Design tool

Short description: Objects, media, or computer programs, which can be used to design

The pencil is one of the most basic and most popular graphic design tools.

Design tools are objects, media, or computer programs, which can be used to design. They may influence the process of production, expression and perception of design ideas[1] and therefore need to be applied skillfully.[2]

## Contents

* 1 Objects
* 2 Media
* 2.1 Visual
* 2.2 Verbal
* 3 Computer programs
* 4 See also
* 5 Bibliography
* 6 References

## Objects

New ideas can come by way of experimenting with tools and methods. Some designers explore ideas using pencil and paper.[3] Others use many different mark-making tools and resources from computers to sculpture as a means of inspiring creativity. Traditionally, objects like pencil, compass, ruler, drawing triangle have been considered design tools and have been used to characterize design and designers.[4] One reason for the success of traditional design tools such as pencil and paper is that these tools can be used without any special knowledge and their usage facilitates a continuous flow of thoughts.[5]

## Media

The appropriate development and presentation tools can substantially change how an audience perceives a project. The media used for design can be divided in two categories, visual and verbal. Conventionally, in areas like architecture, industrial design, or graphic design, visual media are considered more important than verbal media. In other areas like engineering, the use of verbal design media may be prevalent.

### Visual

Visual design tools are, for example, gesture, sketch, drawing, scale model, perspective drawing, photograph, film, video. Eugene S. Ferguson's 1977 paper in Science, entitled "The mind's eye: Nonverbal thought in technology", is credited for clarifying the role of visual reasoning in the thinking process.[6] In this article he reasoned that "Thinking with pictures is an essential strand in the intellectual history of technological development."[7] He concludes his article with the following statement:

Much of the creative thought of the designers of our technological world is nonverbal, not easily reducible to words; its language is an object or a picture or a visual image in the mind. It is out of this kind of thinking that the clock, printing press, and snowmobile have arisen. Technologists, converting their nonverbal knowledge into objects directly (as when an artisan fashioned an American ax) or into drawings that have enabled others to build what was in their minds, have chosen the shape and many of the qualities of our man-made surroundings. This intellectual component of technology, which is non-literary and non-scientific, has been generally unnoticed because its origins lie in art and not in science.
As the scientific component of knowledge in technology has increased markedly in the 19th and 20th centuries, the tendency has been to lose sight of the crucial part played by nonverbal knowledge in making the "big" decisions of form, arrangement, and texture, that determine the parameters within which a system will operate.[8]

In his work claims Ferguson that visual reasoning is a widely used tool used in creating technological artefacts. There is ample evidence that visual methods, particularly drawing, play a central role in creating artefacts.

### Verbal

Verbal design tools are, for example, metaphor, description, discussion, critique, theory, algorithm, calculation, program.

## Computer programs

Computer programs have many functions which can be discussed in terms of design tools. One of the most widely used design tools is computer-aided design (CAD) software like Autodesk Inventor, DSS SolidWorks, or Pro Engineer which enables designers to create 3D models, 2D drawings, and schematics of their designs. CAD together with Digital Mockup (DMU) and CAE software such as finite element method analysis or analytic element method allows designers to create models of designs that can be analyzed without having to make expensive and time-consuming physical prototypes.

There is some debate whether computers enhance the creative process of design.[9] Rapid production from the computer allows many designers to explore multiple ideas quickly with more detail than what could be achieved by traditional hand-rendering or paste-up on paper, moving the designer through the creative process more quickly.[10] However, being faced with limitless choices does not help isolate the best design solution and can lead to endless iterations with no clear design outcome. A designer may use sketches to explore multiple or complex ideas quickly[11] without the distractions and complications of software.

## See also

* Design method
* Design strategy
* Reflective practice
* Computer-aided design

## Bibliography

* Design - Creativity and Materialization. Cottbus, 1999, ISSN 1434-0984, online at: http://www.cloud-cuckoo.net/openarchive/wolke/eng/Subjects/subject991.html
* Elke Krasny: Architektur beginnt im Kopf - The Making of Architecture. Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser, 2008, ISBN 978-3764389796

## References

1. ↑ Jane Anderson: Architectural Design, Basics Architecture 03, Lausanne, AVA academia, 2011, ISBN 978-2-940411-26-9, p. 40
2. ↑ Christof Ehrlich: The Construction of the Idea and its Tools, in: Design - Creativity and Materialization. Cottbus, 1999, ISSN 1434-0984.
3. ↑ Milton Glaser Draws & Lectures. retrieved 31-01-2011
4. ↑ Elke Krasny: The Making of Architecture, Graz, 2011, at: http://www.elkekrasny.at/en/archives/tag/architektur-beginnt-im-kopf-the-making-of-architecture
5. ↑ PETRUSCHAT, Jörg (2001): Bemerkungen zum Zeichnen, in: form+zweck, Heft 18, pp. 70 – 77
6. ↑ Howard S. Becker Telling About Society. 2007\. p. 167
7. ↑ Ferguson, Eugene S. "The mind's eye: Nonverbal thought in technology ." Science 197.4306 (1977): 827
8. ↑ Ferguson, Eugene S. (1977, p. 835); Cited in: Becker (2007, p. 167-8)
9. ↑ Designtalkboard.com , topic 1030 and Designtalkboard.com , topic 1141. retrieved 3-18-2007
10. ↑ Jann Lawrence Pollard and Jerry James Little, Creative Computer Tools for Artists: Using Software to Develop Drawings and Paintings, November 2001 Introduction
11. ↑ Jacci Howard Bear, desktoppub.about.com Retrieved 3-19-2008

