Exploring the Impact of Big Data and Thick Data on Collaboration Between Design and Business Professionals : A New Approach to Data-Informed Design

This study investigated how data utilization impacts collaboration between design and business professionals, and whether it ultimately leads to positive outcomes. To achieve this, we defined ‘Data-informed Design’ as a concept for data-integrated collaboration and tested it through a workshop-based empirical study. Eight teams participated, each consisting of four members: two designers and two business professionals with comparable experience and data literacy. In total, there were 32 participants: 16 designers and 16 business professionals. Four teams participated in a Data-Informed Design Workshop, utilizing both Big Data and Thick Data, while the remaining four teams took part in a Non-Data Design Workshop without using any data. The study revealed that teams in the Data-informed Design Workshop showed a rootlevel understanding of problems during the ‘Discover’ phase and collaborated more effectively in the ‘Define’ phase. Constructive conflicts were more prevalent among these teams, as opposed to the predominantly negative conflicts observed in the Non-Data Design Workshop teams. As a result, the Data-informed Workshop teams formulated goals for improvement that were both more specific and measurable. These findings indicate that intergrating data into collaborations between designers and business professionals can lead to more efficient processes and better outcome.