Supporting the evolution of design artifacts with representations of context and intent

Abstract

The design of complex artifacts is essentially an evolu-tionary process that requires collaboration among stakeholders. Domain-oriented design environments (DODEs) support the evolution of artifacts both by in-dividual designers and by designers participating in long-term, indirect collaboration. DODEs provide represen-tations for generic and specific levels of context. This con-text supports individual designers by making the infor-mation space relevant to the current design intent, and long-term collaboration among designers by allowing them to ground their communication around design artifacts. We demonstrate our approach using the KID (Knowing-in-Design) system, articulate principles for representations of context and intent, and discuss various approaches to represent intent and context in design environments.