This is Thatcher Blogging

What understanding?
The understanding we are trying to research and understand is about project teams working on a product design. Two elements are identified to be important for the understanding in collaborative design: the design content and the design process.

We narrow our topic to ‘understanding in collaborative design’.

What is shared understanding?
Shared understanding in collaborative design exists when the different actors understand a problem, question or idea, with a relation to the project, in the same way.

Then what is creating shared understanding?
Creating shared understanding is the process of learning how to understand a problem, question or idea, with a relation to the project in the right way.

So how do we learn to understand this?
Learning how to understand a problem, question or idea is done through communication, but more specifically by sending a message out and evaluating if the message which is returned is according to the expectations. If it is not according to the expectations, modify the message and try again.

An example:
Actor a: I need a large opening.
Actor b: Yes, yes, maybe 1cm
Actor a: No! I was thinking of at least 15 cm.
Actor b: Oh, but that means that part should be much bigger.
Actor a: Yes! What else did you have in mind?

This example illustrates how two actors improve their understanding of each other’s mental model of a design.

This example has certain assumptions:

• The different actors are in synchronous communication
• The issue is simple enough to explain verbally

When the issue is more complex often sketches, drawings, diagrams and such (media) are involved. The message send thus needs to include such media, and the message returned will probably have a reference to this media.