10,861 research outputs found
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
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
Simulation modelling and visualisation: toolkits for building artificial worlds
Simulations users at all levels make heavy use of compute resources to drive computational
simulations for greatly varying applications areas of research using different simulation
paradigms. Simulations are implemented in many software forms, ranging from highly standardised
and general models that run in proprietary software packages to ad hoc hand-crafted
simulations codes for very specific applications. Visualisation of the workings or results of a
simulation is another highly valuable capability for simulation developers and practitioners.
There are many different software libraries and methods available for creating a visualisation
layer for simulations, and it is often a difficult and time-consuming process to assemble a
toolkit of these libraries and other resources that best suits a particular simulation model. We
present here a break-down of the main simulation paradigms, and discuss differing toolkits and
approaches that different researchers have taken to tackle coupled simulation and visualisation
in each paradigm
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