Expert representation of design repository space: A comparison to and validation of algorithmic output

•We test an algorithmic method of structuring patent databases for design-by-analogy.•The method's output is similar to structures generated by design experts.•Similarity to experts' structures is highest in regions of high expert consensus.•The experts judge the method's output to be sensible and usable.•Arranging patents to reflect their interrelatedness is laborious for humans but automatic for the algorithm.

Development of design-by-analogy tools is a promising design innovation research avenue. Previously, a method for computationally structuring patent databases as a basis for an automated design-by-analogy tool was introduced. To demonstrate its strengths and weaknesses, a computationally-generated structure is compared to four expert designers' mental models of the domain. Results indicate that, compared to experts, the computationally-generated structure is sensible in clustering of patents and organization of clusters. The computationally-generated structure represents a space in which experts can find common ground/consensus – making it promising to be intuitive/accessible to broad cohorts of designers. The computational method offers a resource-efficient way of usefully conceptualizing the space that is sensible to expert designers, while maintaining an element of unexpected representation of the space.