Prototyping Design

Design Studies (2020): The Role of Prototypes in Communication between Stakeholders

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 23:44:05 +0000

Design Studies (2020): The Role of Prototypes in Communication between Stakeholders Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/13/2019 - 16:44

Abstract: Prototypes are complex and dynamic artifacts that shape social situations during product development. A ten-month applied ethnographic study of a footwear company recounts prototypes’ evolving role in communication between three stakeholder groups. In this case study, we use Mol’s “bodies multiple” theory to describe prototypes enactment as communication tools across contexts. This study finds that prototypes become encoded with information that is translated, decoded, and re-encoded by stakeholder groups. Prototypes can remain the same across contexts, yet the spokesperson guiding the prototype may change. Raising awareness of prototypes role in communication, such as their ability to build confidence through socialization, can allow design teams to better plan for how information is encoded into the prototyped artifact and the messaging surrounding it.

Lauff, C., Knight, D., Kotys-Schwartz, D., Rentschler, M.E., "The Role of Prototypes in Communication between Stakeholders," Design Studies. 66: 1-34, 2020.

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International Journal of Engineering Education (2018): Prototypes as Intermediary Objects for Design Coordination in First-Year Design Courses

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 02:15:00 +0000

International Journal of Engineering Education (2018): Prototypes as Intermediary Objects for Design Coordination in First-Year Design Courses Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 06/09/2018 - 20:15

Abstract: Design has been called one of the defining characteristics of engineering, and it has been long-argued that design is equally social and technical in practice. The field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) has a research tradition of exploring the interwoven social aspects of technical fields like engineering design. We borrow a concept from STS—the notion of intermediary objects—to better understand first-year engineering design teams and explain how prototypes mediate technical skill development and social relationships. An intermediary object is both a conceptual framework and an analytic tool that enables researchers and educators to identify critical aspects of design coordination. In this paper, we compare two differently organized sections of a first-year engineering design course as a way to highlight the importance of prototypes in mediating these technical and social relations. It is not until these two courses are compared side-by-side that we uncover the critical importance of prototypes as intermediary objects. Based on this comparative case analysis, we argue that prototypes are pivotal intermediary objects that aid in students’ development of their engineering skills and pathways toward becoming an engineer. This paper contributes to the field of engineering education by connecting traditions from STS and exploring how the creation of prototypes impacts design education. In doing so, we provide some immediate recommendations for organizing engineering design courses, and we indicate future research on understanding the role of prototypes in design education and practice.

Lauff, C., Weidler-Lewis, J., O’Connor, K., Kotys-Schwartz, D., Rentschler, M.E., "Prototypes as Intermediary Objects for Design Coordination in First-Year Design Courses," International Journal of Engineering Education. 34(3): 1085-1103, 2018.

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ASME Journal of Mechanical Design (2018): What is a prototype? What are the roles of prototypes in companies?

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 19:07:27 +0000

ASME Journal of Mechanical Design (2018): What is a prototype? What are the roles of prototypes in companies? Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/14/2018 - 12:07

Abstract: Prototyping is an essential part of product development in companies, and yet it is one of the least explored areas of design practice. There are limited ethnographic studies conducted within companies, specifically around the topic of prototyping. This is an empirical and industrial-based study using inductive ethnographic observations to further our understanding of the various roles prototypes play in organizations. This research observed the entire product development cycle within three companies in the fields of consumer electronics, footwear, and medical devices. Our guiding research questions are: What is a prototype? What are the roles of prototypes across these three companies? Through our analysis, we uncovered that prototypes are tools for enhanced communication, increased learning, and informed decision-making. Specifically, we further refine these categories to display the types of communication, learning, and decision-making that occur. These insights are significant because they validate many prior prototyping theories and claims, while also adding new perspectives through further exploiting each role. Finally, we provide newly modified definitions of a prototype and prototyping based on this empirical work, which we hope expands designers' mental models for the terms.

