Abstract
The paper presents the influence of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) on decision making during the architectural design process. In the beginning, the researcher selected a functional complex of industrial nature for the test and defined five criteria for evaluating the architectural design and then created two categories of result and process indicators to explore the decision making during the design process through Verbal Protocol Analysis (VPA). Two groups of subjects attended the VPA, while one group received the indicators; the other one did not receive the indicators. The protocols were transcribed and encoded to make the comparison more efficient. At the same time, the jury evaluated the sketches separately to check the previous results. The study indicates that the indicators were affecting the decision making and design process and design product simultaneously. First of all, framing decisions were made more organized and mature and at the same time increased in numbers, the key decisions were evaluated easier and in some cases divided into smaller decisions related to one or more criteria and then merged into a final concept, the enabler decision making was done more efficiently and faster because of better thought key decisions and the use of indicators for control. The design process, although still has iterative nature. However, iteration was done in smaller cycles due to the use of result indicators for evaluation and process indicators to lead the process. Indicators facilitate idea generation, and the whole process is without difficulties. The design quality assessment by the jury shows the improvement in the final quality of design outcome in specific aspects related to indicators.