Canvas as Tools for Digital Platform Design: Analysis, Comparison and Evolution

Canvas have for long been embraced as a popular design tool. Initially aimed towards, business model development, the model of a one page, visual and collaborative tool has spread to the design of many different artifacts. Digital platforms, with its conjugation of business, technical, and social facets have benefited from the canvas model for its design practices, from both scholars and practitioners. Nonetheless, the recent push for more industry-specific and holistic digital platform research agenda is bound to have an impact in the tools used for platform design. In this paper, we apply a literature review method to examine existing canvas, inspired by the Business Model Canvas, as tools for the design of digital platforms. Using conceptual platform design research as a frame of reference, we review eight canvas specific for digital platform design, highlighting four critical limitations in their application regarding (1) adopted broad platform conceptualizations; (2) a restricted focus on business elements; (3) a lack of focus on platform evolution; and (4) a lack of guidance in the translation of canvas to explicit platform design propositions and requirements. By addressing these limitations, we set a path for the evolution of canvas as collaborative tools that can better support the more comprehensive and nuanced approaches required for the design of digital platforms acting in an evermore non-linear, volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments.