A Proposition to Capitalize and Share the Logic of Design

Abstract

In collaborative design, an important problem comes from losses of time. The time spent in the clarification of ideas and management of uncertainties often concerns actions or decisions taken by other designers during asynchronous work. To act, communicate, capitalize and interact, designers use a certain number of means: drawings, diagramsà the intermediate objects (IO). However, if an IO permits the synchronous cooperation inside a group, it is in general not explicit enough for the actors that didn't participate to its development. In particular, the logic behind its creation is hard to understand. H. Simon speaks of the double nature of the artefacts: the physical structure and the context of the action. Today, software permit to carry some annotations onto the numerical model, but under a non structured way. We propose here a model for structuring the capitalization of the actions of the designers in structured annotation fields linked to the parts of the numerical model manipulated during these actions. We used an experimental approach. A design experiment has been recorded (here to design an oscillating arm for a motorcycle). We analyzed the object under construction, and the actions produced. A coding of these actions was used: acts of design. They qualify demands and propositions of information, solution, evaluation, organization, agreement, and decision. Then, we linked them to the part of the IO under modification. The historic is kept, and can be used. The major contribution comes however from the possibility to retrace for a given solution the local evolution in order to reconstitute the context of its creation. This model representation should contribute to specify tools to assist distant collaborative design, especially asynchronous.