Community Based Design Support

Different approaches of design methodology that have been developed throughout the history of the design methods movement have produced many insights into the structure of the design process (Alexander, 1964; Simon, 1969; Schön. 1983; Hubka and Eder, 1987; Pahl and Beitz. 1984; Roozenburg and Eekels, 1995). It seems however, that little of this accumulated knowledge is used in the daily practice of designing. The relation between design methodology and design practice is still weak (Cross, 1993; Achten et al. 2005). One reason might be that design methods are not addressing the designer’s needs. And thus are not supporting the designer, with a specific task, to solve the problem at hand. (BadkeSchaub et al. 2005) The aim of this research project was to develop a solution for this problem: the concept of Community Based Design Support (CBDS). This concept, inspired by the online community platforms that are emerging on the internet, enables the integration of a personal, contextual, social and dynamic dimension in design methodology Based on the CBDS model a software platform was designed: Designflow. A prototype was built to test if the concept of CBDS can provide designers with efficient and effective design support.