Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T05:37:47.671Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

COMPARING DESIGN OUTCOMES ACHIEVED BY TEAMS OF EXPERT AND NOVICE DESIGNERS THROUGH AGENT-BASED SIMULATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2021

Harshika Singh ,
Gaetano Cascini  and
Christopher McComb
Harshika Singh*
Affiliation:
Politecnico di Milano
Gaetano Cascini
Affiliation:
Politecnico di Milano
Christopher McComb
Affiliation:
The Pennsylvania State University
*
Singh, Harshika, Politecnico di Milano, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Italy, harshika.singh@polimi.it

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Previous research has shown that experienced and novice individuals behave and think differently. Although experienced individuals are better at solving problems, organisations are constantly forming teams of experienced and novice designers to work together on their projects. It is crucial to understand how these teams affect the design outcomes. Therefore, the aim of the study is to investigate how collaborative design teams perform when composed of varying numbers of experienced and novice agents. Specifically in this paper, teams work on a routine task and design outcomes are measured in terms of quality, variety, and exploration of the design space. Since the parameters in the empirical laboratory experiments are difficult to control, an agent-based model was used to simulate these teams. In general, the results show that a team of novice agents with a small number of experienced agents produces solutions of higher quality than an all novice team of agents. However, an all novice team of agents does provide a higher variety of solutions. These results have important implications when teams of experienced and novice designers are formed to work together in practice.

Keywords

Collaborative designTeamworkComputational design methodsHuman behaviour in designDesign process
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 1: ICED21 , August 2021 , pp. 661 - 670
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

