A Notation to Support Exploring Collaboration in Design Teams

Collaboration in large projects is a major challenge for contemporary architectural practice and this paper presents a notation for describing and analyzing how these collaborations can take place. Based on an extensive literature review some opportunities were found for the development of a notation that combined three particular aspects: network diagrams, Euler diagrams and a model from architectural design. An exploratory case study was conducted based on the collaboration during a complex architectural project, which combined three approaches: document analysis, semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and a comparison of the documents with results from the interviews. The notation demonstrated to be suitable for two purposes: to improve the understanding of particular design events and as support material for presenting and exploring collaborations. Results indicate that the notation was suitable, comprehensible and flexible, and it demonstrated good value when used in speculative ways, such as an intermediary design artifact that supports discussion and improvements in the collaboration process, which indicates promising future directions. It can also be argued that, similar to a sketch, the notation can also support the process of planning and “designing” the interaction between teams in design fields and even in other project-based organizations.