Browsing by Author "Bucciarelli, Louis"

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    Comparative study of design with application to engineering design.
    (Design Society, 2005) Earl, Christopher; Eckert, Claudia; Bucciarelli, Louis; Whitney, Daniel; Knight, Terry; Stacey, Martin; Blackwell, Alan; Macmillan, Sebastian; Clarkson, P. John
    A recent exploratory study examines design processes across domains and compares them. This is achieved through a series of interdisciplinary, participative workshops. A systematic framework is used to collect data from expert witnesses who are practising designers across domains from engineering through architecture to product design and fashion, including film production, pharmaceutical drugs, food, packaging, graphics and multimedia and software. Similarities and differences across domains are described which indicate the types of comparative analysis we have been able to do from our data. The paper goes further and speculates on possible lessons for selected areas of engineering design which can be drawn from comparison with processes in other domains. As such this comparative design study offers the potential for improving engineering design processes. More generally it is a first step in creating a discipline of comparative design which aims to provide a new rich picture of design processes.
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    Risk across design domains.
    (Professional Engineering Publishers, 2005) Eckert, Claudia; Earl, Christopher; Stacey, Martin; Bucciarelli, Louis; Clarkson, P. John
    Design processes involve risk: to life and limb if the product is unsafe, to the financial health of the company if the product is late, unsuccessful or simply the wrong product, as well as to the emotions and careers of the designers. Many of the risks are shared universally by all designers, but each different industry and each different project faces its own spectrum of serious and minor risks. Different industries have put their methodological effort into finding ways to mitigate the risks they recognise as important. As part of the Across Design project exploring similarities and differences between design processes in different industries, this paper examines how risks are perceived and handled in different types of design process, and proposes that designers and managers can usefully look to other industries for ways to handle risks that are more central for those other industries.