Abstract

In 2006 after many false leads, blind alleys and just-missed opportunities an architect and his clients and a bunch of product engineers not only agreed to have video cameras installed to record some of their design meetings, but also to its distribution to design researchers around the world. In early 2007 the recordings were transcribed and the videos, the meeting transcripts, and copies of all the documents, plans, drawings, sketches and notes referred to or made during the meetings were distributed to twenty-four invited university-based research groups. These researchers all share a common interest in design thinking and in furthering our understanding of what designing is about. Their backgrounds and affiliations range from psychology, social science, linguistics, to engineering, industrial and product design and architecture and their specific research motivations, methods, goals and agendas are diverse and various. The results of each research group’s analysis of the meeting data were first shared at a workshop held in London in September 2007. In this presentation Janet McDonnell, one of the organisers of the project, will talk about the strengths, pitfalls and challenges of sharing empirical data from naturally occurring design meetings. She will give an overview of the project, describe the data and what research themes were explored, and she will raise issues about what this /common data/ model for research has to offer the design research community.