Prototyping practices supporting interdisciplinary collaboration in digital media design for museums

Abstract

In the museum world, innovative design practices often result from collaborations spanning disciplinary borders within the museum. This article focuses on prototyping as one of the fundamental methods to support design activity, and to foster collaboration among members of the design team. In particular, the article aims to explore how prototypes support design practice by integrating knowledge coming from different team members' expertise. Using a qualitative research approach, this paper explores the use of prototypes in five digital media projects in museums. The qualitative data collected have been analysed and discussed through the lenses of the Socialization–Externalization–Combination–Internalization knowledge management framework. This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of how and why team members can take advantage of prototypes to create, transfer, combine, and embody knowledge.