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Design-MUSE is a shell that eases construction of case-based design aids (CBDAs). A CBDA is a tool intended to help with conceptual design of complex artifacts. It supports a designer through the earliest steps of designing artifacts such as buildings or aircraft. In large projects, conceptual design is a critical phase, since early decisions can determine the entire shape of the project and lock in most of its down-stream costs. Conceptual design decisions are made at a point when there is a relative lack of information about their implications. Furthermore, there is a relative lack of information about and support for the process of conceptual design itself. Conceptual design has received little attention from design researchers and from those who build computer-based tools for designers.
Our observations of designers suggest that an important resource during conceptual design is knowledge of lessons that can be learned from previous designs. Experience is a major component in expertise. Good designers go out of their way to study up on relevant prior works. They not only learn how those artifacts were put together, they study how they work in order to learn which aspects of the designs were successful and which contributed to problems. CBDAs make it easier for designers to get access to this kind of information by putting documentation and evaluations of existing artifacts on-line in a multimedia system organized for meaningful search and browsing.
Design-MUSE has been used to help construct a number of CBDAs. the current version of Archie-II, a product of the longest running CBDA project, is built on top of Design-MUSE. The MIDAS system was initially built using an early version of the shell. Design-MUSE was also used by students in a graduate class to quickly construct several other sample CBDAs; two of those were successful enough that work on them is ongoing.
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