**7. Interface for product design**

The interface developed for the product design is an online platform to generate parametric furniture. The interface developed in 'Grasshopper 3D' with its webbased extension 'Shapediver'. Similar with previous cases, defining the parameters for design interaction was one of the main tasks for the designer. The designer had to identify the parameters that could potentially modify geometry in relation to material cost (**Figure 7**). The users took their design decision based on negotiation between price and design. The instrument development started with empathising with the interface. As a part of testing, the survey conducted with seven participants. The task had been given to produce furniture which would cost less than 500 NZD. The online interface sent to the participants, and they generated the design by playing with the parameters and sent the model to the designer through the 'send the model' button. The users developed design options that were different to each other (**Figure 8**). The design variations show that the interface and its technological affordance can let first time users produce geometry on their choices. Though the perceptual understanding of the geometry is not in an immersive environment, the interface enables them to take relevant design decisions on the outcomes.

The study also explored in the remote collaboration environment. Designers continued their discussion through a text-based chat protocol. Designer A used

*Design Thinking for Computer-Aided Co-Design in Architecture and Urban Design DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98938*

**Figure 7.** *The parametric furniture design interface.*

**Figure 8.** *The generated design options.*

the desktop-based 2D interface to generate the furniture while designer B saw the instant outcomes through a screen share and provided responses in a chatting system (**Figure 9**). The collaboration aspect in this scenario is not instantaneous but working in an internet-based communication protocol. The users who have access to design commands need to familiarise with the interface and its opportunities to take design decision following the suggestion from the other end users. The co-designers are not getting control over their decision as one person decides on the other side of the network. There is a lack of affiliation exist in the system. However, the design set-up seems to be efficient in any remote settings.

**Figure 9.** *The remote collaboration design unit.*
