Abstract
With the increasing digitization of design tools, virtual collaboration has become increasingly prevalent in design teams. Within teams composed of members from diverse backgrounds, Visual Design Representations (VDRs) serve as crucial mediators for communication and collaboration. While the emergence of generative AI has accelerated the visualization of design concepts, the experiential insights gained through physical prototyping remain irreplaceable in practical design processes. Numerous studies have also emphasized that both virtual and physical prototypes possess distinct communicative advantages and are suited to different contexts, while hybrid prototyping can enhance iterative efficiency. This study uses an industry-academia collaboration project focused on titanium consumer products as an empirical case to analyze how teams utilize hybrid physical-virtual VDRs to facilitate design collaboration, enhance design decision-making, and achieve cognitive alignment among stakeholders. The findings serve as practical references for design education, academic-industry collaboration processes, and interdisciplinary design practices. Furthermore, the study identifies five types of design collaboration models within the New Product Development (NPD) process, providing strategic references for industrial and engineering designers to choose appropriate methods based on product type and development complexity.
Keywords
Visual Design Representation; Hybrid Prototyping; New Product Development; Industry- Academia Collaboration
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.697
Citation
Shen, T., Chen, C., Hsiao, W.,and Yeh, T.(2025) Hybrid Prototyping Design Framework for NPD: A Case Study of Industry-Academia Collaboration, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.697
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 10 - Design Practices & Impacts
Hybrid Prototyping Design Framework for NPD: A Case Study of Industry-Academia Collaboration
With the increasing digitization of design tools, virtual collaboration has become increasingly prevalent in design teams. Within teams composed of members from diverse backgrounds, Visual Design Representations (VDRs) serve as crucial mediators for communication and collaboration. While the emergence of generative AI has accelerated the visualization of design concepts, the experiential insights gained through physical prototyping remain irreplaceable in practical design processes. Numerous studies have also emphasized that both virtual and physical prototypes possess distinct communicative advantages and are suited to different contexts, while hybrid prototyping can enhance iterative efficiency. This study uses an industry-academia collaboration project focused on titanium consumer products as an empirical case to analyze how teams utilize hybrid physical-virtual VDRs to facilitate design collaboration, enhance design decision-making, and achieve cognitive alignment among stakeholders. The findings serve as practical references for design education, academic-industry collaboration processes, and interdisciplinary design practices. Furthermore, the study identifies five types of design collaboration models within the New Product Development (NPD) process, providing strategic references for industrial and engineering designers to choose appropriate methods based on product type and development complexity.