Turning breakdowns into opportunities for creativity

Abstract Design is a creative activity. Computational artifacts change the way people design. The author's research in design and design support systems has been firmly rooted in a cooperative problem solving approach that tries to amplify the creativity of designers by the use of domain-oriented design environments. Evolving design artifacts represented within the environment are able to ‘talk back’ to both system builders and future users, and act as representations for mutual understanding between various stakeholders. The domain orientation allows design activities to be conversations with the materials of the design situation. However, in many situations, artifacts do not speak for themselves. To address this problem, the environments were augmented with computational agents that identified breakdowns which might have remained unnoticed without them. These breakdowns provide opportunities for enhancing the creativity of designers by giving them support in reframing problems, attempting alternative design solutions, and exploring relevant unknown background knowledge.

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