Thinking with Words and Sketches – Analyzing Multi-modal Design Transcripts Along Verbal and Diagrammatic Data

Introduction

Originally, our main research goal was to investigate human wayfinding in complex architectural spaces such as conference centres, airport terminals and the like. (Hölscher et al., 2006) At the same time, the profession of architecture, which largely forms these environments, came into play. Sketches and Diagrams play a central role in the process of architectural design - to assist thinking and as a device of communication. (Laseau, 1989) Furthermore, Goel (1995) argues that certain characteristics of sketches perfectly match the requirements in early phases of design problem solving. In an interview study with experienced architectural designers, our informers frequently produced sketches (Brösamle & Hölscher, 2008), and the verbal transcripts of these interview could only be understood with reference to these sketches. Unlike the transcriptcentred approach in the earlier studies, we presently employ a diagram-based way of querying the multi-modal corpus. This exposes the diagrammatic characteristics of the design activity to the research process, and grounds the often idiosyncratic verbal comments in an architecture-typical medium, namely plans and sketches.

This research was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), SFB/Tr 8, Spatial Cognition. We would like to thank our interview partners for sharing their expertise with us. Many thanks to Julia Asbrand, Inka Hähnlein, Tabea Koll, David Kühner, and Antje Roniger for great support in data preparation and analysis.