What is in the Cards: Exploring Uses, Patterns, and Trends in Design Cards

Card-based design tools–design cards–increasingly present opportunities to support practitioners. However, the breadth and depth of the design card landscape remain underexplored. In this work, we surveyed 103 design practitioners to assess current usages and associated barriers. Additionally, we analyzed and classified 161 decks of design cards from 1952-2020. We held a workshop with four experienced practitioners to generate initial categories, and then coded the remaining decks. We found that the cards contain seven different types of design knowledge: Creative Inspiration; Human Insights; Material & Domain; Methods & Tooling; Problem Definition; Team Building; and Values in Practice. The content of these cards can support designers across design stages; however, most are intended to support the early stages of design (e.g., research and ideation) rather than later design stages (e.g., prototyping and implementation). We share additional patterns uncovered and provide recommendations to support the future development and adoption of these tools.