Lauff, C., Kotys-Schwartz, D., Rentschler, M.E., "What is a prototype? What are the roles of prototypes in companies?" ASME Journal of Mechanical Design. 140(6): 061102 (12 pages), 2018.

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ASME International Design and Engineering Technical Conference (2017): What is a Prototype? Emergent Roles of Prototyping from Emperical Work in Three Diverse Companies

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 21:39:47 +0000

ASME International Design and Engineering Technical Conference (2017): What is a Prototype? Emergent Roles of Prototyping from Emperical Work in Three Diverse Companies Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/21/2017 - 15:39

Abstract: This paper explores the nature of prototypes from three diverse companies in the fields of consumer electronics, footwear, and medical devices. It is part of a larger qualitative research study developing a prototyping framework grounded in the emergent findings from practice and detailed inductive inquiry. In this paper, we describe the methods for setting up an appropriate research design, highlighting the conceptual framework, means for data collection and analysis, and validity. Then, we describe the emergent findings, introducing a (1) modified definition of a prototype, (2) key beliefs about prototypes, and (3) three emergent roles of prototypes.

This research is a contribution to the field of design theory and methodology by adding new knowledge about prototypes from companies. Prototyping is a critical part of product development, and yet it is one of the least formally explored areas of design. Most of the recent research around prototyping has focused on student design teams at universities and testing certain hypotheses or developing strategies for students. The significance of this work lies in its ability to gain insights into the role of prototyping in the natural work environment, which has not been holistically documented. The unit of data in this research is one full product development cycle for each of the three companies. By using diverse industries, we will build and test our framework across them all to ensure validity.

This work is intended to increase conversations and debates about prototypes in different industries and spaces, by challenging preconceived notions about what is a “prototype.” We aim to shift mindsets about prototypes through our framework, and ultimately develop a more efficient approach to creating purposeful prototypes.

Lauff, C.A., Kotys-Schwartz, D., Rentschler, M.E., “What is a Prototype? Emergent Roles of Prototyping from Emperical Work in Three Diverse Companies,” ASME International Design and Engineering Technical Conference, Cleveland, OH, August, 2017.

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ASME International Design and Engineering Technical Conference (2017): Perceptions of Prototypes: Pilot Study Comparting Students and Professionals

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 21:38:19 +0000

ASME International Design and Engineering Technical Conference (2017): Perceptions of Prototypes: Pilot Study Comparting Students and Professionals Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/21/2017 - 15:38

Abstract: Just as design is a fundamental part of engineering work, prototyping is an essential part of the design process. For many engineering design courses, students must develop a final prototype as part of the course requirements. And in industry, engineers build multiple prototypes when creating a product for market. Although prototyping is core to design education, there is a lack of research on understanding the perceptions and usage of prototypes from both students and professionals. Without understanding students’ perceptions of prototypes, we cannot adequately train them. Likewise, without knowing how professionals use prototypes, we cannot translate these practices back to design education.

This paper reports on the pilot study comparing the perceptions of prototypes between mechanical engineering students and professional engineers. The findings indicate that the interpretation of the term “prototype” varies between students and professionals. Specifically, these mechanical engineering students have a more narrow perception and identify prototypes as only having a few key elements, namely for building and testing functionality and feasibility of physical elements in a product. Comparatively, professionals have a broad perception of prototypes. Their view sees prototypes including a wider range of attributes such as a communication tool, an aid in making decisions, and a way to learn about unknowns throughout the design process.

Many instructors in design education are cognizant of the importance of prototyping. However, we believe that students require explicit instruction about key concepts. It is not enough to just tell students to “prototype.” As design educators, we must be aware of all of the importance of prototypes, and teach these concepts to students.

Lauff, C.A., Kotys-Schwartz, D., Rentschler, M.E., “Perceptions of Prototypes: Pilot Study Comparting Students and Professionals,” ASME International Design and Engineering Technical Conference, Cleveland, OH, August, 2017.

