Design knowledge sharing platform for designers

Abstract

Knowledge sharing brings overall value to organisations in the growth of the business and its people. For designers, sharing stimulates creativity and encourages personal development via collective sharing within the community, making happier individuals and by extension, a happier team. For knowledge sharing to happen, cultural change and the way people do things needs to be improved and this can be done through better management of knowledge within the organisation. The company context of this project, Accenture Interactive (Amsterdam), wants to explore ways to support its designers in their creative process and strengthen their culture of sharing by streamline the process of designing across the organisation through a digital knowledge platform. Within this research, knowledge sharing is defined as the information that was exchanged between people and knowledge material is defined as materials required for the sharing to occur. The goal of this research is to support the designer's process of designing, information of projects, people and materials should be made visible and easily accessible across the organisation. Therefore, an informative knowledge platform is designed to serve as a source of inspiration and foster sharing within the design team. This thesis documents both the findings of the research as well as the development of the knowledge platform. The challenge of this project is to understand what content do designers in Accenture Interactive share within the design team, what do they generate and how can sharing of knowledge be facilitated. The research will provide insights and define requirements that will contribute towards the building of the digital platform. To this end, the central aim of this research has been to explore ways for sharing of knowledge that supports designers in their creative work. A practice-based research methodology has been employed, with research methods including interviews, case studies and observations has been done with the design team across different departments and roles. The outcome of this project is a conceptual design of a digital knowledge platform, a common place where designers are able to access shared design resources, share tips across the design teams can be facilitated, thus fostering the sharing culture. The platform was designed in collaboration and evaluated with the designers in practice.