Understanding knowledge management practices for early design activity and its implications for reuse

ABSTRACT

Prior knowledge is a critical resource for design, especially when designers are striving to generate new ideas for complex problems. Systems that improve access to relevant prior knowledge and promote reuse can improve design efficiency and outcomes. Unfortunately, such systems have not been widely adopted indicating that user needs in this area have not been adequately understood. In this paper, we report the results of a contextual inquiry into the practices of and attitudes toward knowledge management and reuse during early design. The study consisted of interviews and surveys with professional designers in the creative domains. A novel aspect of our work is the focus on early design, which differs from but complements prior works' focus on knowledge reuse during later design and implementation phases. Our study yielded new findings and implications that, if applied, will help bring the benefits of knowledge management systems and reuse into early design activity.

REFERENCES

• 1: Mark S. Ackerman , David W. McDonald, Answer Garden 2: merging organizational memory with collaborative help, Proceedings of the 1996 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, p.97-105, November 16-20, 1996, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [doi>10.1145/240080.240203]
• 2: Christopher Ahlberg , Ben Shneiderman, Visual information seeking using the FilmFinder, Conference companion on Human factors in computing systems, p.433-434, April 24-28, 1994, Boston, Massachusetts, United States [doi>10.1145/259963.260431]
• 3: Joachim Altmeyer , Stefan Ohnsorge , Bernd Schürmann, Reuse of design objects in CAD frameworks, Proceedings of the 1994 IEEE/ACM international conference on Computer-aided design, p.754-761, November 06-10, 1994, San Jose, California, United States
• 4: Bates, M.J. 1989. The Design of Browsing and Berrypicking Techniques for the Online Search Interface. Online Review, 13, 407--424.
• 5: Candy, L. 1997. Computers and Creativity Support: Knowledge, Visualisation and Collaboration. Knowledge-Based Systems, 10 (1): 3--13.
• 6: E. Jeffrey Conklin , K. C. Burgess Yakemovic, A process-oriented approach to design rationale, Human-Computer Interaction, v.6 n.3, p.357-391, September 1991 [doi>10.1207/s15327051hci0603&4_6]
• 7: Dan Cosley , Dan Frankowski , Loren Terveen , John Riedl, Using intelligent task routing and contribution review to help communities build artifacts of lasting value, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems, April 22-27, 2006, Montréal, Québec, Canada [doi>10.1145/1124772.1124928]
• 8: Nigel Cross, Creative cognition in design: processes of exceptional designers, Proceedings of the 4th conference on Creativity & cognition, p.14-19, October 13-16, 2002, Loughborough, UK [doi>10.1145/581710.581714]
• 9: Cross, N. and Cross, A. 1995. Observations of Teamwork and Social Processes in Design. Design Studies, 16 (2): 143--170.
• 10: Davor ČubraniĆ , Gail C. Murphy , Janice Singer , Kellogg S. Booth, Learning from project history: a case study for software development, Proceedings of the 2004 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, November 06-10, 2004, Chicago, Illinois, USA [doi>10.1145/1031607.1031622]
• 11: Edward Cutrell , Susan T. Dumais , Jaime Teevan, Searching to eliminate personal information management, Communications of the ACM, v.49 n.1, January 2006 [doi>10.1145/1107458.1107492]
• 12: Rosta Farzan , Joan M. DiMicco , David R. Millen , Casey Dugan , Werner Geyer , Elizabeth A. Brownholtz, Results from deploying a participation incentive mechanism within the enterprise, Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 05-10, 2008, Florence, Italy [doi>10.1145/1357054.1357145]
• 13: James Fogarty , Desney Tan , Ashish Kapoor , Simon Winder, CueFlik: interactive concept learning in image search, Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 05-10, 2008, Florence, Italy [doi>10.1145/1357054.1357061]
• 14: Jonathan Grudin, Groupware and social dynamics: eight challenges for developers, Communications of the ACM, v.37 n.1, p.92-105, Jan. 1994 [doi>10.1145/175222.175230]
• 15: Jonathan Grudin, Evaluating opportunities for design capture, Design rationale: concepts, techniques, and use, L. Erlbaum Associates Inc., Hillsdale, NJ, 1996
• 16: Herbsleb, J.D. and Kuwana, E. Preserving Knowledge in Design Projects: What Designers Need to Know. Proc. CHI, 2003, 7--14.
• 17: Scarlett R. Herring , Chia-Chen Chang , Jesse Krantzler , Brian P. Bailey, Getting inspired!: understanding how and why examples are used in creative design practice, Proceedings of the 27th international conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 04-09, 2009, Boston, MA, USA [doi>10.1145/1518701.1518717]
• 18: Hocevar, D. 1979. Measurement of Creativity: Review and Critique. Personality Assessment, 45 (5): 450--464.
