Meanings of Tools, Support, and Uses for Creative Design Processes

When evaluating application systems for designers, the roles and effects of the systems must be taken into account. Existing research on design support tools often seems to pay little attention to such evaluation variations, however. This paper uses three physical tools, dumbbells, running shoes, and skis, as analogies to explore different types of computational tools for design processes; dumbbells help people to develop muscles, running shoes allow people to run faster, and skis enable people to ski. We describe what different schemes would be appropriate and inappropriate in evaluating each type of design support tool. Some existing research tools for design are presented as illustrations of each type of physical tool analogy.