Using Situated FBS Ontology to Explore Designers Patterns of Behavior in Parametric EnvironmentsStructurally Intelligent Swarms

Current literature suggests that there is limited empirical evidence supporting the understanding of designers behavior or processes in parametric design environments (PDEs). This on-going study explores designers patterns of behavior in PDEs and its relationship with design creativity. To achieve this, we introduce the situated function-behavior-structure (FBS) model to develop a customized coding scheme for future protocol studies. This FBS ontological model has been adapted to reflect the characteristics of parametric design. We propose to apply the results of the protocol analysis in identifying three levels of design behavior patterns: behavior patterns derived from design processes, behavior patterns derived from the whole design life-cycle and those derived from the two levels of parametric design activities (design knowledge based activities and rule algorithm based activities). Future experiments and subsequent protocol analysis will apply the coding scheme to identify these behavioral patterns. The relationship with design creativity will then be explored by mapping the identified behavior patterns against the design outcome assessment