An Ethnographic Methodology for Design Process Analysis
An Ethnographic Methodology for Design Process Analysis
Department of Computer and Information Sciences, De Montfort University, Milton Keynes, UK.
Engineering Design Centre, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge
Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Engineering Design
Technical University of Munich, Munich, 1999, volume 3 pp. 1565-1570.
Introduction. Designing as a human activity has been extensively studied from a variety of perspectives. These include designers' cognitive processes, designers' perceptions of their roles and activities, the social interactions in design teams and organisations, and cultural influences on designed artefacts. But another perspective is needed for developing computer tools to support the design process: how information is created, combined, manipulated, transformed and communicated to create a plan for an artefact. This is design as seen from the artefact. This paper presents a methodology for developing knowledge level models of design processes, that combines ethnographic observational methods from the social sciences with the knowledge analysis techniques of artificial intelligence. This methodology is effective in situations where conventional knowledge acquisition methods are insufficient: when broad understanding of an industry is needed, not just a case study of a single individual or company (which is essential when the goal is to build a design support system); and when the project has no dedicated expert informant.
Keywords: Ethnography, design process models, knowledge acquisition, artificial intelligence, knowledge level, methodology, knitwear.
Author addresses. | |
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Martin Stacey
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Claudia Eckert
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