Ontologies and Scenarios as Knowledge Representations for Use in Design Research

This position paper discusses and suggests directions for doing research in conceptual modeling and knowledge representation within Design Research. It is widely known that one of the reasons for information systems to fail is the misunderstanding and miscommunication between users and developers. Considering that users are usually the domain experts, their knowledge about the domain should be captured and represented in a more effective way for using it throughout the systems development phases. The paper emphasizes the need for better approaches for representing knowledge in information systems, and suggests an alternative approach based on ontologies and scenario-based design.