Methodology
The methodological approach, emphasizing qualitative methods, including Research through Design (RtD) and Materials Driven Design (MDD), to explore the integration of technical and experiential perspectives on material characterization and their impact on bio-based material selection. It also details active data collection methods such as workshops and surveys, which captured insights from practitioners in material selection. Additionally, the analysis methods for data collected in the workshops are described.
Research method
Research through Design
Bio-based material explorations
Material profile tool development
Analysis method
Tool assessment
Task Analysis: Focus group sessions
Analysis methods: Descriptive statistics, procedural and information processing analysis (benchmark comparison), and syntactic analysis
1
Bio-based material explorations
The material explorations were the first step on the RtD after the theory analysis; this was the “fuzzy front end” of the research, consisting of an iterative process of bio-based materials characterization to acquire material sensibility and experience with material experiential properties. These explorations informed classification categories beyond existing material selection tools. The material explorations consisted of making material samples using a DIY material approach (Rognoli et al., 2015) and two steps from the Material Driven Design (Karana et al., 2015) method to characterize material properties. Two different explorations and material characterizations of bio-based, composite, and bio-filled materials were conducted using the DIY materials approach and at the lab scale.
2
Material profile tool development
The material profile tool was developed through several iterations, integrating insights from bio-based material explorations, databases, material libraries, and literature. The material explorations and the different resources were the initial stage for understanding the categories and relevant information material experts and stakeholders want to discover about materials, conventional and emerging materials. The tool development includes material exploration insights, material characterization categories, and data limitations based on production scale as the starting point for its structure.
This iterative process identified key selection criteria relevant to conventional and emerging materials.
Materials selected for the tool assessment
3
Task analysis
A workshop was designed to assess the approach of integrating technical and experiential properties in a material profile tool and observe how experts interact with it.
The workshop consisted of three different phases: 1) background survey with questions related to participants' background, material selection, product development, and environmental impact of materials; 2) Material tasks divided into two parts, material ranking based on three preferences and two material selection real-case scenarios; 3) Material profile evaluation based on section relevance with a 5-point scale. The workshop's primary goal was to test the material profile prototype to understand its viability, relevance, and participants' interaction
Workshop structure
Sampling strategy
4
Analysis methods
A task analysis approach was used to evaluate the feasibility of integrating technical and experiential properties into the material profile tool and to understand expert interaction. In this case, the material tasks were created to test the material profile tool prototype by asking the participants to complete three tasks to compare their material selection processes. The analysis methods consisted of a hybrid approach divided into two phases based on descriptive statistics and task analysis methods
Analysis phase 1
It combines descriptive statistics and task analysis for specific data from the material tasks and material profile evaluation collected during the workshops.
Analysis phase 2
It involved syntactic analysis to cluster feedback data into categories that help to establish patterns related to material selection, bio-based materials, and material experiential properties from design and engineering practitioners' perspectives.