Analysing viewpoints in design through the argumentation process

International audienceWe present an empirical study aimed at analysing the use of viewpoints in an industrial Concurrent Engineering context. Our focus is on the viewpoints expressed in the argumentative process taking place in evaluation meetings. Our results show that arguments enabling a viewpoint or proposal to be defended are often characterized by the use of constraints. Firstly, we show that, even if some constraints are apparently identically used by the different specialists involved in meetings, various meanings and weightings are associated with these constraints by these different specialists. Secondly, we show that the implicit or explicit nature of constraints depends on several interlocutive factors. Thirdly, we show that an argument often covers not only one constraint but a network of constraints. The type of combination reflects viewpoints which have specific status in the meeting. Then, we will propose a first model of the dynamics of viewpoints confrontation/integration

Collaborative design : managing task interdependencies and multiple perspectives

This paper focuses on two characteristics of collaborative design with respect to cooperative work: the importance of work interdependencies linked to the nature of design problems; and the fundamental function of design cooperative work arrangement which is the confrontation and combination of perspectives. These two intrinsic characteristics of the design work stress specific cooperative processes: coordination processes in order to manage task interdependencies, establishment of common ground and negotiation mechanisms in order to manage the integration of multiple perspectives in design

Intermediate concepts in the generative dance between knowledge and knowing

Nous nous proposons dans cet article de contribuer à éclairer l'interaction entre connaissance et savoir en action comme processus générateur de nouvelles connaissances. Ce processus que Cook et Brown (1999) ont appelé « la danse générative », est un point crucial de l'étude de la création de nouvelles connaissances, la reconnaître et l'assister dans des situations collectives d'action implique d'avoir une meilleure connaissances des processus en jeu. A travers la description de plusieurs cas d'action collective entre acteurs hétérogènes : en particulier la restauration écologique du lac de Grand-Lieu en Loire Atlantique, nous proposons de caractériser les situations de gestion collective de situations complexes comme des situations de conception. Nous proposons la notion de concepts intermédiaires qui permettent aux acteurs de s'articuler dans un processus de conception collective.connaissances;concept intermédiaire;objet intermédiaire;connaissances partagées;situations hétérogènes d'action collective;conception pour l'action collective

Design: One, but in different forms

This overview paper defends an augmented cognitively oriented generic-design hypothesis: there are both significant similarities between the design activities implemented in different situations and crucial differences between these and other cognitive activities; yet, characteristics of a design situation (related to the design process, the designers, and the artefact) introduce specificities in the corresponding cognitive activities and structures that are used, and in the resulting designs. We thus augment the classical generic-design hypothesis with that of different forms of designing. We review the data available in the cognitive design research literature and propose a series of candidates underlying such forms of design, outlining a number of directions requiring further elaboration

Intermediate concepts in the generative dance between knowledge and knowing

Recognizing and facilitating the generative dance between knowledge and knowing is essential and calls for a better understanding of the processes at play. An analysis of the collective action among heterogeneous stakeholders involved in the ecological restoration of Grand-Lieu Lake, in the landscape management project in the Cévennes, and in the Vittel catchment management initiative, allows us to characterize complex situations of collective action mainly as design situations. Of the three case-studies, we analyse the Grand-Lieu situation in the greatest detail. The analysis reveals how stakeholders developed what we have identified as “intermediary concepts” and how these assisted them in successfully engaging in a collective design process. In this paper, we discuss the value of the notion of “intermediary concept” to stakeholders involved in a situation as well as to a researcher observing and analysing a situation.Nous nous proposons dans cet article de contribuer à éclairer l'interaction entre connaissance et savoir en action comme processus générateur de nouvelles connaissances. Ce processus que Cook et Brown (1999) ont appelé « la danse générative », est un point crucial de l'étude de la création de nouvelles connaissances, la reconnaître et l'assister dans des situations collectives d'action implique d'avoir une meilleure connaissances des processus en jeu. A travers la description de plusieurs cas d'action collective entre acteurs hétérogènes : en particulier la restauration écologique du lac de Grand-Lieu en Loire Atlantique, nous proposons de caractériser les situations de gestion collective de situations complexes comme des situations de conception. Nous proposons la notion de concepts intermédiaires qui permettent aux acteurs de s'articuler dans un processus de conception collective

Designing as Construction of Representations: A Dynamic Viewpoint in Cognitive Design Research

This article presents a cognitively oriented viewpoint on design. It focuses on cognitive, dynamic aspects of real design, i.e., the actual cognitive activity implemented by designers during their work on professional design projects. Rather than conceiving de-signing as problem solving - Simon's symbolic information processing (SIP) approach - or as a reflective practice or some other form of situated activity - the situativity (SIT) approach - we consider that, from a cognitive viewpoint, designing is most appropriately characterised as a construction of representations. After a critical discussion of the SIP and SIT approaches to design, we present our view-point. This presentation concerns the evolving nature of representations regarding levels of abstraction and degrees of precision, the function of external representations, and specific qualities of representation in collective design. Designing is described at three levels: the organisation of the activity, its strategies, and its design-representation construction activities (different ways to generate, trans-form, and evaluate representations). Even if we adopt a "generic design" stance, we claim that design can take different forms depending on the nature of the artefact, and we propose some candidates for dimensions that allow a distinction to be made between these forms of design. We discuss the potential specificity of HCI design, and the lack of cognitive design research occupied with the quality of design. We close our discussion of representational structures and activities by an outline of some directions regarding their functional linkages

Characterization of Collaborative Design and Interaction Management Activities in a Distant Engineering Design Situation

International audienceThis paper presents an empirical research to study synchronous and asynchronous collaborative design in a technology-mediated situation. In this experiment we wanted to create a design situation where four distant designers had to communicate using commercial software and standard hardware configurations. Our methodological approach gave us the opportunity to examine two main lines of research questions concerning: (1) the specificities of technology-mediated design meetings that contrast to those of face-to-face design meetings; (2) the differences between synchronous and asynchronous collaborative work in mediated design engineering situations. Our approach stresses on some important aspects related to the management of the synchronous activity in a distant mediated situation. The originality of the approach relies on the hybrid characterization of both solution and problem management on one hand, and activity management (e.g. speech turns, meeting agenda) on the other hand