The impact of digital design representations on synchronous collaborative behaviour

Recent technological developments in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) are offering new collaborative design environments to designers. Design thinking and design representations have changed with the introduction of digital tools such as digital sketching, 3D modeling applications, rendering, multi-user 3D virtual worlds and collaborative virtual environments. The aim of the study is to identify similarities and differences between remote digital sketching and 3D modeling in virtual environments, in order to have a better understanding of the impact of design representation on design collaboration. We report the results of an experiment using protocol analysis. Our analysis shows that the designers demonstrate different collaborative cognitive actions in the remote sketching and the 3D modeling environment. The results of the study with regard to the research objectives are discussed.