Boundary Objects in Design Studies: Reflections on the Collaborative Creation of Isochrone Maps

Abstract

We propose to take an artifact-centric approach to design studies by leveraging the concept of boundary object. Design studies typically focus on processes and articulate design decisions in a project-specific context with a goal of transferability. We argue that design studies could benefit from paying attention to the material conditions in which teams collaborate to reach design outcomes. We report on a design study of isochrone maps following cartographic generalization principles. Focusing on boundary objects enables us to characterize five categories of artifacts and tools that facilitated collaboration between actors involved in the design process (structured collections, structuring artifacts, process-centric artifacts, generative artifacts, and bridging artifacts). We found that artifacts such as layered maps and map collections played a unifying role for our inter-disciplinary team. We discuss how such artifacts can be pivotal in the design process. Finally, we discuss how considering boundary objects could improve the transferability of design study results, and support reflection on inter-disciplinary collaboration in the domain of Information Visualization.