ABSTRACT In this paper, building on previous work on scenarios in theatre, design, and business, a series of 4 exercises were carried out in order to identify factors that differentiate design scenarios from scenarios in other fields. These factors include the need for a sufficient duration to accommodate the learning aspect of writing scenarios, the tendency for scenarios in design to be positive in nature, and the inclusion of visual prompts rather than just text. Further, the research proposed capturing and reusing the various kinds of information that were produced during the writing of design scenarios. In this case, this information was treated according to the principles of rich-prospect browsing, which suggest that individual items, meaningfully represented, be made available to scenario writers in design for organization and use. Several such collections were produced, some physical and some virtual, each of which contained fewer than 100 items. By combining this atomized form of overview with affordances directly associated with the information, rich-prospect browsing simultaneously preserves and makes accessible the kinds of ideas that are prevalent during the process of creating design scenarios. Keywords: Design Scenario, Conversation, Information, Rich-Prospect Browsing 1 INTRODUCTION Design research has been discussed for at least the last 50 years. It has its own peculiarities. Usually the academic community tries to define boundaries and concepts to consolidate the research in the area. Borders may be important but can also create barriers with other areas of knowledge. In fact, design research often shares techniques and methods with other fields; these methods may or may not have been subject to significant change in the course of their translation into usefulness in design. This paper focuses on one special concept often used: design scenarios. We seek to establish a review of the various ways the word scenarios is used; to observe some scenario building exercises; and to contribute to a better understanding of how to build scenarios in design, as opposed to scenarios as used in other disciplines. The origin of the word scenarios favors its various understandings. Scenarios, in the common sense, are associated with a theatrical or cinematic context. A scenario can be seen as a space where a narrative is constructed and where actors perform. We use the word “actor” here in the sense of someone who is pretending to be someone else, where that someone else represents a particular character. In a theatrical scenario, the actions are, in general, partially controlled by a narrative or script. Even so, many factors are beyond previously imagined forecasting and they can generate actions that are not expected. That said, in general terms a scenario is a predictable space. It is expected that RICH-PROSPECT BROWSING FOR DESIGN SCENARIO INFORMATION Celso Scaletsky Stan Ruecker Guilherme Meyer Design Program, Unisinos, CAPES, Brazil Institute of Design, IIT, USA Design Program, Unisinos, Brazil celsocs@unisinos.br,