Within design there are different ways of expression concerning both personal interests and social mindsets. However, when it comes to design knowing, they all share methodologies, experiences and theoretical references. This paper seeks to give a first approach on how we could achieve a future history-through design narrative, by introducing documentation to the core structure of the design discipline.
Based on the hypothesis that: by creating a collaborative open source database, we can recognize relations in terms of design processes and methodologies between different designers. This research aims to answer the following question: can we benefit from these collaborations without losing self-expression?
Starting by introducing the value of documentation for building up a future history through design narrative. It introduces the design research scenario proposed by T. Faste and H. Faste and combines it with Donal A.Schön’s experiences with researching the implications of tacit knowing in the design process.
Finally, by combining these ideas with historical patterns in documentation I will briefly propose what I consider to be the foundations for implementing a future design-knowing data-base.