility when designing a school to support student safety. Facilities committees should include district level curriculum experts as part of the school design process, as these individuals are knowledgeable of the district�s instructional vision. It is important for superintendents who are designing a school project to have prior experience in participating in the design process, or to collaborate with other superintendents with experience to guide and assist them in the process.

In the multidisciplinary design process, design documents are used to help support a team's design and mediate any misunderstandings that occur. Current methods of organizing such design documents are either difficult to keep up to date physically with their digital versions, or inhibit distributed users access to important comparative information. Digital tag and content thumbnail-based document organization is presented as a possible alternative. The effects of tag-based document organization on the manner in which collocated and distributed design teams categorize, review and search design documents and resolve design misunderstandings were compared to the effects of traditional physical (the pin up walls of project rooms)&digital (shared digital file folders) document organization. Student participant design teams were assembled. These teams were observed organizing a provided set of design documents and develop a design solution as a team using either tag-based or traditional physical or digital document organization. Team members were given retrieval tests to compare search times between methods of document organization. User feedback on organization preferences were collected and used to develop a conceptual prototype of a document organization interface supportive of the multidisciplinary design process. Though the quantitative results did no clearly favor tag-based organization, observational results and user comments were in support of the capabilities tag-based organization provides.

<p>Over many years the housing industry has been criticised concerning its performance related to factors such as quality and cost. Together with the challenge of improving its capability in meeting individual customers’ needs, by means of effective production, this has resulted in a situation where companies look at other industries, such as manufacturing, in order to<i> industrialise</i> their products and processes. Swedish housing producers are today working towards finding more commonality in products and processes at the same time as the ability to deliver customized product and services is maintained or improved. In some cases this means an increase in central control of the design work carried out in project groups.</p><p>This thesis presents a study of the design process for housing at a Swedish property developer, JM AB. Interviews have been conducted with three main groups of actors (project leaders, architects and sellers) connected to ten housing developments. A survey has also been sent out to these individuals as well as to other important actors. The main objectives of these investigations were to find out major actors’ attitudes towards the increase in central control of the design work, in general terms as well as in relation to specific design objects (windows, floor plans, bathrooms and basic structure) for the housing projects.</p><p>The results show that the trend towards more industrialised processes by more structuring and standardising concerning design has had an effect on the design work carried out in project groups. There are positive as well as negative aspects, as well as similarities and differences in attitudes. These differences can be related to different roles as well as to geographical differences. Within this work a <i>triangle</i> has been developed for measuring and comparing different actors’ attitudes. The work further shows that adapting a more holistic view of the design process, by considering it as part of a firm’s product realisation process, could be a base for further developments</p>

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<p>The thesis presents a research project in graphic design including the development of a symbol system that represents tastes of wine as consumer information. The thesis has three main chapters; design, theory and empirical foundation.</p><p>The design chapter clarifies the design concept and its evolution from a traditional standpoint to its present state in the international area of design research as design theory.</p><p>The theoretical chapter presents a map of concepts in order to explain problems and practical solutions in the design process. The concepts are based on the philosophical ideas of Ernst Cassirer and Ludwig Wittgenstein, and concern interpretation of sense information, symbols and signs, picture and image. The design of the symbol system concerns the experience of taste, as a translation from words to pictures.</p><p>The empirical chapter comprehends both a description of the design process and of the empirical research. The method used is prototyping with a reference group of branch experts. The empirical research has evaluated the possibility to interpret, learn, use and understand the symbol system. The method used is a survey with questionnaires to a group of wine consumers</p>

For manufacturing companies active on the global market, high-performance production systems that contribute to the growth and competitiveness of the company are essential. Among a wide range of industries it is increasingly acknowledged that superior production system capabilities are crucial for competitive success. However, the process of designing the production system has received little attention, ignoring its potential for gaining a competitive edge. Designing production systems in an effective and efficient manner is advantageous as it supports the possibility to achieve the best possible production system in a shorter time. One way to facilitate the design of the production system is an effective management of design information. Without managing design information effectively in the production system design process the consequences may be devastating including delays, difficulties in production ramp-up, costly rework, and productivity losses. The objective of the research presented in this thesis is to develop knowledge that will contribute to an effective management of design information when designing production systems. The empirical data collection rests on a multiple-case study method and a survey in which the primary data derive from two industrialization projects at a supplier in the automotive industry. Each industrialization project involved the design of a new production system. The findings revealed ten categories of design information to be used throughout the process of designing production systems. The identified design information categories are grouped in the following way: (1) design information that minimizes the risk of sub-optimization; (2) design information that ensures an alignment with the requirements placed by the external context; (3) design information that ensures an alignment with the requirements placed by the internal context, and (4) design information that facilitates advancements in the design work. In order to improve the management of the broad variety of design information required, a framework is developed. The framework confirms the necessity to consider the management of design information as a multidimensional construct consisting of the acquiring, sharing, and using of information. Further, the framework is based on six characteristics that influence the management of design information. These characteristics are information type, source of information, communication medium, formalization, information quality, and pragmatic information. Supported by the findings, guidelines for the management of design information are outlined to facilitate an effective and efficient design of the production system and thus contribute to better production systems. The guidelines are of value to those responsible for or involved in the design of production systems.

