Characterizing the Use of Contextual Factors During Engineering Design

工程技术的成功设计取决于设计者对环境的适当考虑，即技术预期使用的总体物理、社会和经济环境。然而，对于经验丰富的工程设计师如何以及何时将环境因素纳入他们的设计中，人们知之甚少。通过对经验丰富的工程设计师的广泛采访，本研究旨在了解他们如何在整个工程设计过程中结合上下文信息来为设计决策提供信息。这项工作的发现，特别是与以前对新手工程设计师的研究进行比较时，将产生对工程设计中良好实践的建议。对于工程设计新手，这些建议有望加速他们的学习。对于经验丰富的工程设计人员，这些建议将改进产品设计，进而通过创建更适合环境的产品、过程和系统来影响消费者。这项研究将涉及定性方法，包括半结构化访谈、观察和三个工程设计领域的文件审查——医疗设备、消费产品和信息与通信技术。60名经验丰富的设计从业者（每个领域20人）将被招募参加一个基于项目的回顾性半结构化面试，该面试旨在关注一两个具体的设计经验，在此期间设计师将背景因素纳入其中。此外，将对两个正在进行的设计项目进行案例研究，以收集更多关于设计师融入环境因素的细节。收集的数据将通过描述性编码和迭代主题分析进行分析，以产生丰富而细致的理解，由经验丰富的设计从业者在工程设计过程中使用上下文信息。这种分析将导致对上下文因素的精确分类；在工程设计过程中收集、综合和应用上下文信息的策略；以及上下文用例场景的丰富叙述。结果将深入了解行为在多大程度上可以在多个工程设计领域、具有不同经验水平的工程设计师和各种使用设置之间转移。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The successful design of engineered technology depends on designers’ appropriate consideration of context - i.e., the total physical, social, and economic environment of the technology’s anticipated use. Little is known, however, about how and when experienced engineering designers incorporate contextual factors into their designs. Through extensive interviews with experienced engineering designers, this research aims to understand how they incorporate contextual information to inform design decisions throughout an engineering design process. Findings from this work, especially when compared against previous research with novice engineering designers, will result in recommendations for good practices in engineering design. For novice engineering designers, the recommendations are expected to accelerate their learning. For experienced engineering designers, the recommendations will improve product design, which in turn, will impact consumers through the creation of more contextually appropriate products, processes, and systems. The research will involve qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews, observations, and document reviews across three engineering design domains - medical devices, consumer products, and information and communication technologies. Sixty experienced design practitioners (20 from each domain) will be recruited to participate in a retrospective project-based semi-structured interview designed to focus on one or two specific design experiences during which designers incorporated contextual factors. Additionally, case study research of two ongoing design projects will be conducted to collect more details regarding designers’ incorporation of contextual factors. The data gathered will be analyzed through descriptive coding and iterative thematic analysis to generate rich and nuanced understandings about the uses of contextual information within engineering design processes by experienced design practitioners. The analysis will result in a refined classification of contextual factors; strategies for gathering, synthesizing, and applying contextual information within engineering design processes; and rich narratives of context use-case scenarios. Results will provide insight into the extent to which behaviors are transferable across multiple engineering design domains, engineering designers with varying levels of experience, and various use settings.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.