Critical perspective of design collaboration: A review

Abstract

This study reviews the issue of collaboration with respect to the manner by which it has become increasingly important in promoting a contemporary design approach. Moreover, the study aims to critically review relevant core research articles and establish the perspective of design collaboration. Furthermore, the study uses a qualitative content analysis method on 94 selected research articles that discuss the concept of design collaboration. The content analysis finds four key themes, namely, teamwork, building information modeling framework, evidence-based design practice, and modality supported collaboration design, as the proposed subjects for the examination. Further analysis reveals that majority of articles on design collaboration have focused on interdisciplinary design collaboration and teamwork using digital modalities. Meanwhile, design collaboration concentrates on the manner by which multiple designers can perform various key cognitive design characteristics, such as links, functions, behavior, structure, frame, move, evaluation, abduction, induction, and deduction. Furthermore, the main contributions, recommendations, and implications of the article are graphically presented using a statistical graph method. Finally, the study concludes that a definitive framework is lacking on the constituent parameters of design collaboration.