Productivity improvement within the construction industry has addressed issues that are predominantly associated with activities and tasks on construction sites, and less so in the office work. The lack of an understanding of the proportion of productive time during working hours for designers, as well as the measurement method forms a significant gap in the knowledge of the design process. Productivity management cycle comprised of 4 phases: measurement; evaluation; planning; and improvement. Therefore, measurement becomes essential in productivity improvement. This study identifies the lack of defined duration for design task and measurement of design activity time as an essential gap in the productivity knowledge that relates to designers.

In this thesis, I explore how design scaffolds, or (i.e., intellectual supports) can assist learners engaging with computational making processes. Computational making combines programming with artifact production. Due to the complexity of tasks involved in computational making, there is an increasing need to explore and develop support systems for learners engaging with computational making. With $3,000 funding from Utah State University’s College of Education and Human Services, an undergraduate researcher and I, who both have experience with youth and computational making research, explored how design scaffolds impact youth engaging with computational making processes. To do so, we held a workshop where 11 learners (11 female, ages 11-16) used ARIS, a platform designed for non-programmers to create mobile games. In addition, we interviewed five ARIS designers who were able to evaluate our design scaffolds. We provide insights for improving the use of design scaffolds in computational making with ARIS specifically that also apply broadly to computational making processes. Moreover, we developed an ARIS course that teaches educators to use a design scaffold tool for ARIS. This research provides immediate benefits for educators who access the ARIS course and researchers seeking to improve upon design scaffold research for computational making processes.

The importance of product design has been getting attention in the past decade from scholars and practitioners. Design plays a critical role in firms’ product development and business strategies. In recent years, scholars began to see design innovation as another vital innovation element of a new product. A new product should encompass at least two innovation elements: technology innovation and design innovation. While technology points to the function of a product, design points to the form of a product. Despite the advocacy of scholarly examination of design innovation, there are few studies of design innovation. In this dissertation, two empirical studies have been conducted to examine the outcome of design innovation and the antecedents of design activities, respectively. Study 1 examines the effect of design innovation (as well as technology and service innovation) on new product performance. Additionally, the study examines the roles of marketing innovation and process innovation in mediating the relationships between these innovation activities and new product performance. Study 2 examines how firms’ absorptive capacity, competitive responsiveness, and product development resources drive design and R&D activities. Design and R&D activities typically lead to the introduction of design and technology innovation. Regarding the findings from this dissertation, the first study shows that design, technology, and service innovation (which, argued by this study, are the three main innovation elements of a new product) all contribute to new product performance. Additionally, marketing innovation and process innovation are found to mediate the relationship between these innovation elements and performance. The second study shows that a firm’s competitor responsiveness, absorptive capacity (captured by “institutional sources” and “market sources of information”), and product development resources (captured by “cross-functional design team”, “design or information control technologies”, and “concurrent engineering”) are positively related to firms’ design and R&D activities. / Thesis / Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) / Design plays a critical role in firms’ product development and business strategies. Traditionally, technology innovation has been the focus of new product development. In recent years, scholars have begun to see design innovation as another vital innovation element of a new product. In this dissertation, two empirical studies have been conducted to examine the outcome of design innovation and the antecedents of design activities, respectively. There are two key goals of this dissertation. The first goal is to understand the outcome of design innovation and what other factors jointly contribute to the outcome. The second goal is to understand what strategies that firms adopt lead to design activities. Answers to the first question show the performance implication of design innovation and the factors that drive the performance. Meanwhile, answers to the second question shed light on the firm strategies that drive design activities, which may lead to the introduction of design innovation. Empirical studies that tackle these questions are sparse.