• 19: Wendy Ju , Arna Ionescu , Lawrence Neeley , Terry Winograd, Where the wild things work: capturing shared physical design workspaces, Proceedings of the 2004 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, November 06-10, 2004, Chicago, Illinois, USA [doi>10.1145/1031607.1031696]
• 20: Scott R. Klemmer , Michael Thomsen , Ethan Phelps-Goodman , Robert Lee , James A. Landay, Where do web sites come from?: capturing and interacting with design history, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Changing our world, changing ourselves, April 20-25, 2002, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA [doi>10.1145/503376.503378]
• 21: Janet L. Kolodner, Improving human decision making through case-based decision aiding, AI Magazine, v.12 n.2, p.52-68, Summer 1991
• 22: Mike Kuniavsky , Srinivas Raghavan, Guidelines are a tool: building a design knowledge management system for programmers, Proceedings of the 2005 conference on Designing for User eXperience, November 03-05, 2005, San Francisco, California
• 23: Remko van der Lugt, Functions of sketching in design idea generation meetings, Proceedings of the 4th conference on Creativity & cognition, p.72-79, October 13-16, 2002, Loughborough, UK [doi>10.1145/581710.581723]
• 24: Mary Lou Maher , Andrés Gómez de Silva Garza, Case-Based Reasoning in Design, IEEE Expert: Intelligent Systems and Their Applications, v.12 n.2, p.34-41, March 1997 [doi>10.1109/64.585102]
• 25: Mark W. Newman , James A. Landay, Sitemaps, storyboards, and specifications: a sketch of Web site design practice, Proceedings of the 3rd conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques, p.263-274, August 17-19, 2000, New York City, New York, United States [doi>10.1145/347642.347758]
• 26: Jennifer J. Ockerman , Christine M. Mitchell, Case-based design browser to support software reuse: theoretical structure and empirical evaluation, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, v.51 n.5, p.865-893, Nov. 1999 [doi>10.1006/ijhc.1999.0253]
• 27: Michael Pearce , Ashok K. Goel , Janet L. Kolodner , Craig Zimring , Lucas Sentosa , Richard Billington, Case-Based Design Support: A Case Study in Architectural Design, IEEE Expert: Intelligent Systems and Their Applications, v.7 n.5, p.14-20, October 1992 [doi>10.1109/64.163668]
• 28: Pirolli, P. and Card, S.K. 1999. Information Foraging. Psychological Review, 106 (4): 643--675.
• 29: Roy, R. 1993. Case Studies of Creativity in Innovative Product Development. Design Studies 14 (4): 423--443.
• 30: R. C. Schank , D. B. Leake, Creativity and learning in a case-based explainer, Artificial Intelligence, v.40 n.1-3, p.353-385, Sep. 1989 [doi>10.1016/0004-3702(89)90053-2]
• 31: Shahin, T.M.M., Andrews, P.T.J. and Sivaloganathan, S. 1999. A Design Reuse System. Proc. of the Ins. of Mechanical Engineers Part B. Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 213 (6): 621--627.
• 32: Ben Shneiderman, Creating creativity: user interfaces for supporting innovation, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), v.7 n.1, p.114-138, March 2000 [doi>10.1145/344949.345077]
• 33: Siemieniuch, C.E. and Sinclair, M.A. 2004. CLEVER: A process Framework for Knowledge Lifecycle Management. Operations and Production Management, 24 (11): 1104--1125.
• 34: Diane H. Sonnenwald, Contested collaboration: a descriptive model of intergroup communication in information system design, Information Processing and Management: an International Journal, v.31 n.6, p.859-877, Nov. 1995 [doi>10.1016/0306-4573(95)00002-X]
• 35: Sutton, R.I. and Hargadon, A. 1996. Brainstorming Groups in Context: Effectiveness in a Product Design Firm. Administrative Science Quarterly.
• 36: Loren G. Terveen , Peter G. Selfridge , M. David Long, Living design memory: framework, implementation, lessons learned, Human-Computer Interaction, v.10 n.1, p.1-37, March 1995 [doi>10.1207/s15327051hci1001_1]
• 37: Linda Tetzlaff , David R. Schwartz, The use of guidelines in interface design, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems: Reaching through technology, p.329-333, April 27-May 02, 1991, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States [doi>10.1145/108844.108936]
• 38: Visser, W. 1995. Use of Episodic Knowledge and Information in Design Problem Solving. Design Studies, 16, 171--187.
• 39: Tracee Vetting Wolf , Jennifer A. Rode , Jeremy Sussman , Wendy A. Kellogg, Dispelling "design" as the black art of CHI, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems, April 22-27, 2006, Montréal, Québec, Canada [doi>10.1145/1124772.1124853]
• 40: Zaychik, V. and Regli, W.C. 2003. Capturing Communication and Context in the Software Project Lifecycle. Research in Engineering Design, 14 (2): 75--88.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Evaluation/methodology

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.3 Information Search and Retrieval
          Subjects: Search process

General Terms:
Design

Keywords:
contextual inquiry, design, knowledge, reuse