Constructing shared professional vision in design work: The role of visual objects and their material mediation.

The design process requires coordination between professions that have different ways of seeing. Using ethnographic data from a building project, this paper explores how architects and engineers mobilize visual objects to coordinate their professional visions around a design issue. The findings articulate the visual practices whereby design professionals move from a fragmented towards a shared professional vision. In this move, they cease looking at the design issue from within their disciplinary perspective, and begin taking inspiration from each other's. They further adjust the emergent shared professional vision, by iteratively narrowing and broadening its focus. The paper contributes to the practice perspective in design studies, explaining how different ways of seeing are coordinated through practical engagement with visual objects. • Design professionals from different disciplines have different ways of seeing. • Shared professional vision is built through engagement with visual objects. • The move to shared professional vision is performed in the non-digital space. • The adjustment of shared professional vision is performed in the digital space. • Shared professional vision can be iteratively narrowed and broadened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]