Purpose

Design rationale is design information that explains why an entity is designed as it is. This paper investigates how the documentation process and the use of documents in service design projects influence the reuse of design information across projects.

Design/methodology/approach

This study analyzes two sets of data collected through interviews and field observation. It first applied Lund's (2004) four elements of documentation process to categorize the collected data. Then it used bottom-up data analysis approach to identify patterns of the documentation process.

Findings

The author speculates designers' focus on certain documents' social aspect instead of material aspect influences how they reuse design information across projects. Some documents are important because they represent a consensus, and some are important because of the document producers rather than its content. The author also found a similarity between economists and service designers by comparing the study results with Harper and Sellen's (1995) findings. Based on the comparison, the author concludes that detailed research reports are easily reusable across design projects. Finally, although the author observed that designers are using templates to explicate design rationale, the created content is not used across projects.

Originality/value

This study identifies six types of documents that are commonly created in service design projects, three types of producer involvement and three types of provisional design outcomes. It also provides two suggestions for designers to reuse design information across service design projects better and two implications for future study.

中文翻译：

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重用设计信息：对服务设计项目中文档创建过程的调查

目的

设计原理是设计信息，它解释了为什么按原样设计实体。本文研究了服务设计项目中的文档编制过程和文档的使用如何影响整个项目中设计信息的重用。

设计/方法/方法

本研究分析了通过访谈和现场观察收集的两组数据。它首先应用了隆德（2004）的文档编制流程的四个要素来对收集的数据进行分类。然后，它使用自下而上的数据分析方法来确定文档编制过程的模式。

发现

作者推测设计师将重点放在某些文档的社会方面，而不是物质方面会影响他们如何在项目中重用设计信息。有些文档之所以重要，是因为它们代表了共识，而有些文档的则是重要的，因为它们是文档生产者而不是内容。通过将研究结果与Harper和Sellen（1995）的研究结果进行比较，作者还发现经济学家和服务设计师之间存在相似之处。根据比较，作者得出结论，详细的研究报告可以轻松地在各个设计项目中重复使用。最后，尽管作者发现设计师正在使用模板来说明设计原理，但是创建的内容并未在项目中使用。

创意/价值

这项研究确定了服务设计项目中通常创建的六种文档，三种类型的生产者参与和三种类型的临时设计结果。它还为设计师提供了两个建议，以使他们更好地在服务设计项目之间重用设计信息，并为以后的研究提供两个含义。