Design patterns from empirical studies in computer-aided design

Abstract

This paper presents the results from studying the effect of the use of computational tools on designers’ behavior in terms of using design patterns in the conceptual development stage of designing. The results are based on a protocol study in which architectural designers were asked to complete two architectural design tasks with similar complexity, one in a parametric design environment and one in a geometric modeling environment. To explore the development of design patterns during the design process, the technique of 2nd order Markov model was used. The results suggest that there were more design patterns adopted in the parametric design environment than in the geometric modeling environment. Also, there are more design patterns related to structure in the parametric design environment than in the geometric modeling environment.