Identifying and supporting the knowledge needs of novice designers within the aerospace industry

A long-term research project is being undertaken to understand how to support engineering designers through the provision of appropriate knowledge during the design process. Empirical research already carried out within the aerospace industry found that novice designers were aware of their knowledge needs in only 35% of their queries. In addition, observations of experienced and novice designers identified design strategies employed by experienced designers. The aim of this research was to develop and evaluate a method of support for designers based upon these findings. This paper describes the development of the method and its preliminary evaluation within the aerospace industry. The evaluation indicated that the method was able to reduce the number of inappropriate questions asked by novice designers.