This paper contributes with insights regarding design expertise and prototyping. Seven high performers – Outstanding Designers – were interviewed to learn about their prototyping activities. The Outstanding Designers emphasised prototyping for reflection, gaining certainty, and cooperating with clients. They expressed a strong attachment regarding the use of prototyping that results in specific routines. We call this behaviour the Outstanding Designers’ bonding with prototyping. The main insights were synthesised into a model outlining the relation between design expertise and prototyping.

Today research has come far in explaining distinct aspects of design expertise at different skill levels. However, with the increasing number of studies, we argue there is a need to assimilate present knowledge. In this paper we advance the field of design expertise by conducting a structured literature review. Through a systematic search of papers, from 1970 to today, we identify 110 papers concerning design expertise. We then analyze the accumulated research, and map how design expertise research has evolved, in terms of what we know and what remains unexplored. Through the review, we contribute with a distinction of skills acquisition at increasing levels of design expertise.

This paper suggests that analysing the effect of visualisation technologies during design reviews should include variables related to design reviewers’ expertise and focus on the process variables rather than the outcomes. The experiment showed better averages in terms of design understanding for groups in desktop interface than for groups in virtual reality. However, the observed difference might also be due to experience with the technology. Finally, regardless of the visualisation technology, higher expertise group showed consistently better design understanding than lower expertise groups.