I think at the heart of what we are trying to do lies a need to fully appreciate and understand what it is that a project entails, and to then figure out how we want to create, capture, and navigate, and share them. Above is a stab at a taxonomy of the concept of “project”. Each piece and sub-piece of the project is surrounded by a cycle of thinking and making, and each piece is capable of informing or contributing to the other pieces. What is important here is not that the causal process of the project be defined, but rather the basic categorization of the pieces that both support the process and are a product of the process. Also, it is important to note that it is the whole project that creates a bridge between a designer and the audience designed for, not just the final output, and that the relationship between the designer and the project is itself mediated by the tools which allow the designer to work within it.

Some definitions for the diagram:

Brief: the initial starting point for the project, the constraints, and the anchor for its development.

Library: the place where project related content lives, whether generated through process, or gathered as reference material from elsewhere. Sketches, comps, writing, photos, etc. This includes past projects, your own, and those of others.

Tools: a collection of project relevant, non-volitional assets.

People: collaborators whose consultation, content based contributions, or tool based expertise are an asset to the project.

Formats: A collection of possible ways to curate, package, and share content.

Output: The combination of content and its pulished qualities (location, format, time, distribution). This may also include a piece of contents location within the library of someone elses project.

The diagram shown above maps the collaboration process among designers. It starts with the brainstorming stage where each designer or group exchanges thoughts and identify the best or most relevant plan for the given project.

When designers agree with the main approach for the project, they produce a tangible outcome, yet it is made versatile enough to be reformed or fabricated.

By presenting documentation of the initial collaboration, designers get to judge which aspect of the prototype they should keep, discard or improve; during this stage of the process, designers, once again, share each other’s opinions. This routine can be repeated over and over until they achieve the most preferred result.

After the previous stages, which are brainstorming, prototyping and readjusting, the process departs to next step of making and manufacturing; the outcome will be released to the public.

Although the completed outcome release to market, the process can return to the initial stage of brainstorming and the design is constantly analyzed in psychological, social or practical contexts and upgraded based on empirical evidences such as observations from documentations of the performance, user survey, designers’ own experience on operation of the outcome in real field, or even mere intuition of experienced designers.