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ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition (2015): Learning and Identity at the Nexus of Practice: Mediated Discourse Analysis as a Methodology for Engineering Education Research

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 21:35:57 +0000

ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition (2015): Learning and Identity at the Nexus of Practice: Mediated Discourse Analysis as a Methodology for Engineering Education Research Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/21/2017 - 15:35

Abstract: This paper works toward two goals. The first is to build on our previous work on “becoming an engineer”, in which we have attempted to understand engineering learning within a broader framework that focuses not only on the development of knowledge or cognitive capacities, but also on additional dimensions, including the development of identities within social and organizational contexts. We aim to further explore how, through their participation in the routine practices of the undergraduate curriculum, students make themselves, and are made by others, into engineers. The specific focus here is on how a particular “ideology of engineering” is reflected in the discourse of participants in presentations for a first year projects course. In particular, this paper details how engineering discourses serve to depoliticize complex social issues, and to reframe them as technical issues that can be resolved through design and refinement of innovative technologies. A second and related goal is to contribute to recent methodological discussions in engineering education, and specifically to introduce the methodological approach of Mediated Discourse Analysis (MDA) as a way of exploring processes of becoming an engineer. MDA is a promising methodology for such work, in that it focuses on well-chosen instances of action in order to keep in sight both broad social issues and the local actions and interactions that bring these broader issues to life, in the process reproducing and potentially transforming existing systems. In so doing, MDA holds potential for developing a framework for interrogating and reformulating the discourses, and their attendant ideologies, that govern everyday practice in engineering education contexts, and for understanding and perhaps changing what it means to become an engineer.

O’Connor, K., Lauff, C., Kotys-Schwartz, D., Rentschler, M.E., “Learning and Identity at the Nexus of Practice: Mediated Discourse Analysis as a Methodology for Engineering Education Research,” ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Seattle, WA, June, 2015.

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ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition (2015): Comparing Organizational Structures: Two Case Studies of Engineering Companies

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 21:31:55 +0000

ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition (2015): Comparing Organizational Structures: Two Case Studies of Engineering Companies Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/21/2017 - 15:31

Abstract: “Design is what engineers do, and the intelligent and thoughtful decision of the engineering curriculum should be the community’s first allegiance.” Yet, we find that engineering design only underpins a small selection of undergraduate courses in a typical engineering curriculum; diminishing the importance of the activity in engineering education. Comparatively, design is a ubiquitous activity in engineering company settings—the foundational work driving much of the activity being conducted by professional engineers. We posit that understanding professional engineering design practices, will help us to inform how to frame our design courses within engineering education and better prepare our budding engineers to be effective practitioners.

In the field of engineering education, there is a lack of research on professional engineering work. Engineering education is often organized against the backdrop of claims about what professional engineering work is like without fully understanding the “work” of professional engineers. This makes it nearly impossible for engineering educators to know whether or not engineering education is preparing engineering students adequately to enter the workforce upon graduation. Actual observations of professional engineering work are critical resources for rethinking engineering education and making college-wide decisions on curriculum.

Engineering design is a complex process that has been simplified to embrace a systematic loop, which can be easily taught to students and utilized by professionals. It is well recognized that simplified design loops do not represent all aspects of design, and research in engineering education has addressed complexities; even so, there remain aspects of the design process that need further research. In particular, understanding how engineering design is shaped by factors like institutional and organizational structure.

Our prior work has led us to believe that design aspects like space and time organize the entire design process and need to be consider when planning and executing project. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that engineering design is a truly social process. This idea of design as a social process has been discussed prior, such in the work of Bucciarelli and Trevelyan. Design work gets done though constant negotiations between people as well as the combined cognitive power of a team along with all of their resources.

Throughout a two-year ethnographic study of university and professional engineering design teams, we investigate how phenomena like space, technical coordination, relationships, and organizational structure play important roles in creating a design experience. This paper solely focuses on the professional engineering companies observed in the study, and offers suggestions on how these findings can translate into considerations for engineering education. Our intent is that this research add to the body of literature seeking to understand the complexities of engineering design and allows us to rethink how critical, yet subtle components are used to frame and scaffold the design process. It also identifies how differences in organizational structure can impact the approach to the design process as well as the design work setting. We challenge engineering educators to determine what experience they want students to gain and then to implement necessary changes to create this type of design environment.

