Multidisciplinary collaboration is undoubtedly the current trend for the development of the technology industry. However, due to the differences in educational backgrounds and personal characteristics, different thinking patterns of the diverse cross-disciplinary team members make the communication difficult. A case based on a Taiwanese IOT startup company has been examined in this research. The researcher has participated in its design development of the air purifier since 2016. Starting with the company cooperate identity and product’s logo design then the user interface of iOS application, the collaboration has lasted 2 years and 3 months. The researcher first found, during the collaboration, the designers and the engineers in the cross-domain team were thinking differently. Because the decision-makers were driven by engineering thinking, the design-oriented proposals closer to the users’ requirements could not be accepted and implemented. Thus, it ended up with convincing engineers by asking them to participate in the design workshop.
The study was composed of three stages: (1) literature review, (2) participatory activity and (3) redesign. The first stage is about the study of differences in thinking between engineers and designers. Through UI/UX review and collaborating with engineers, we realized that communication between designers and engineers alone cannot eliminate the disagreement. Therefore, in the second stage, it creates an exchange field between engineers, designers and users through running a design workshop. And through usability test and affinity diagram, the consensus of the cross-domain team is agglomerated, allowing the engineers to change their minds and accept the opinions given by the designers. The third stage is the interface redesign of the iOS application based on the design outlines summarized in the previous two stages of the research process. The brand's new orientation was finally evolved from the original smart home appliances into a health care-oriented service operation.
Keywords: multi-disciplinary collaboration, user interface design, user experience, perceptual gap, participatory design
