Abstract
Studying information usage by design engineers involves considering technical, social, cognitive and volitional factors. This makes it challenging, especially for researchers without a cognitive psychology background. This paper presents a summary of key findings in researching information use and processing in design, discusses important issues on the selection of a research strategy and sums up the important variables that need to be controlled for.
Keywords
analysis of design processes; cognition, creativity and computers in design; information processing and knowledge management in design;research methods and tools for design;
Citation
Restrepo, J. (2006) Studying Design Engineers use of Information Systems: Which variables to control for?, in Friedman, K., Love, T., Côrte-Real, E. and Rust, C. (eds.), Wonderground - DRS International Conference 2006, 1-4 November, Lisbon, Portugal. https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers/drs2006/researchpapers/88
Studying Design Engineers use of Information Systems: Which variables to control for?
Studying information usage by design engineers involves considering technical, social, cognitive and volitional factors. This makes it challenging, especially for researchers without a cognitive psychology background. This paper presents a summary of key findings in researching information use and processing in design, discusses important issues on the selection of a research strategy and sums up the important variables that need to be controlled for.