The role of sketching activities and outcomes in conceptual design phase

Abstract

Sketching-related activities are considered as an essential form of communication in the early phases of a design process. In the presented study, it is argued that both the sketching and the sketch-related verbalisations are reflected in the level of elaboration of the sketching outputs. Hence, a protocol study was conducted to analyse the frequencies of different sketching-related activities during team conceptual design sessions and the associated levels of elaboration for each of the sketching outputs in the form of concept drawings. The results show that although teams generate sketches of various number, complexity and clarity, there exist commonalities across the studied experiment sessions. For example, teams share a pattern of developing solutions without transformations or using lateral transformations within the first part of the sessions and using vertical transformations to produce final concepts towards the end of the sessions. Moreover, teams used associated sketch elements to start drawing new sketches and then alternated to other activities, most of all verbal explanation, for the sake of elaboration and better understanding.