Management of individual and organizational design knowledge

Abstract

Before starting to formulate design concepts, designers usually gather relevant information to explore design problems and facilitate concept development. The information search behavior is a comprehensive consideration, which differs from the specific search of design methods. The research analyzes the factors that influence design information search behavior and constructs a general information search behavior structure. Through in-depth interviews with designers with various levels of experience and with the code analysis method in Grounded Theory and the Interpretive Structural Modeling approach, a behavior model of design information search is established. The research results can provide design information managers with the reference for information search planning and allow staff who develop design information database to better understand the factors and aspects involved in design information search behavior. This study the knowledge management in design companies' model are designed based on the designer's search behavior structure, and chooses NOVA Design as the case of the research. Deeply investigating the knowledge required during the design process, methods used by the designer to obtain the relevant information, including design knowledge and storage methods made by designer during the designing process. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.