The goal of experimental and discursive design is not to create products ready for release, but instead to use design to explore new techniques, materials and products or serve as provocations and starting points for discussion, unconstrained by the usual burdens of designing for the real world. However, many projects existing in the experimental or discursive arenas fail to achieve the impact they could have had on the wider design profession. Many are hampered by unclear areas of exploration, exploring well-trod terrain or failing to reach a significant audience. In this paper, I attempt to suggest ways to improve the utility of experimental and discursive design as a tool for other designers to use and be informed by. Reviewing existing literature and both successful and unsuccessful examples of practice, I propose a rubric that designers working in discursive or experimental practice can use to better understand and critique their work before release and to make sure that it has the most impact on the thinking of other designers in the future. In this paper I apply the rubric to two examples, to determine its utility in promoting effective and impactful Experimental and Discursive Design projects and conclude with a discussion of its future
applicability.