Critical systems are running in heterogeneous domains. This heterogeneity is rarely considered explicitly when describing and validating processes. Handling explicitly such domain knowledge increases design models robustness due to the expression and validation of new properties mined from the domain models. This paper proposes a stepwise approach to enrich design models describing complex information systems with domain knowledge. We use ontologies to model such domain knowledge. Design models are annotated by references to domain ontologies. The resulting annotated models are checked. It becomes possible to verify domain-related properties and obtain strengthened models. The approach is deployed for two design model development approaches: a Model Driven Engineering (MDE) approach and a correct by construction formal modeling one based on refinement and proof using Event-B method. A case study illustrates both approaches (This work is partially supported by the French ANR-IMPEX project.).