Which Visualisation Tools and Why? - Evaluating Perceptions of Students and Practicing Designers Toward Digital Sketching

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by nayy☆

An ever-increasing range of design visualisation tools drives continuing pressure on design education to prepare students for industrial practice. This paper studies digital sketching as an emerging visualisation tool and examines thematic differences in how students and practicing designers perceive its characteristics and how those characteristics shape early design-process application. Perceptions are gathered through design diaries and semi-structured interviews. Results highlight contrasting intents, including practitioner iteration toward solutions versus student focus on creating visualisations, informing education implications.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Background

Digital Visualisation Tools in Higher Education

Which visualisation tools and why? Evaluating perceptions of student and practicing designers toward Digital Sketching Dr. Charlie Ranscombe, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Dr. Wendy Zhang, University of Canterbury, New Zealand A/Prof. Boris Eisenbart, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Prof. Blair Kuys, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Abstract An ever-increasing array of design visualisation tools are available to designers. As such, design education is constantly challenged to keep up with these trends so that students are best equipped for entering industrial practice. This paper reports a study into the use of digital sketching, a relatively new digital visualisation tool. The study aims to identify thematic differences in how students and practitioners perceive digital sketching. These are given in terms of the tool’s characteristics, and how these characteristics guide its application in early stages of the design process. Data on perceptions is captured using design diaries and semistructured interviews. Results show key differences in the way that practitioners perceive the intent of visualisation. Practitioners focus on iterating towards a solution during the design process. Students are much more focused on the task of creating visualisations. This reveals an underlying contradiction in the way tools are perceived between creating visualisations to gain expertise or skill, versus creating them to advance the design process. The insights help improve our understanding of how the different characteristics of digital sketching inform its use. We reflect on how we educate students with respect to selecting and using digital sketching. We conclude with implications for education of digital sketching, as well as other emerging digital visualisation tools. Keywords Digital Sketching, Emerging Technologies, Visualisation, Prototyping, Design Education, Fidelity Introduction There is a wide array of visualisation tools available to designers in industrial and engineering design disciplines. More and more variations of sketching, 3D modelling, physical and nonphysical prototyping, as well as virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) applications are becoming commonplace (Zhang, Ranscombe, Radcliffe, & Jackson, 2019) . As computing technology advances at an ever-rapid pace, so too does the capability and breadth of applications for digital visualisation tools in the design process. By extension, design educators are faced with the challenge of choosing the most appropriate technologies in which to educate students (Abouelala, Janan, & Brandt-Pomares, 2015) . These be meaningful for years to come and effective in helping students create the outcomes of the future. At the same time, students also need to be educated on how the choice of tools can markedly influence the design process and its outcomes (Brisco, Whitfield, & Grierson, 2020) . Well established visualisation tools such as traditional sketching and CAD have been studied as to how their characteristics can influence designers’ thinking and hence their optimal use during the design process (Lawson, 2002; J. A. Self, 2013; Tsai & Yang, 2017) . From the perspective of design education these tools have also been researched with a major trend highlighting that students have a preference to use more high-tech tools that characteristically offer visualisations with greater levels of detail and realism (Ranscombe, Bissett-Johnson, Mathias, Eisenbart, & Hicks, 2020; Thurlow & Ford, 2017) . In turn, the selection of higher fidelity digital visualisation tools (e.g., 3D modelling and rendering) over lower fidelity tools, such as sketching, leads to corresponding negative impacts. These include bounded ideation and an unwillingness to iterate (Robertson & Radcliffe, 2009; Thurlow & Ford, 2017; van Passel & Eggink, 2013) . Conversely an indicator of more experienced designers is being adept at applying a range of tools to travers

FAQs

What is the main focus of the study?

The study investigates perceptions of digital sketching, an emerging design visualisation tool, comparing how students and practicing designers view its characteristics and early-stage use.

How is data about perceptions collected?

Data are captured using design diaries and semi-structured interviews, which collect thematic views on how the tool is understood and applied.

What key differences does the study find between students and practitioners?

Practitioners emphasize iterating toward a solution during the design process, while students are more focused on creating visualisations—highlighting a tension between building skill and advancing the design process.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by nayy☆