Gamified Informed Decision-Making for Performance-Aware Design by Non-Experts: An Exoskeleton Design Case Study

TL;DR

This study introduces a gamified decision-making framework that helps non-expert designers optimize exoskeleton facade designs by providing real-time performance feedback, improving understanding and decision quality.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel gamified design framework integrating real-time feedback for non-experts, enhancing performance-driven design exploration in architecture.

Findings

Gamified feedback improves user understanding of structural and environmental performance.

Participants made more informed design decisions with structured guidance.

Gamification enhances stakeholder participation in performance-based design.

Abstract

Decision Support Systems (DSS) play a crucial role in enabling non-expert designers to explore complex, performance-driven design spaces. This paper presents a gamified decision-making framework that integrates game engines with real-time performance feedback. Performance criteria include structural behavior, environmental parameters, fabrication, material, and cost considerations. The developed design framework was tested with architecture students and non-expert designers on the design of an exoskeleton facade to retrofit an existing building. Participants (N=24) were able to iteratively modify fa\c{c}ade geometries while receiving real-time feedback across the three key criteria: 1) structural behavior, including deflection, mass, and stress/strength ratio; 2) environmental parameters, such as solar gain and heating/cooling energy demands; and 3) fabrication considerations, including fabrication and material costs, robotic machining, and material setup. The evaluation of participant interactions reveals that gamified feedback mechanisms significantly enhance user comprehension and informed decision-making across the criteria. Further, participants' understanding of structural, material, and fabrication performance in relation to the iterative design task suggests that curated design spaces and structured guidance improve efficiency compared to open-ended generative tools. This research contributes to pre-occupancy evaluations, demonstrating how gamified environments enable stakeholder participation in the design process through informed decisionmaking and customized negotiation of performance criteria. .