Discovering and Extracting Knowledge in the Design Project

Over the last twenty years, the rapid adoption of the graphical user interface followed by the emergence of the World Wide Web has created an increasing demand for interaction designers and interaction design research. Knowledge generated by interaction designers is needed not only by other designers, but also by researchers and practitioners from other disciplines. This evolution has generated increasing pressure for more refined models of design research and design research dissemination. To address this problem, we first explore the evolution of design documentation, detailing how it has evolved to meet the changing needs of designers. Then we present an opportunity map detailing where design projects produce knowledge. The map reveals areas for creating and communicating knowledge that is specific to interaction design, yet generalizable to a larger community that participates in interaction design.