The mechanisms of value transfer in design meetings

Values play an integral role in design: they inform the kinds of trade-offs the designer makes when considering different solutions; they create a basis for the client to assess how a particular artifact may fit into their lives; they are an important part of negotiating a common understanding in collaborative design settings. In this paper, we presented a grounded analysis of a collaborative architectural design process. We examine the interactions between architect and client to better understand how different values are brought into the design discourse. By analyzing the verbal content and non-verbal communication between the architect and client, we identify patterns of discourse that imbue design problem solving with the language and concepts that express values. From this analysis we develop a theory of value transfer and describe the social mechanism that facilitates this transfer during design negotiation. Our theory provides an observational basis for understanding value transfer in the context of collaborative design and is relevant to design domains beyond architecture.