Backtracking Decisions within a Design Process: A Way of Enhancing the Designer's Thought Process and Creativity

摘要

This paper proposes a way computer sciences could contribute to stimulate the designer's reflexive thought. We explore the possibility of making use of backtracking devices in order to formalize the designer's thought process. Design, as a process of creating an object, cannot be represented by means of a linear timeline. Accordingly, the backtracking processes we are discussing here are not based on a linear model but rather on a non-linear structure. Beyond the notion of undoing and redoing commands within CAD packages, the backtracking process is seen as a way to explore and record several alternative options. The branches of the non-linear model can be seen as pathways made of sequential decisions. The designer creates and explores these pathways while making tentative moves towards an architectural solution. Our goal is to experiment ways that could enable the designer and his/her collaborators to get a clearer mental picture of the network of decisions. We believe that working with parametric objects is the most suited approach to explore such a concept.