Analysing design protocols: Development of methods and tools

Abstract: This paper presents the development of methods and tools to analyse design protocols so that the results of different researchers studying different designers under different conditions can be compared. The foundation is an ontologically-based coding scheme utilizing the Function-Behaviour-Structure (FBS) ontology. This produces segmented and coded protocols showing design issues and processes independent of the design task or situation. Protocol measurements include tabular statistics, dynamic modeling of issues and processes, Markov models, first passage models and entropy models. These measurements are embodied in a computational tool. Examples of the use of the tool are presented