Simulating engineering design a case study on the interface between the technology and social psychology of design

The development of a new design aid (a computer simulation of a particular engineer's design behavior) is described. Improvement in the engineer's technical performance has resulted from the more extensive and systematic examination of design alternatives, which the simulation has made possible. As a case study of engineering design, this study also represents an intensive effort to identify and to model as many variables as possible, both technical and behavioral, affecting a particular engineer's development of a design project. One of the most significant variables affecting the development of a project is the image that an engineer and his client have of one another. Since a behavioral variable like “image” so strongly influences how a design problem is technically conceived, the distinction between what is “technical” and what is “behavioral” is often tenuous and misleading. The consequence is that realistic improvements in the processes of design will only be made by improving on both the behavioral as well as the technical aspects of design systems and design techniques.