Creative data work in the design process

Abstract

The current work investigates how creativity manifests when designers use data work in the early phase of design. Designers are increasingly interested in utilizing the massive amounts of data surrounding our everyday lives. However, data work is still challenging to incorporate into the design process. In this paper, we present a case study with three novice design teams who were tasked to integrate data work into their design process. During the study, we observed how creativity took place in framing a design problem. We present and discuss their actions from a creativity process perspective, highlighting how they used and rationalized data-inspired inquiries creatively in the early phase of design. The current results inform the development of a design framework to structure data work methodologically and coherently into design processes. We coin this design framework Exploratory Data Inquiry.