| 30538 |
Creator |
346e7c250ea1e999b0ae8be85c1ce8c6 |
| 30538 |
Creator |
ext-04a9bbf5db87366c778ac852a5076431 |
| 30538 |
Creator |
ext-ab23b61dd65c9c7fa8f27652a40f013b |
| 30538 |
Creator |
ext-e481fc011d80c1e1996bb4aefd39d8ab |
| 30538 |
Date |
2011-11 |
| 30538 |
Is Part Of |
p14661837 |
| 30538 |
Is Part Of |
repository |
| 30538 |
abstract |
Academic debate has long recognised that function is a problematic concept, for which
many different notions exist. While progress has been made in relating these different
notions theoretically, designers in practice still struggle with the concept of a
function and a functional breakdown, even though these ideas form a key part of many
established design methodologies. This paper describes the findings of an experiment
which explores how different engineers understand the notions of function and functional
breakdown in the context of design by modification. The experiment was conducted with
a group of 20 design engineers, who had all received or provided the same education
at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. A second experiment was run with a group
of 18 engineers at another university. The subjects were asked to analyse how a hydraulic
pump works, summarising their understanding in a function tree. The findings demonstrate
the fluidity of notions of function between different individuals expressing both
goals and behaviour as functions. Many participants had a syntactic notion of function,
expressing functions as verb–noun pairs, but failed to apply this consistently. These
observations highlight the need for pragmatic approaches for handling the concept
of function. |
| 30538 |
authorList |
authors |
| 30538 |
issue |
11-12 |
| 30538 |
status |
peerReviewed |
| 30538 |
uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/37682 |
| 30538 |
uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/37683 |
| 30538 |
uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/37684 |
| 30538 |
uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/37833 |
| 30538 |
volume |
22 |
| 30538 |
type |
AcademicArticle |
| 30538 |
type |
Article |
| 30538 |
label |
Eckert, Claudia ; Alink, Thomas; Ruckpaul, Anne and Albers, Albert (2011). Different
notions of function: results from an experiment on the analysis of an existing product.
Journal of Engineering Design, 22(11-12) pp. 811–837. |
| 30538 |
label |
Eckert, Claudia ; Alink, Thomas; Ruckpaul, Anne and Albers, Albert (2011). Different
notions of function: results from an experiment on the analysis of an existing product.
Journal of Engineering Design, 22(11-12) pp. 811–837. |
| 30538 |
Title |
Different notions of function: results from an experiment on the analysis of an existing
product |
| 30538 |
in dataset |
oro |