Factors influencing communication in collaborative design

Anja Maier*, Claudia M. Eckert, P. John Clarkson

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

430 Downloads (Orbit)

Abstract

Communication between people is commonly thought to play a major role in determining the success or failure of collaborative design projects. We conducted eight weeks of observation and 62 interviews in three design companies. Our findings indicate that communication is blamed for causing many problems which are not of an obviously technical nature. However, such problems are more often symptomatic of underlying factors related to information, representation, individual, team, and organisational issues. Examples of factors influencing communication at interfaces are people's understanding of the ‘sequence of tasks’ or ‘goals and objectives’ in the design process. With a system-theory informed conceptualisation of communication, we propose that awareness of such factors could assist design practitioners in targeting interventions and researchers in generating hypotheses about communication and design performance.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Engineering Design
Volume32
Issue number12
Pages (from-to)671-702
ISSN0954-4828
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Factors influencing communication in collaborative design'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this