CoLab - Supporting communication and collaboration between industrial designers and engineering designers

CoLab is a design tool that provides information on the use of design representations (sketches, drawings, models and prototypes) by engineering designers and industrial designers during New Product Development (NPD). There is no set way to use CoLab; it facilitates understanding and collaboration by giving a name, example and description for the key design representations and identifies the differences in how they are used by engineering designers and industrial designers.

Grey cards provide information on design stages, types of information and have a taxonomy of 35 design representations that is common to both engineering designers and industrial designers. Blue cards provide specific information on the use of design representations by engineering designers and red cards on the use of design representations by industrial designers. A key role of CoLab is to facilitate understanding of how engineering designers and industrial designers use design representations in different ways.