Evaluation and Decision in Design

The development af a Designer's Workbench has shown a need to enlarge and refine the theoretical foundation of the area evaluation and decision in design. The project's goal is to create the theoretical basis for the development of
computer tools within the Designer's
Workbench concept to support the engineering designer in decision making.
In the project designing is viewed as a
synthesis process in which the product
characteristics are gradually determined,
i.e. designing can be seen as a chain of
decisions. In this process evaluation of
solution alternatives is a means to get
insight into attractive areas of the solution space and decision maling is the activity to determine both the product
characteristics and the route of the design process. Current research activities involve analyses of documentation from completed design projects in order to identify required functionality of decision support tools. An analysis is performed in an industrial design setting in which the handling of specifications is in focus. In another analysis we try to set up a classification of design situations.