A Representation Model of Collaborative Design Mechanism using Channel Theory

Abstract

In design process, miscellaneous knowledge is required for achieving desirable goal. Collaboration is a crucial method that contributes designers to create prime solutions by sharing their knowledge within a team. During a collaboration, valuable novel knowledge that is not held by the members could emerge due to synergistic effect. However, the way to generate such new knowledge is implicit. In this paper, a new model for collaborative design mechanism is proposed to investigate process of generating such knowledge. Effect of a collaboration can be visualized by using the proposed model. To show the usefulness of the model, a calculation tool has been developed based on the proposed model.