Visual perception and interpretation of product images in multidisciplinary collaboration for design projects

Abstract

In communication in design teams, the words used for expressing feelings or thoughts differed among designers and experts of other disciplines (Baker at el., 2010). The main difference derives from experiences and thinking processes (Dorta at el., 2010). In a collaborative context, designers tend to think and communicate in a cyclical way, designing in a process that moves through disparate stages (Baker at el., 2010

Dorta, at el., 2010), whereas other disciplinary experts tend to think and communicate in a systematic way, designing in a process that moves through step-by-step stages (Holvikivi, 2007). Previous studies have focused on issues of design communication including the process, team works, the design settings, groupware, communication patterns, and pedagogy. (Simoff, 2000

Kvan, 2001) However, these studies rarely focus onto the importance on the differences of semantic terms regarding multi-disciplines. This paper examines the differences of semantic terms used to express a design image from a multi-disciplinary perspective. This study aims to understand the general miscommunication of product development teams, understand the semantic differences among multi-discipline communication, and understand the semantic terms of engineers’ and marketers’ perspectives. This work presents the explorative investigation of the possible influence of design communication. The focus was addressed to the communication of product development teams, semantic difference among multi-disciplines, and semantic terms used to understand design images. Four sessions involving open-ended survey, affinity diagram and literature search, multiple expert interviews were conducted to understand the general components and influential factors of design communication in product development teams. Another four sessions including literature search, expert interviews, surveys, and post-survey interviews were conducted to understand the difference of semantic terms among designers, engineers and marketers. Finally, expert interviews and surveys were conducted to understand the perception and interpretation of products regarding two disciplines which varied the most, designer-group and engineer-group. The study reveals the fifteen prior components as ‘gestures’, ‘tone of voice’, ‘choice of words’ of design communication, the categorization of the prior components into ‘verbal’, ‘vocal’ and ‘visual’, findings of ‘position of participant’, ‘ terms of work experienced’, ‘areas of discipline’, and ‘phase in design process’ as the prior influential factors of design communication, the representative fifty-five semantic terms such as ‘futuristic’, ‘active’, ‘modern’, ‘fresh’ in describing product design images, the match of semantic terms and design images of designers, marketers, and engineers, and finally the explanation of the perception and interpretation of products of different disciplines, constructed into a tool for practical form of application. The work ends with a reflection of the benefits of the findings on a broader view, the limitations of the study and suggestion of further researches.