A Discursive Approach to Understanding Dependencies between Design Acts

Design activity has a significant discursive component. Based on the well-established Hierarchical Task Analysis Method, which links human behavior to syntactic analysis and the hypothesis that design as a problem solving activity can be characterized by its discursive space, we attempt to identify dependencies between design features, defined by codifications based on pairings of nouns (tasks) and verbs (actions) in protocol data. This enables their integration into a complete solution, within a team design setting. Using the Service Learning dataset provided on the Purdue University Research Repository and focusing on the protocols corresponding to the requirement specification, preliminary design and design development stages of design delivery, we carried out macro-, midi- and micro-level analyses. In the macro-level data analysis, statistical tests showed significant correlation between major and minor nouns (tasks). In the midi-level we established similarities between the occurrence of nouns and verbs in protocols. We also observed that certain nouns were more prevalent during specific design stages. In the micro-level data analysis, we found correlations between nouns. Overall, the results show that design actions are anchored around a central task and discursive data can provide significant insight into the integration of successive design actions