EFFECTS OF ITERATION ON CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

ii Iteration in the conceptual design stage is defined as repetition of design tasks to incorporate new information. A more concise definition of iteration relevant to this research would be the progression of design through different abstraction levels or design stages, defining and refining design solutions while progressing from initial concepts to a more detailed design. Although it is believed that iteration has a positive effect on the quality of ideas in the design process, this experimental study presents an opportunity to determine the effects of iteration on quality of concepts and the factors that lead to increased quality of concepts. The research presented in this thesis details two user studies that were conducted to determine and understand if iteration in the conceptual design stages promotes quality of design concepts. The first user study conducted in this paper involved twelve mechanical engineering graduate students where the participants were provided with a design problem and were asked to generate solutions for the design problem. In order to study iteration of design tasks in the conceptual design stages th