Exemplar Curation
“Exemplars can be used to inspire, explore, and analyze possible design solutions and are used extensively by design practitioners.”
Conference Proceedings ServDes.2009; DeThinking Service; ReThinking Design; Oslo Norway 24-26 November 2009.
Definition
Exemplar curation can be thought of as the finding and collection of existing designs for inspiration of future possibilities.
Type
Design technique
Context
Constructive design
One of my exemplars of a platform called Polys.
Procedure
1. Develop a template to display the exemplars in a consistent format. Make sure to include:
Title of the project
Brief description of what it does
Who the designer is
When it was created
An image of the design
A citation of the source
2. Search online, take inspiration from media (TV, movies, etc.), notice designs in your daily life, and any other method for realizing interesting designs. Take these concepts and add them to the collection.
3. Once compiled, reflect on ways to improve, combine, or change the designs in the exemplar collection.
Use Case
For an individual assignment, I compiled several exemplars related to smart and connected communities. I researched into different technologies being used around the world such as the example Polys shown here. The different exemplars I found uncovered emerging ways smart cities are using data and algorithms.
Data Analysis
There can be numerous ways to make sense of design exemplars. One method that worked well for my curation for smart cities was a thematic analysis. As shown above, I used a matrix to analyze the pros (green) and cons (red) of the different designs. This is a great way of surfacing patterns that are not obvious from the start. Thanks to this analysis, I was able to generate inspirations for a design fiction.