The use of decision making tools to support design process

Abstract

Proposal: This study is part of a research that aims to offer guidelines to assist designers in the generation of value to users of housing buildings from the results of satisfaction evaluation. The research’s stages presented here refers to the analysis of tools that support decision making and aims to verify the viability of using each one of them during the initial stages of the project. Based on an initial review of the literature, the authors defined four tools (Quality Function Deployment, Analytical Hierarchical Process, Theory of Inventive Problem Solving and Axiomatic Design) to be studied. Then, was a bibliography gathering in proceedings and journals. The positive and negative aspects of using each tool were compiled to finally be analyzed according to the point of view of the architectural design. It was concluded that tools present positive aspects that make them compatible with the process of architectural design, but these need adaptations to be used in the next stages of research. Also, the negative aspects should be considered to minimize the tools’ problems already found. In addiction to a little explored approach in literature – the analysis of tools to support decision making –, this research contributes to the feedback of data from assessments of satisfaction in a systematic way. Key-words: tools, design process, value generation.