Collaborative Sketching (C‐Sketch) — An Idea Generation Technique for Engineering Design

TLDR

C‑Sketch is a collaborative engineering design technique whose empirical evidence is consolidated in this paper. The study develops and evaluates C‑Sketch for concept generation in collaborative engineering design, comparing its intrinsic and relative merits to similar techniques. The authors conducted five‑year experiments evaluating both the process and outcomes of C‑Sketch, emphasizing outcome assessment. C‑Sketch outperformed Method 6‑3‑5 on all outcome measures and matched or exceeded the Gallery Method in idea quality while surpassing it in variety and novelty.

Abstract

This paper presents the development and evaluation of a technique (C‐Sketch) for concept generation in a collaborative engineering design setting. The paper reviews both the intrinsic merit of C‐Sketch, as well as relative merit compared to other techniques in the same class. This analysis is based on results from experiments conducted over five years. Both the process and outcome were evaluated, with greater emphasis on the latter. This study found that C‐Sketch not only has intrinsic merit, but also measures higher in all outcomes when compared to Method 6‐3‐5. Also, C‐Sketch was at least as good as the Gallery Method in the quality of ideas produced and better in variety and novelty of ideas. This paper is a consolidation of all empirical studies related to C‐Sketch.