Collecting with Cabinet: or how designers organise visual material, researched through an experiential prototype

Cabinet is a tool to support designers in the collecting and organizing of images. It was used in a case study that was conducted by three designers during their normal work practice for a period of 4 weeks. The way they reacted to and reflected on the prototype as well as their collecting behaviour was studied through observation and interviews. In this paper the results of the study are presented and discussed in the light of the growing recognition that computer tools should support creative rather than merely administrative tasks.