Speaking of Users: Assessing the Frequency, Consistency, and Depth of User-related Internal Communication of Novice Engineering Design Teams

Student Researchers

Ahan Trivedi '27

External Collaborators

Alison Olechowski (University of Toronto) and Sharon Ferguson (University of Waterloo)

Research Objectives

This project evaluates student design teams' online communication (i.e., Slack messages) to look for patterns that can be helpful in guiding future teams. Our most recent study had three objectives:

1. Quantitatively evaluate the relationship between team strength with the consistency and frequency by with which they internally discuss users throughout their design process,

2. Quantitatively evaluate teams' user-related communication patterns during different design stages, particularly periods of design divergence and convergence, and

3. Assess topics that commonly co-occur with "user" in teams' internal communication and compare the co-occurring topics of strong teams to those of weaker teams.

Impact

By elucidating the communication patterns of strong student design teams, we aim to provide insights to design instructors and students. The patterns investigate the consistency and frequency of user-related communication, as well as the topics that co-occur with the topic of "user." With knowledge of these trends, instructors of teams could better understand the contexts of their teams, assess their teams, and gain insights into how to guide students' communication throughout their design processes. Student members, equipped with the same knowledge, could assess their own communication and work to improve its structure and focus. While novice designers are assessed in our study, some learnings could influence how managers or leaders of professional engineering design teams guide their teams.