Abstract
This study investigated expertise in the process of professional-level weaving design. A working hypothesis of the study was that the weaving-design process is best considered as a dual-space search between the visual, composition space and the technical, construction space, subject to external (environmental, contextual) and internally generated constraints. The study analyses expertise in weaving design by examining how professionally experienced designers (n=4) and advanced students (n=4) of weaving design solved a professional weaving-design task. The participants were asked to solve the task while thinking aloud in two design sessions. The data consisted of (1) verbal protocols, (2) video protocols, and (3) written and drawn material produced by the participants. We analyzed the data through qualitative content analysis and problem-behavior graphs (PBGs). The present results indicate that weaving design shared many prototypical characteristics of design process. An examination of the nature of weaving design indicated that the participants, regardless of the level of expertise, focused on composition design in the first design session and construction design in the second design session. There were, however, substantial differences within the groups of participants concerning the role of different design spaces during their problem solving. An analysis of the relative importance of the composition, construction and constraints in the participants’ designing indicated that they followed identifiable design orientations (i.e., composition orientation, composition-construction orientation, and constraint orientation).
Citation
Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, P., and Hakkarainen, K. (2002) Three orientations of weaving design, in Durling, D. and Shackleton, J. (eds.), Common Ground - DRS International Conference 2002, 5-7 September, London, United Kingdom. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2002/researchpapers/73
Three orientations of weaving design
This study investigated expertise in the process of professional-level weaving design. A working hypothesis of the study was that the weaving-design process is best considered as a dual-space search between the visual, composition space and the technical, construction space, subject to external (environmental, contextual) and internally generated constraints. The study analyses expertise in weaving design by examining how professionally experienced designers (n=4) and advanced students (n=4) of weaving design solved a professional weaving-design task. The participants were asked to solve the task while thinking aloud in two design sessions. The data consisted of (1) verbal protocols, (2) video protocols, and (3) written and drawn material produced by the participants. We analyzed the data through qualitative content analysis and problem-behavior graphs (PBGs). The present results indicate that weaving design shared many prototypical characteristics of design process. An examination of the nature of weaving design indicated that the participants, regardless of the level of expertise, focused on composition design in the first design session and construction design in the second design session. There were, however, substantial differences within the groups of participants concerning the role of different design spaces during their problem solving. An analysis of the relative importance of the composition, construction and constraints in the participants’ designing indicated that they followed identifiable design orientations (i.e., composition orientation, composition-construction orientation, and constraint orientation).