Design as Dialogue: Encouraging and Facilitating Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Design is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary activity; it requires rigour, but also collaboration. Design teams have conversations during the design process. They use dialogue as a tool to allow ideas exchange, to find connections, meaning, and interests in a true collaborative environment. The dialogue that occurs is the same as that which occurs in normal negotiation in other practices of design. This book offers a new characterization of the design process with clear implications for design practice. It presents a detailed theoretical analysis of authors¿ definitions of design and stages of the design process, and an analysis and review of data gathered from 5 case studies observed within two networks: the Leonardo-network and the White Rose Network, following Grounded Theory methodology. The model proposed, based on dialogue, is a set of good practices with a common language, which facilitates the multidisciplinary design of artefact and provides indications that can be applied to facilitate effective design collaborations and to enhance design quality. This book, aimed at design students, researchers in design and designers in general.