title: Are seat design processes of students similar to those of professionals?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Designers develop their basic competences during their design education and these competences are later amplified and refined during their professional career. Therefore, one could expect that the design processes of professionals and of student designers are conducted differently, and that these processes consist of different components (steps, actions, methods, tools, etc. used in the design process).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The differences and similarities between the design processes of design students and professionals were studied. In addition the effect of the designers experience on the design process is studied.
  
  
  METHODS
  The design processes of seating products of 19 professional designers, 15 master students and 16 bachelor students were compared in order to understand the differences in the components they apply in their design process.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed significant differences between professional designers and design students for eight out of fifteen of the components. The components for which differences were found were applied more frequently by professionals than by students. For six of the components significant positive correlations were found with the designer's experience.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There are significant differences between the design processes of design students as well as similarities. The differences amongst others related to the designers' experience.
authors.affiliation: LUCA School of Arts, MAD-faculty, Campus C-Mine, Belgium.|Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Barbara N E
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Kok
authors.affiliation: Mintlab/KU Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Slegers
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vink
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004493:Education / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D004522:Educational Status; D004867:Equipment Design / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
keywords: Product development; experience; seating