Islamic design is a rich art form with spiritual and meditative meaning expressed through its infinite pattern. The iterative process of creating pattern, unified yet diverse, is an intri-cate geometric path conveying conceptual exploration. Process of form development in Is-lamic patterns defines its growing design, seeking explicit relationships between unity and multiplicity. As the grid expands and patterns unfold, new concepts are introduced for pat-tern exploration and formation. Reoccurring focal points of the Islamic geometries mark significant moments in which these patterns take form. By fusing traditional Islamic design fundamentals with contemporary concepts for interiors, I expand the realm of this rich art form from a two dimensional form to a three dimensional structure.

This exploratory research examined the degree of adoption and impact of the concepts of Building Information Model (BIM), Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), Integrated Design Process (IDP) and Building Energy Simulation (BES) on the design processes of advanced architectural firms when executing sustainable design. Six offices identified by the press for a strong commitment to sustainable design and influence in the design of high performance buildings were selected as cases. In semi-standardized interviews, these firms presented their perceptions of the influence of BIM, BES, and IPD/IDP. The results show that a generalization of sustainable design processes is possible. A design process for sustainability (DEPROSU) model was created by collecting best practices from data gathered from the interviews and the critical literature review. Secondary contributions show that BIM, IDP/IPD and BES have a synergistic effect in sustainable design methods, and that the human resource profile from these firms has evolved towards multi-skilled professionals knowledgeable in BES, BIM, parametric design, sustainability and construction processes. This research provides evidence of commonalities found in the design processes of the selected firms. These commonalities, which have been represented in the DEPROSU model, can potentially be validated as protocols or standards for sustainable design, providing architectural design practices with concrete patterns for improvement and or validation of their design methods.

Design needs to collaborate with many other disciplines to achieve success. Ergonomics is one of these disciplines that design needs its collaboration. A designed object should be in good relation with the human body and cognitive system to be effectively used by its potential users. Changes in the competitive market have forced firms to enhance product differentiation for achieving market success. Design is widely used as one of the differentiation tools. As a component of design, ergonomics should also be integrated into the design process to fulfill the user requirements. There are success stories of companies integrating ergonomics into their design process and achieving differentiation and success on their products through the results of this integration. Even their marketing strategies are based on this integration. It is observed that there are some missing points in the integration of ergonomics into consumer electronics design which make results in poor interaction with the end users. The background of this problem is investigated by reviewing design processes of four different firms and integration of ergonomics into these processes. The information on the cases is collected by literal information for the former three companies and information based on the participant observation results and company reports for the last company.

This thesis aims at developing a better understanding of the design process and the tools required to support it. Specifically it focuses on the early or conceptual stages of the industrial design process and the role of emerging technology based artifacts in supporting this activity. The starting point for this thesis is that industrial design focuses on discovery of new knowledge and that this process of discovery is reflective in nature. Further designers make use of artifacts throughout the design process to support them in this discovery and their reflection. To reveal the role of artifacts in this process, a study of the interaction between designers and their artifacts has been undertaken. To intensify these relationships this thesis has focused on design review activity undertaken in the early stages of industrial design process. Two ethnographic case studies were conducted which allowed for teams of final year industrial design students to be observed during a conceptual design review. The first case study focused on the student designers interacting with traditional artifacts such as sketches, form studies and illustrations as part of the design review session. In the second case study, the student designers made use of low fidelity digital models which were displayed in a highly immersive virtual reality environment to support the design review. Both case studies captured a time slice of a larger design project which the students were undertaking as part of their university studies. The design project focused on the redesign of a consumer product where the students were required to innovate on an existing design based on a number of technology and market constraints. The design review session which formed the basis of the case study was part of a weekly design critique which required the students to bring to the class all of their design development progress. Students were offered an additional review session which was held in a virtual reality facility to supplement their weekly design review session which formed the basis of the second case study. The objective of the review sessions were for the designers to discuss their progress, identify where they were having difficulty, be challenged on design decision and develop a shared understanding of their direction with the class. The case study approach has allowed for an authentic in situ account of how designers make use of artifacts within the early stages of an industrial design process. It has allowed for a comparison between traditional and technology based artifacts and has revealed how they impact on the nature of discovery and reflection. Through a detailed qualitative analysis of the video data which was captured from the case studies, this thesis makes a number of substantial contributions to the current knowledge gaps on the role of artifacts and to our understanding of this phase of design activity. It substantiates conceptual design activity as a reflective process allowing for new discoveries to be made by representing our existing knowledge and understandings in artifacts which can be reflected upon and extended to create new meaning and innovation. From this grounded perspective it has enabled further understandings into the role of the artifact in supporting the design activity. Artifacts are seen as critical in supporting early stage design activity. However it is the nature of the interaction between the designers and their artifacts within the different settings which have been revealed through this research which is of significance. The affordances of the different artifacts have been shown to alter how the students situate their activity and modify their actions within a design review. page 5 of 171 Further designers are required to make use of additional resources such as gestures and rich design language to supplement their design engagement; and they are required to adapt to the environment where the review is being undertaken to ensure that the objective of the design review can be achieved. This thesis makes its primary contribution in outlining the differences between the various types of artifacts and how they can be used to positively support early stage design activity. It is recommended that both traditional and virtual artifacts have a role in supporting activity, but future approaches should consider them as complimentary and consider ways in which they can be merged. The significance of the research is three fold. Firstly, from a pedagogical perspective, within an educational or practiced based setting, it provides a framework to consider the use of emerging technology based artifacts to support early stage design activity. Secondly, from a technology development perspective the grounded observation in authentic experience of design activity, it provides the foundation to inspire and develop new interfaces to support designer interactions with artifacts. Finally, it makes a substantial contribution to the growing body of design research substantiating and revealing new understanding between designers and their artifacts to support early stage design activity.