ELSEVIER Automation in Construction 7 (1998) 157-175 The rich picture of design activity Maryliza Mazijoglou * , Stephen A.R. Scrivener The Design Research Centre, University of Derby, Derby, UK zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVU Abstract This paper describes the development of a scheme for representing design activity, called a Rich Picture, designed to assist inductive analysis. This Rich Picture combines different transcription schemes that capture both verbal and non-verbal aspects of the design activity. The transcriptions produced using these schemes are linked together and back to the design activity raw data, such as drawings, video and audio recordings, and workspace resources. In producing the Rich Picture the aim is not to prove that design activity is one thing or another, nor are the schemes intended as measures, nor are they intended as a means of reducing data to a manageable form (although they do enable selective review). Essentially, the transcriptions augment the design activity and together with this raw data comprise the Rich Picture which, it is argued, provides a powerful resource for interpretation and analysis. 0 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. Keywords: Workspace activity; Design activity; Rich picture 1. Introduction We would argue for the greater use of an induc- tive approach to the analysis of design research activity where rather than being confirmed by data gathering-theories, models and hypotheses emerge from the data gathering process. The interesting fea- ture of this approach is that it shifts the researcher’s focus of attention from theorising to observing and describing. Dorst and Cross [1] survey the use of verbal protocols as an observational method for the analysis of design activity, concluding that there is great potential for the use of protocol analysis for the detailed study of short-term design processes or ‘especially significant turns in the design saga’. In arguing for the method, they cite Ericsson and Si- mon’s claim that “There is a dramatic increase in * Corresponding author. the amount of behaviour that can be observed when a subject is performing a task thinking aloud com- pared to the same subject working under silent con- ditions.” Protocol analysis, the analysis of verbal accounts produced concurrently with the execution of a task, offers some insight into at least some of the subject’s cognitive activities. We have been concerned with studying design activity as it occurs in a semi-natural workspace. Typically, in such contexts, designers have at their disposal, pen, paper and whiteboard for recording work in progress; the workspace including informa- tion about products, marketing surveys, drawings and actual products; the designers being able to move freely between items in the workspace. Usu- ally, a specific task is completed in a fixed time period by a designer, or group of designers, in a office-like room. MacLean et al. [2] have likened this to being ‘in the zoo’, in that designers work on realistic problems chosen for them by the experi- 0926.5805/98/$19.00 0 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII SO926-5805(97)00053-S