SHARED UNDERSTANDING ON USER KNOWLEDGE IN CONCEPTUAL DESIGN STAGES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN PRODUCT DESIGN CONSULTANCIES BASED IN SINGAPORE AND MALAYSIA

Abstract

Understanding end-user needs of product use are critical to the success of product design but little is known as to how design teams integrate user knowledge to achieve a shared understanding when designing. An ineffective shared understanding in teams would affect team communication, task coordination, and decision-making. This study aims to investigate how Singaporean and Malaysian design teams in product design consultancies (PDCs) achieve a shared understanding through team learning behaviours (i.e., construction, co-construction, and constructive conflict) during conceptual design stages. Multiple case studies research method was conducted in this study. Two different projects (i.e., local and international projects) given by eight PDCs (i.e., four PDCs from each country) were investigated. Results show that the barriers/enablers to achieving a shared understanding in teams are varied regarding the use of different design processes for problem-solving, resource-constraints, a team’s design maturity to process user information, and a PDC’s influences on team’s activities.