A Research through Design Framework from the Evaluation of a Meta-Design Platform for Open and Collaborative Design and Making Processes

The democratisation of technologies, knowledge and activities have been changing the world of designers, blurring the boundaries between amateur and professional designers, especially within the connected phenomena of the Maker Movement and Indie Designers. Within this context, how can be collaborative design processes documented, analysed, managed, shared? This article investigates the role of meta-design digital tools for the facilitation of distributed systems of creative agents, formally trained and informal amateurs that collaboratively design and produce artefacts. It documents a research study organised for testing a digital meta-design platform with users and the researcher as meta-designer: the results provide insights for improving the platform but also for building a comprehensive research through design framework that connects meta-design research and practice for exploring the role and nature of meta-design and meta-designers in facilitating collaborative design processes starting from their description with digital ontologies.