Developing DisCo: A distributed co-design, on-line tool SUBMITTED TO THE COLLEGE OF INFORMATION STUDIES DOCTORAL PROGRAM IN FULFILLMENT OF THE INTEGRATIVE PAPER REQUIREMENT FOR ADMISSION TO CANDIDACY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

This paper reports on the prototype design of DisCo, a computer-based design tool that facilitates distributed co-design through Layered Elaboration. Layered Elaboration is a co-design technique that, until now, has relied on paper and clear transparencies to generate ideas through an iterative process in which each version leaves prior ideas intact. The new computer-based system allows co-designers to work asynchronously while being geographically distributed. DisCo contains tools that allow the designers to iterate, annotate, and communicate from within the tool.