The present study investigates the relation between sketching and communication in teams
a
during the idea generation process in early concept generation. A quasi-experiment study
has been conducted with Masters students of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft
University of Technology, Netherlands. Six groups consisting of three students had to solve
a design problem in a given time. Whereas the experimental groups (n=3) were not allowed
to talk during the design process, the control groups (n=3) did not face any restrictions.
The experiments were recorded, observed and analyzed.
As expected, both groups used
communication to transfer and support their individual ideas. For the experimental groups,
the written language became the medium of communication in detailing the information of
sketches. These findings show that sketching cannot stand alone; design teams need to use
sketching and verbal communication in conjunction not only to produce well-developed
ideas, but also to transfer them.
DRS 2012 Bangkok