Lauff, C., O’Connor, K., Kotys-Schwartz, D., Rentschler, M.E., “Comparing Organizational Structures: Two Case Studies of Engineering Companies,” ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Seattle, WA, June, 2015.

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IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (2014): How is Design Organized? A Preliminary Study of Spatiotemporal Organization in Engineering Design

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 21:29:33 +0000

IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (2014): How is Design Organized? A Preliminary Study of Spatiotemporal Organization in Engineering Design Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/21/2017 - 15:29

Abstract: Design is widely considered to be the central or distinguishing activity of engineering and yet it remains an insufficiently researched and understood topic. From the perspective of engineering education, where a “disconnect” between professional engineering practices and university-based practices is an oft-discussed limitation, the sparseness of research on professional engineering design is noteworthy. Specific
representations of real engineering practices are necessary to inform attempts to prepare future engineers. The present study attends to the location of engineering design in different organizational settings, as a way of examining the nature of purported “disconnects” between professional engineering design practices and those taking place in the undergraduate curriculum. Our core methodology is that of cognitive
ethnography, which examines how cognitive tasks, in our case design, are accomplished within “functional systems” constituted of heterogeneous elements, both human and nonhuman. Our focus is on “how the work of the organization” gets done through the process of design. This work in progress (WIP) paper explores the spatiotemporal organization of activity as a key aspect of the situatedness and heterogeneity of design work, and reports preliminary findings regarding important differences in how design is organized in different design settings.

Lauff, C., O’Connor, K., Kotys-Schwartz, D., Rentschler, M.E., “How is Design Organized? A Preliminary Study of Spatiotemporal Organization in Engineering Design,” IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Madrid, Spain, October, 2014.

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International Conference of the Learning Sciences (2014): Cognitive Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Engineering Design

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 21:27:54 +0000

International Conference of the Learning Sciences (2014): Cognitive Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Engineering Design Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/21/2017 - 15:27

Abstract: This is an empirical ethnographic study of how engineers in both undergraduate design courses and the professional workplace engage in engineering design. Our findings suggest that the organizational contexts constitute processes of design differently, in ways that challenge the typical rhetoric of undergraduate education that project courses are intended to provide students with “real world” experience.

Lauff, C., Weidler-Lewis, J., O’Connor, K., Kotys-Schwartz, D., Rentschler, M., “Cognitive Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Engineering Design,” International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), �鶹ӰԺ, CO, June, 2014.

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American Society for Engineering Education Zone IV Conference (2014): Undergraduate to Professional Engineering Design: A Disconnected Trajectory?

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 21:23:02 +0000

American Society for Engineering Education Zone IV Conference (2014): Undergraduate to Professional Engineering Design: A Disconnected Trajectory? Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/21/2017 - 15:23

Abstract: This exploratory, ethnographic study compares engineering design in different organizational settings, as a way of examining the nature of claimed disconnects between professional engineering design practices and those taking place in the undergraduate engineering curriculum. The focus in this research is on three different design contexts. Two are set in a large public university in the United States, a general engineering freshman cornerstone design course and a senior Mechanical Engineering design capstone course. These were analyzed through observations and other ethnographic methods. The third design setting is professional engineering companies. This setting was analyzed through the research teams’ experiences working on design teams for multiple companies. Data suggests that engineering education and industry organizational contexts constitute processes of design differently. These findings challenge the typical rhetoric that undergraduate education project courses are intended to provide students with real-world design experiences.

Lauff, C., Weidler-Lewis, J., O’Connor, K., Kotys-Schwartz, D., Rentschler, M.E., “Undergraduate to Professional Engineering Design: A Disconnected Trajectory?,” American Society for Engineering Education Zone IV Conference, Long Beach, CA, April, 2014.

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