Comparing Design Productivity: Analog and Digital Media

This study aims at gaining an insight on designers' productive processes while designing via analog and digital media. Empirical data on design processes have been obtained from protocol analyses of single designer (an architect) solving an architectural design problem using physical and digital models. In order to encode the design productivity, Linkography (Goldschmidt, 1990) was utilized that allowed the inspection of design processes in the employment of media transition. The analyses of the coding scheme constituents, which are segmentation of the design moves, allowed a comparative study demonstrating the effect of the use of different media in the conceptual design phase. A quantitative assessment system of parameters of design productivity is introduced and applied to protocols of the two processes of two different media. Preliminary analysis indicates that there are differences between both media.