The Design Process: A Visual Model

Knowledge visualizations are often created by practitioners and managers, not necessarily by expert graphic designers. Non-experts -- as well as novice designers -- can be puzzled and overwhelmed by the complexity of the design process: it is unclear how to start and which are the main phases and their sequence. Often times even experienced designers mistakenly start by selecting a tool or a solution, instead of considering the audience and its needs. The aim of this conceptual piece is to assemble the main phases (and related procedures and tools) of the design process to provide a pragmatic visual guide for students and practitioners. It also highlights the highly cyclical nature of designing through a structured iterative process of prototyping and testing. The model can be utilized for a broad spectrum of applications, including the creation of knowledge visualization, information visualizations, graphic design or other types of product. The examples provided in this paper are specifically related to knowledge visualization.