This paper presents two studies in which an empirical approach was taken to understand
and explain form generation and decisions taken in the design process. In particular, the
activities addressing aesthetic aspects when exteriorizing form ideas in the design process
have been the focus of the present study. Diary methods were the starting point of this
research for investigating the form generation process through collecting self-reflective
comments from the participants. The main focus of this paper is to address potentials and
limitations of the three variants of diary method used for data collection, namely,
unstructured diaries, structured diaries and visual diaries. A set of method evaluation
criteria was developed to compare the structure of the diary variants. By qualitative
analysis of the results and comparison of the diary variants, strengths and weaknesses of
each variant were identified. One of the prominent factors in the diary variants was pegged
to be due to the logging delay after the occurrence of the activities.
DRS 2012 Bangkok