Au niveau du collège, la technologie est une discipline générale qui s'adresse à tous les élèves. Ainsi, plus que jamais, au 21ème siècle, la connaissance du monde des objets fait partie de la culture du citoyen. Pour autant la technologie au collège est une discipline encore en construction, les objets de savoir sont partiellement définis et la recherche en didactique de la technologie a encore de nombreux terrains à explorer. Cette thèse s'intéresse aux enseignements technologiques au collège et particulièrement à la conception d'objet. Dans un premier temps, notre but est de répondre, de manière empirique, à la question suivante : quelles sont les difficultés rencontrées par les élèves en situation de conception? A titre exploratoire, nous analysons l'activité d'élèves en train de résoudre collectivement un problème de conception. Nous envisageons dans un deuxième temps d'analyser plus particulièrement les difficultés liées à la production de représentations des solutions possibles au travers du rôle que jouent les outils informatiques de conception assistée par ordinateur. Il s'agit donc de réfléchir à l'intégration de ces outils dans l'enseignement de la technologie au collège. L'utilisation d'intermédiaires graphiques modifierait-elle et dans quel sens les performances des élèves de 5ème dans la phase de recherche de solutions? Le recours aux théories de l'action pour observer l'activité conjointe de l'enseignant et de l'élève se révèle pertinent dans un domaine ou on attend de la recherche qu'elle apporte un tant soi peu des réponses. Au travers des résultats qu'elle propose, cette thèse contribue à la communauté des didacticiens des sciences et de la technologie. / At the level of the middle school, the technology is a general discipline which addresses all the pupils. So, more than ever, in 21th century, the knowledge of the world of objects is a part of the culture of the citizen. Nevertheless, the technology in middle school is a discipline still under construction, the objects of knowledge are partially defined and the research in didactics of the technology still has numerous questions to investigate. This thesis discusses the design activity of students in middle school (pupils aged 11-15) in France and particularly to designing object. At first, our purpose is to answer, in an empirical way, the following question: what are the difficulties met by the pupils in situation of design? In the exploratory way, we analyze pupils' activity resolving collectively a problem of design. We intend secondly to analyze more particularly the difficulties bound to the production of representations of the possible solutions through the role which play the computing tools of computer-aided design. It is a way to think about the integration of these tools in the teaching of the technology in middle school. Would the use of graphic intermediaries modify and in which sense the performances of the pupils of 5th in the phase of research for solutions? The recourse to the theories of the action is relevant to observe the joint activity of the teacher and the pupil, especially in a domain or we expect from the research that she brings one so much one few answers. Through the results which she proposes, this thesis contributes to the community of the didacticiens of the sciences and the technology.

L’organisation fonctionnelle des entreprises impose un fonctionnement en mode projet. Ces projets sont menés par des experts de différentes spécialités et d’origine diverses. Ces équipes ont besoin d’outils pour être performant et proposer des solutions adaptées aux multiples besoins des marchés de plus en plus exigeants. Au cours de leurs réunions et activités, ils se créé une conscience de groupe qui s’enrichit à travers les interactions et s’appuie sur divers représentations externes. Cette thèse aborde l’étude des mécanismes permettant la performance des équipes de conception collaborative en réunion synchrone. Elle a essayé de démontrer les liens entre leur Système de Mémoire Transactive (TMS), leurs Activités de Conception Collaboratives (CDA) et leurs Objets désignés Ressources (RSC), et d’identifier les éléments favorisant ces liens. Nous avons dans un premier temps réalisé une enquête auprès des équipes de conception collaborative en environnement universitaire. Puis dans un second temps nous avons réalisé une expérimentation sur deux équipes en situation de conception collaborative synchrone autour du Serious Game Delta Design déployé sur une table interactive. Les résultats de cette recherche montrent que si la performance est favorisée par la TMS ou la CDA, leur lien statistique est établit, de même que le lien entre les activités de conception et les ressources mobilisées. Cependant, l’absence de lien statistique fort TMS CDA montre que les équipes ne semblent conscientes de l’utilisation des objets dans la construction de leur TMS, alors que les artefacts de la table interactive sont les plus sollicités et les activités de prise de décision semblent les plus importantes dans ces séances.Cette thèse contribue au corpus de connaissance sur l’étude des équipes de conception collaborative et mets à disposition des outils d’évaluation de la performance des équipes de conception collaboratives synchrone. / Today functional structure of enterprises requires teamwork and project mode organization. These projects are carried out by experts from different domains of expertise. Besides the teams need supporting tools in order to improve the efficiency of their design process and to propose adapted solutions to complex design problems. In the course of their meetings and collaborative activities they create group awareness through their interactions and creation of various artifacts. This thesis studies mechanisms that underlie performance of collaborative design team in synchronous meeting. In this thesis we demonstrate the links between Transactive Memory System (TMS), Collaborative Design Activities (CDA) and Objects called Resources (RSC), and identify the elements that drive these links. A survey has been used to study collaborative design teams in academic environment. Then, we performed direct observation of two teams during synchronous collaborative design meetings with a serious game Delta Design on interactive table. Results show that if performance is enhanced statistically by good TMS or CDA, and the link is demonstrate, so is the links between CDA RSC. However, the lack of statistical strong correlation between TMS and RSC seems to show that team members are not conscious of using artifacts during TMS building. While artifacts on interactive table are more solicited and decision making activities seems to be more important during their session. This thesis contributes to a better understanding of collaborative design teams and offers tools to evaluate collaborative design activities.