An Argument For Design Space Reflection

We argue that documenting, revisiting and reflecting on the design space of a project provides three important benefits. First it increases our awareness of the constraints introduced by particular design choices. Second, this qualifies our understanding of the way a design space has been filtered by design activities. Third we are prompted to challenge these constraints and reconsider disregarded opportunities. To support this argument, we revisit key activities from two projects in our interaction design lab's portfolio, selected because of the detailed documentation available. We also introduce SnapShot, the web-based tool we are developing for this method of design space reflection. Based on these examples, we present a critical discussion and outline areas of future research.