Towards a Design Space Explorer for Media Facades

Collaborative design projects are often complex affairs in which a number of resources, concerns, and sources of inspiration are brought into play in the shaping of future design concepts. This paper presents the Design Space Explorer, a framework for managing these multiple sources of information and domain concerns in collaborative design projects. The Design Space Explorer captures and gives an overview of design materials and forms, domain locations and situations, interaction styles, and content types. Furthermore, it provides a platform for designers to combine these aspects into scenarios for design concepts. We present and discuss the use of the Design Space Explorer in two specific design cases in the domain of interactive media façades, part of the emerging field of digital urban living.