Effects of Intentional Group Framing on Tradespace Exploration

Abstract Decision making in engineering design occurs throughout the design process. In early stages, design space exploration reveals potential solutions to designers, while tradespace exploration helps designers choose between solutions based on tradeoffs in utility or performance. The outcomes of these decisions can be influenced by the selective framing of information in the decision scenario. To understand how much influence framing has on engineering decision-making in these scenarios, a study was conducted using a simulated vehicle design tradespace. A team of designers was tasked with exploring possible designs and understanding the tradeoffs in utility between their design options in three differently-framed design scenarios. Explicitly framing the design problem as a group activity was found to reduce the time required to reach a decision without compromising on the utility achievement of the found solution. It also removed the need for initial sensemaking discussions before decisions could be made.