M. Kurosu (Ed.): Human-Computer Interaction, Part III, HCII 2014, LNCS 8512, pp. 721–730, 2014. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014 Design Artefacts as Business Decision Prompts: Tackling the Design and Business Values Gap Joanna Kwiatkowska 1 , Agnieszka Szóstek 2 , and David Lamas 1 1 Tallinn University, Narva Mnt 25, 10120 Tallinn, Estonia 2 Academy of Fine Arts, Krakowskie Przedmiescie 5, 00-068 Warsaw, Poland {joan.kwiatkowska,aga.szostek}@gmail.com, david.lamas@tlu.ee Abstract. This paper focuses on ways of supporting business in staying focused on the identified design values throughout the entire product or service development process. Based on literature review we propose design artefacts as business decision prompts. This consideration is used to structure and discuss probes artefacts as business decision prompts. Keywords: design artefacts, probes, User-Centered Design, prompts, design values, business values. 1 Introduction It is undoubted that design is of great importance for companies at present [28, 14, 10]. It is source of innovation, competitiveness, problems solving approach as well as mean for differentiation. Design supports development of products and services, and, as stated by the ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, 2005), “it is the crucial factor of cultural and economic exchange”. Furthermore, it assists management in organizations [14]. 1.1 Approaches There are several ways that designers might apply to tackle design problems, e.g. User-Centered Design (UCD), Activity-Centered Design, Systems Design or Genius Design [25]. User-Centered Design is perceived as a dominant approach, thus it is often accepted as the only right method while elaborating a new product or service [23, 4]. Therefore, an increasing number of companies outside of the IT domain value more and more the user-centered approach in the development process of their products and services [1, 2]. Some of these companies decide to establish User Experience (UX) departments with the goal to align their offerings with user needs and desires and deliver recognized design values in final products or services. 1.2 Roles and Values The role of the UX department in the company is to understand users, create concepts of products or services which will bring real value to target users, monitor the