References

Ahmed, S. and Wallace, K. M. (2004), “Understanding the Knowledge Needs of Novice Designers in the Aerospace Industry”, Design Studies, Vol. 25 No 2, pp. 155–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2003.10.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahmed, S., Wallace, K. M. and Blessing, L. T. (2003), “Understanding the differences between how novice and experienced designers approach design tasks”, Research in Engineering Design, Vol. 14, pp. 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00163-002-0023-z” https://doi.org/10.1007/s00163-002-0023-zCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atman, C. J., Chimka, J. R., Bursic, K. M. and Nachtmann, H. L. (1999), “A Comparison of Freshman and Senior Engineering Design Processes”, Design Studies, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 131–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0142-694X(98)00031-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ball, L. J., Evans, J. S. B. T. and Dennis, I. (1994), “Cognitive processes in engineering design: a longitudinal study”, Special Issue: Cognitive Ergonomics, Vol. 37 No. 11, pp. 1753–1786. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139408964950Google Scholar
Björklund, . T. A. (2013), “Initial mental representations of design problems: Differences between experts and novices”, Design Studies, Vol. 34 No. 2, pp. 135–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2012.08.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chamorro-Koc, M., Davis, R. M. and Popovic, V. (2009), “Designers' experience and collaborative design : two case studies”, IASDR2009 Proceedings. Korean Society of Design Science, COEX, SeoulGoogle Scholar
Chen, S.C. (2001), “The Role of Design Creativity in Computer Media”. Architectural Information Management 19th eCAADe Conference Proceedings, Helsinki (Finland), pp. 226–231.Google Scholar
Christiaans, H.H.C.M. and Dorst, K.H. (1992), “Cognitive models in industrial design engineering: a protocol study”, Design theory and methodology, Vol. 42 No 1, pp.131–140.Google Scholar
Cross, N. (2004), “Expertise in Design: an overview”, Design Studies, Vol. 25 No. 5, pp. 427–441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2004.06.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deken, F., Aurisicchio, M., Kleinsmann, M., Lauche, K. and Bracewell, R. (2009), “Novice-Expert Design Consultations: Findings from a Field Study”, ICORD 09: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Research into Design, Bangalore, India, pp. 552–559.Google Scholar
Deken, F., Kleinsmann, M., Aurisicchio, M., Lauche, K. and Bracewell, R.(2012), “Tapping into past design experiences: knowledge sharing and creation during novice–expert design consultations”, Research in Engineering Design, Vol. 23 No.3, pp.203–218. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00163-011-0123-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fricke, G. (1996), “Successful individual approaches in engineering design”. Research in Engineering Design, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp.151–165.10.1007/BF01608350CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fronza, I., Sillitti, A., Succi, G. and Vlasenko, J. (2011), “Understanding how novices are integrated in a team analysing their tool usage”, Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Software and Systems Process. Honolulu, HI, USA, pp. 204–207. https://doi.org/10.1145/1987875.1987910CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Georgilas, I., Dekoninck, E., Dhokia, V., Flynn, J., and Elias, E. (2019), “Comparing different types of professional practitioner engagement in an integrated design engineering degree”. DS 95: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2019), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.10.35199/epde2019.21CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Germain, M.L. (2012), “Traits and Skills Theories as the Nexus between Leadership and Expertise: Reality or Fallacy?”, Performance Improvement, Vol. 51 No. 5, pp. 32–39. https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.21265CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guimerà, R., Uzzi, B., Spiro, J. and Amaral, L. A. (2005). “Team assembly mechanisms determine collaboration network structure and team performance”, Science, New York, pp. 697–702. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1106340Google Scholar
Haerem, T. and Rau, D. (2007), “The influence of degree of expertise and objective task complexity on perceived task complexity and performance,” Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 92, No. 5, pp. 1320–1331. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.5.1320CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klucharev, V., Smidts, A. and Fernández, G. (2008), “Brain mechanisms of persuasion: how ’expert power’ modulates memory and attitudes”, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 353–366. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsn022CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McComb, C., Cagan, J. and Kotovsky, K. (2015), “Lifting the Veil: Drawing insights about design teams from a cognitively-inspired computational model”, Design Studies, Vol. 40, pp.119–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2015.06.005” https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2015.06.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meshi, D., Biele, G., Korn, C. W. and Heekeren, H. R. (2012), “How Expert Advice Influences Decision Making”, PLoS ONE, Vol. 7 No.11, pp. e49748. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0049748CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moussaïd, M., Kämmer, J. E., Analytis, P. P. and Neth, H. (2013), “Social influence and the collective dynamics of opinion formation”, PLoS ONE, Vol. 8 No.11, pp. e78433. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0078433CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
National Research Council (2000), “How Experts Differ from Novices”, In: How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition, Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, pp. 31–50.Google Scholar
Perisic, M. M., Martinec, T., Storga, M. and Gero, J. S. (2019), “A Computational Study of the Effect of Experience on Problem/Solution Space Exploration in Teams”, Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED19), Delft, The Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1017/dsi.2019.4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, H., Cascini, G., Casakin, H. and Singh, V. (2019), “A Computational Framework for Exploring the Socio-Cognitive Features of Teams and their Influence on Design Outcomes”, Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED19), Delft, The Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1017/dsi.2019.3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, H., Cascini, G., and McComb, C. (2020, May), “Analysing The Effect of Self-efficacy and Influencers on Design Team Performance”, Proceedings of the Design Society: DESIGN Conference, Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/dsd.2020.64CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, H., McComb, C. and Cascini, G. (2020a), “Modelling the Dynamics of Influence on Individual Thinking during Idea Generation in Co-design Teams”, Ninth International Conference on Design Computing and Cognition (DCC20), Springer 10.31224/osf.io/ahxu9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, H., Cascini, G. and McComb, C.(2020b), “Idea Selection in Collaborative Design Teams: A Computational Framework and Insights in the Presence of Influencers”, Design Science (under review)Google Scholar
Singh, V. and Casakin, H. (2018), “Use of Analogy in Design Teams: Steps towards a computational model and conceptual insights”, Proceedings of the DESIGN 2018 15th International Design Conference, Dubrovnik, Croatia, https://doi.org/10.21278/idc.2018.0342CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Z. ( 2018), “The Impact of Expertise on Pair Programming Productivity in a Scrum Team: A Multi-Agent Simulation”, IEEE 9th International Conference on Software Engineering and Service Science (ICSESS), Beijing, China, pp. 399–402. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSESS.2018.8663874.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaki, J., Schirmer, J. and Mitchel, J. P. (2011), “Social Influence Modulates the Neural Computation of Value”, Psychological Science, Vol. 22 No.7, pp. 894–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611411057CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zeiler, W.(2013), “Cooperation between novice designers (students) and professional in building industry”, Proceedings of E&PDE 2013, the 15th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education, Dublin, Ireland,Google Scholar