Using a technique from graphic designers to develop innovative system designs

Rapid technological change requires that system designers explore potential design spaces widely before committing to a local design space in which to evolve a problem solution. We discuss an approach for doing this, which we base on an analogy with an approach used by graphic designers. We have observed that our colleagues in the graphic design community begin exploring a problem space by generating multiple, divergent design ideas. They then proceed to elaborate them - extending, combining and discarding - as the problem space dictates. We illustrate our adaptation of this approach with a case study of our initial design work on a system for supporting self-service sales of information technology (IT).