Shape exploration in design : formalising and supporting a transformational process

The process of sketching can support the sort of transformational thinking that is seen as essential for the interpretation and reinterpretation of ideas in innovative design. Such transformational thinking, however, is not yet well supported by computer-aided design systems. In this paper, outcomes of experimental investigations into the mechanics of sketching are described, in particular those employed by practising architects and industrial designers as they responded to a series of conceptual design tasks,. Analyses of the experimental data suggest that the interactions of designers with their sketches can be formalised according to a finite number of generalised shape rules. A set of shape rules, formalising the reinterpretation and transformations of shapes, e.g. through deformation or restructuring, are presented. These rules are suggestive of the manipulations that need to be afforded in computational tools intended to support designers in design exploration. Accordingly, the results of the experimental investigations informed the development of a prototype shape synthesis system, and a discussion is presented in which the future requirements of such systems are explored

Categorisation of designs according to preference values for shape rules

Shape grammars have been used to explore design spaces through design generation according to sets of shape rules with a recursive process. Although design space exploration is a persistent issue in computational design research, there have been few studies regarding the provision of more preferable and refined outcomes to designers. This paper presents an approach for the categorisation of design outcomes from shape grammar systems to support individual preferences via two customised viewpoints: (i) absolute preference values of shape rules and (ii) relative preference values of shape rules with shape rule classification levels with illustrative examples

Realising intelligent virtual design

This paper presents a vision and focus for the CAD Centre research: the Intelligent Design Assistant (IDA). The vision is based upon the assumption that the human and computer can operate symbiotically, with the computer providing support for the human within the design process. Recently however the focus has been towards the development of integrated design platforms that provide general support irrespective of the domain, to a number of distributed collaborative designers. This is illustrated within the successfully completed Virtual Reality Ship (VRS) virtual platform, and the challenges are discussed further within the NECTISE, SAFEDOR and VIRTUE projects

Realising intelligent virtual design

This paper presents a vision and focus for the CAD Centre research: the Intelligent Design Assistant (IDA). The vision is based upon the assumption that the human and computer can operate symbiotically, with the computer providing support for the human within the design process. Recently however the focus has been towards the development of integrated design platforms that provide general support irrespective of the domain, to a number of distributed collaborative designers. This is illustrated within the successfully completed Virtual Reality Ship (VRS) virtual platform, and the challenges are discussed further within the NECTISE, SAFEDOR and VIRTUE projects

Brainstorming versus creative design reasoning: A theory-driven experimental investigation of novelty, feasibility and value of ideas

International audienceIn industrial settings, brainstorming is seen as an effective technique for creativity in innovation processes. However, bulk of research on brainstorming is based on an oversimplified view of the creativity process. Participants are seen as idea generators and the process aims at maximizing the quantity of ideas produced, and the evaluation occurs post-process based on some originality and feasibility criteria. Design theories can help enrich this simplistic process model. The present study reports an experimental investigation of creativity process within the context of real-life design ideation task. Results lead to the rejection of the classical 'quantity breeds quality' hypothesis. Rather, we observe that successful groups are the ones who produce a few original propositions that hold great value for users while looking for ways to make those propositions feasible

Comparing stochastic design decision belief models : pointwise versus interval probabilities.

Decision support systems can either directly support a product designer or support an agent operating within a multi-agent system (MAS). Stochastic based decision support systems require an underlying belief model that encodes domain knowledge. The underlying supporting belief model has traditionally been a probability distribution function (PDF) which uses pointwise probabilities for all possible outcomes. This can present a challenge during the knowledge elicitation process. To overcome this, it is proposed to test the performance of a credal set belief model. Credal sets (sometimes also referred to as p-boxes) use interval probabilities rather than pointwise probabilities and therefore are more easier to elicit from domain experts. The PDF and credal set belief models are compared using a design domain MAS which is able to learn, and thereby refine, the belief model based on its experience. The outcome of the experiment illustrates that there is no significant difference between the PDF based and credal set based belief models in the performance of the MAS

Shape interpretation with design computing

How information is interpreted has significant impact on how it can be used. This is particularly important in design where information from a wide variety of sources is used in a wide variety of contexts and in a wide variety of ways. This paper is concerned with the information that is created, modified and analysed during design processes, specifically with the information that is represented in shapes. It investigates how design computing seeks to support these processes, and the difficulties that arise when it is necessary to consider alternative interpretations of shape. The aim is to establish the problem of shape interpretation as a general challenge for research in design computing, rather than a difficulty that is to be overcome within specific processes. Shape interpretations are common characteristics of several areas of enquiry in design computing. This paper reviews these, brings an integrated perspective and draws conclusions about how this underlying process can be supported

Rationale in Development Chat Messages: An Exploratory Study

Chat messages of development teams play an increasingly significant role in software development, having replaced emails in some cases. Chat messages contain information about discussed issues, considered alternatives and argumentation leading to the decisions made during software development. These elements, defined as rationale, are invaluable during software evolution for documenting and reusing development knowledge. Rationale is also essential for coping with changes and for effective maintenance of the software system. However, exploiting the rationale hidden in the chat messages is challenging due to the high volume of unstructured messages covering a wide range of topics. This work presents the results of an exploratory study examining the frequency of rationale in chat messages, the completeness of the available rationale and the potential of automatic techniques for rationale extraction. For this purpose, we apply content analysis and machine learning techniques on more than 8,700 chat messages from three software development projects. Our results show that chat messages are a rich source of rationale and that machine learning is a promising technique for detecting rationale and identifying different rationale elements.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures. The 14th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR'17

Conversation and critique within the architectural design process: a linkograph analysis

Conversation and critique are central to architectural design practice as they function as tools for probing and further improving design ideas. We study the kind of design activities that take place in such conversation and critique within the architectural design process. We use linkographs to characterise the design process taking place during conversation. More precisely, we study conversations between design teachers and design students. In this article, an example design process is considered that takes place via a traditional face-to-face meeting. Using the resulting linkograph, we are able to assess the kind of design activity taking place during such sessions of conversation and critique

Design agents and the need for high-dimensional perception

Designed artefacts may be quantified by any number of measures. This paper aims to show that in doing so, the particular measures used may matter very little, but as many as possible should be taken. A set of building plans is used to demonstrate that arbitrary measures of their shape serve to classify them into neighbourhood types, and the accuracy of classification increases as more are used, even if the dimensionality of the space in which classification occurs is held constant. It is further shown that two autonomous agents may independently choose sets of attributes by which to represent the buildings, but arrive at similar judgements as more are used. This has several implications for studying or simulating design. It suggests that quantitative studies of collections of artefacts may be made without requiring extensive knowledge of the best possible measures—often impossible in real, ill-defined, design situations. It suggests a means by which the generation of novelty can be explained in a group of agents with different ways of seeing a given event. It also suggests that communication can occur without the need for predetermined codes or protocols, introducing the possibility of alternative human-computer interfaces that may be useful in design