Visual Design Thinking: A Collaborative Dimensions framework to profile visualisations

Design Thinking is predominantly visual: a variety of visualisations e from sketches to analytic diagrams e can support designers’ work. Each visual format has affordances that constrain and enable specific cognitive and collaborative actions: how can we describe, select and design visualisations for supporting specific phases of the design process? By integrating literature from related domains we developed a “Collaborative Dimensions of Visualisations framework”, which allows to distinguish seven traits of visualisations: Structural Restrictiveness, Content Modifiability, Directed Focus, Perceived Finishedness,Outcome Clarity, Visual Appeal and Collaboration Support. Each dimension is described and an illustrative example is provided. The framework is a pragmatic and theoretically grounded discussion tool aimed at helping designers make more informed decisions regarding the visualisations they work with.