A color is worth a thousand words! A color-based tool to foster communication in culturally-plural teams

Design institutions have increasingly adopted collaborative design-based learning in culturally plural classes, which supports the development of soft skills. In this context, teams could face differences in language, background and approaches to design, and students may find difficulties in communicating their own thoughts and feelings when evaluating teamwork, self and peers. The researchers glimpsed the possibility of conveying students’ reflection by using the visual language, focusing on communication through colours. The method was designed with the idea that colours can take on very different meanings for each individual, providing a wider freedom of expression. The paper presents a visual evaluation tool, the Teamwork Colour Matrix (TCM), and its preliminary test within a plural design class. The TCM has been used by students for the spontaneous representation of teamwork by coding the experience through the personal association of feelings with eight given colours. The results showed that all the students were able to evaluate their experiences using colour communication. With the TCM, students find their own individual way of communicating to teammates, through the abstract representation of their personal experience in the team. The test of the TCM shows that even novice designers could communicate complex messages and feelings by using a language based on colours, and that a further development of colour-based tools could represent a useful resource for students and teachers beyond the design discipline.