Design Process Depiction for Richer Process Experience

Sakaguchi, Tomohiro; Kutomi, Nozomu; Kita, Yusuke; Nakakoji, Kumiyo

Design processes are so complex that it is not easy to remember, reflect and record in detail after the actual processes are over. This paper proposes a notation to depict a design process as a whole while keeping its original complexity in terms of visual and structural aspects. The notion affords two types of structures to represent design processes, through activity units, a series of actions of the same kind, and design elements including ideas, prototypes and theories emerged, created, and applied during the design process. We use a design process of an actual design workshop as a case to derive the notation while using the online presentation tool “Prezi” as an interaction framework. We then investigated the depicted design process by re-experiencing the process as a first-person engagement using the designed notation. Prezi's animation mode allowed us designate a sequence along which viewers can experience the design process by zooming in some activity units and design elements, and its presentation mode allows us to look back the design process from the start to the end by following activity units arranged in the temporal order. Following the transitions among some design elements allows us to focus on essential objects in the design process. The depicted process illustrate that the two structures of activity units and design elements are not corresponding to but independent of each other.

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