Computational Models of Creative Design Processes

Artificial intelligence has provided a rich set of concepts for design researchers to work with. It has extended and considerably elaborated ideas from the design methods movement and from systems theory. There are three views that can be taken about artificial intelligence in design. The first is that it provides a framework in which to explore ideas about design; the second is that it provides a schema to model human designing; and the third is that it has the means to allow the development of tools for human designers. An extension of the third view is that these tools point to ways to automate certain processes in design. One of the fundamental concepts of artificial intelligence which finds favour with design researchers is the externalisation of knowledge. This has led to the two major research concerns: