Representations of strategic knowledge in design

This paper is concerned with the purpose and form of representations of str ategic knowledge in design. A number of issues concerning the role of repre sentations in design are considered. A distinction is made between represen tations far describing design and representations for guiding or prescribin g design. Issues about the role and form of representations 'of' and 'for' design are considered in the light of experience from a case study of vehic le engineering design. The goals of the project from which this work arises were two-fold: first, to identify examples of strategic knowledge from a d omain expert; and second, to inform the computer support design field about that issue. The approach adopted was to gather empirical information and m odel the results using different analysis frameworks. Three types of repres entations are described: a domain model of strategic knowledge for supporti ng interactive system design, a model for representing strategic knowledge computationally, and a design process model of strategic knowledge in engin eering design. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.