Give me an Example: Supporting the Creative Designer

In thinking of a solution to a problem, the designer has a vague image of the form that will embody the solution. Creating collages, sketches and other types of (external) visual representations are used to help in shaping and establishing this image. For this, designers make extensive use of design precedents Many of the existing computer tools to support designing with precedents suffer from a serious drawback: they rely on textual descriptions that have to be added to the collection of images prior to using the system. This approach brings along a series of difficulties: it is impractical for large collections; considers only the viewpoint of the editor; fixes descriptions in time and restricts attribution of meaning. This paper presents an approach that eliminates the human mediated description, indexing and organizing of large collections of design precedents. It explores both, theoretical and technological aspects of the use and handling of design precedents. On the theoretical side, it discusses questions related to how to represent design precedents in such a way that they can be effectively used in design education and in design practice. On the technological side, it shows how to implement such representations in a computer program so that it eliminates the problems associated with human mediated indexing and description.