The tools we use : a study of user preferences for sketches, prototypes, and CAD models and the influence on design outcome

Abstract

During a product design and development process, design teams use a variety of tools to generate and represent multiple design options before they eventually arrive at a singular design solution. Studying how these tools can influence the design outcome has the potential to enable designers to become more aware of the choices they make when they choose to use a tool. Because so much of the cost of a product is determined during the early stages of product development, reviewing these design alternatives with stakeholders is a valuable part of the process. Understanding how stakeholders respond to a design representation is vital to interpreting potential user feedback accurately In this dissertation, I investigate these questions about early-stage design process: I. How does the use of a specific design tool influence the design outcome? II. What design attributes do designers associate with these tools? In Part I of this research, designers made sketches, foam model prototypes, or CAD models in a controlled experiment. Followed by a survey of the designs with potential users, Part I demonstrated how different design tools affect the quantity and quality of ideas, including that designs created as prototypes were recognized as more novel, more aesthetically pleasing, and more comfortable to use. In Part II, in a survey of designers with experience in sketching, foam models, and CAD, designs from Part I were re-represented as sketches. Experienced designers exhibited a better-than-random likelihood to identify the original tool used to create the design, despite viewing only the re-sketch. This suggests artifacts of a design tool persist in a design representation despite the design being translated from one medium to another.