The role of boundary negotiating artifacts in the collaborative design of a museum exhibition

Design is a social activity because it occurs within the larger social infrastructure of organizations, but it is also is a non-linear process of exchange whereby shared meanings are created between members of a design team. While design is a social process, it is also very much an artifactual one. Artifacts are central to the design process because they give physical presence to tacit knowledge and conceptual models, and can be used to elicit the knowledge of collaborators. Eliciting this knowledge is particularly important because designers frequently come from disparate backgrounds and each have their own set of object-worlds, resources, and mental models.; Using methods such as documentary analysis and ethnographic methods such as participant-observation and interviewing, I study an interdisciplinary team of natural history museum employees as they design a large museum exhibition. I pay particular attention to how designers use artifacts, particularly documents, to coordinate their work practices and create shared understanding.; Two theoretical constructs that are useful for understanding design as a social and artifactual process are Wenger's communities of practice framework (Wenger 1998) and Star's concept of boundary objects (Star 1987–1989; Star and Griesemer 1989) which are objects that coordinate the perspectives of communities of practice. Building from the concept of boundary objects and communities of practice, I describe artifacts that negotiate boundaries between communities of practice that are similar to, but quite distinct from, the phenomenon of boundary objects. Consequently, I coin the term boundary-negotiating artifacts to describe several ideal types of artifacts including: self-explanation, compilation, inclusion, structuring, and borrowed. Each of these artifacts plays a special role in the negotiation of boundaries between communities of practice to facilitate collaborative design.; The study of how boundary objects are created and used is key to understanding interdisciplinary design practice. This research has import for understanding the ramifications of adopting new, digitized, design technologies, and suggests an important direction for future research in the field of design studies.