This study examines how engineering design teams converge to a common understanding of a design problem and its solution, how that is influenced by the information given to them before problem solving and how it is correlated with quality of produced solutions. To understand convergence, a model of the team members’ representations was sought through a cognitive engineering design study, specifically examining the effect of the introduction of a poor example solution and a good example solution prior to problem solving. Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) was used to track the teams’ convergence. Introducing a poor example solution was shown to have a slowing effect on teams’ convergence over time and quality of design, while the good example solution was not significantly different than the control (no example solution) in its effects on convergence, but did cause higher quality solutions. This may have implications for design team performance in practice.
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ASME 2009 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference
August 30–September 2, 2009
San Diego, California, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Design Engineering Division and Computers in Engineering Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-4905-7
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Design Team Convergence: The Influence of Example Solution Quality
Katherine Fu,
Katherine Fu
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
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Jonathan Cagan,
Jonathan Cagan
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
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Kenneth Kotovsky
Kenneth Kotovsky
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
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Katherine Fu
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Jonathan Cagan
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Kenneth Kotovsky
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Paper No:
DETC2009-87219, pp. 1013-1022; 10 pages
Published Online:
July 29, 2010
Citation
Fu, K, Cagan, J, & Kotovsky, K. "Design Team Convergence: The Influence of Example Solution Quality." Proceedings of the ASME 2009 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Volume 8: 14th Design for Manufacturing and the Life Cycle Conference; 6th Symposium on International Design and Design Education; 21st International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology, Parts A and B. San Diego, California, USA. August 30–September 2, 2009. pp. 1013-1022. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2009-87219
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