* v
* t
* e

Design

* Outline
* Designer

Disciplines

| Communication
design|

* Advertising
* Book design
* Corporate design
* Exhibit design
* Film title design
* Graphic design
* Motion
* Postage stamp design
* Print design
* Illustration
* Information design
* Instructional design
* News design
* Photography
* Retail design
* Signage / Traffic sign design
* Typography / Type design
* Video design
* Visual merchandising

|

Environmental
design|

* Architecture
* Architectural lighting design
* Building design
* Passive solar
* Ecological design
* Environmental impact design
* Garden design
* Computer-aided
* Healthy community design
* Hotel design
* Interior architecture
* Interior design
* EID
* Keyline design
* Landscape architecture
* Sustainable
* Landscape design
* Spatial design
* Urban design

Industrial
design|

* Automotive design
* Automotive suspension design
* CMF design
* Corrugated box design
* Electric guitar design
* Furniture design
* Sustainable
* Hardware interface design
* Motorcycle design
* Packaging and labeling
* Photographic lens design
* Product design
* Production design
* Sensory design
* Service design

Interaction
design|

* Experience design
* EED
* Game design
* Level design
* Video game design
* Hardware interface design
* Icon design
* Immersive design
* Information design
* Sonic interaction design
* User experience design
* User interface design
* Web design

Other
applied arts|

* Public art design
* Ceramic / glass design
* Fashion design
* Costume design
* Jewelry design
* Floral design
* Game art design
* Property design
* Scenic design
* Sound design
* Stage/set lighting design
* Textile design

Other
design
& engineering|

* Algorithm design
* Behavioural design
* Boiler design
* Database design
* Drug design
* Electrical system design
* Experimental design
* Filter design
* Geometric design
* Job design
* Integrated circuit design
* Circuit design
* Physical design
* Power network design
* Mechanism design
* Nuclear weapon design
* Nucleic acid design
* Organization design
* Process design
* Processor design
* Protein design
* Research design
* Social design
* Software design
* Spacecraft design
* Strategic design
* Systems design

Approaches

* Activity-centered
* Adaptive web
* Affective
* Brainstorming
* By committee
* By contract
* C-K theory
* Closure
* Co-design
* Concept-oriented
* Configuration
* Contextual
* Continuous
* Cradle-to-cradle
* Creative problem-solving
* Creativity techniques
* Critical
* Design fiction
* Defensive
* Design–bid–build
* Design–build
* architect-led
* Domain-driven
* Ecodesign
* Energy neutral
* Engineering design process
* Probabilistic design
* Error-tolerant
* Fault-tolerant
* Framework-oriented
* For assembly
* For behaviour change
* For manufacturability
* For Six Sigma
* For testing
* For X
* Functional
* Generative
* Geodesign
* HCD
* High-level
* Inclusive
* Integrated
* Integrated topside
* Intelligence-based
* Iterative
* KISS principle
* Low-level
* Metadesign
* Mind mapping
* Modular
* New Wave
* Object-oriented
* Open
* Parametric
* Participatory
* Platform-based
* Policy-based
* Process-centered
* Public interest
* Rational
* Regenerative
* Reliability engineering
* Research-based
* Responsibility-driven
* RWD
* Safe-life
* Sustainable
* Systemic
* SOD
* Tableless web
* Theory of constraints
* Top-down and bottom-up
* Transformation
* Transgenerational
* TRIZ
* Universal
* Design for All
* Usage-centered
* Use-centered
* User-centered
* Empathic
* User innovation
* Value-driven
* Value sensitive
* Privacy by

* Design choice
* computing
* controls
* flow
* leadership
* management
* marker
* methods
* pattern
* research
* science
* sprint
* strategy
* theory
* thinking

* Tools
* Intellectual property
* Organizations
* Awards

| Tools|

* AAD
* Architectural model
* Blueprint
* Comprehensive layout
* CAD
* CAID
* Virtual home design software
* CAutoD
* Design quality indicator
* Electronic design automation
* Flowchart
* Mockup
* Product design specification
* Prototype
* Sketch
* Storyboard
* Technical drawing
* Web design program
* Website wireframe

|

Intellectual
property|

* Community design
* Design around
* Design patent
* Fashion design copyright
* Geschmacksmuster
* Industrial design rights
* European Union

Organizations|

* AIGA
* Chartered Society of Designers
* Design and Industries Association
* Design Council
* International Forum Design
* The Design Society
* Design Research Society

Awards|

* European Design Award
* German Design Award
* Good Design Award (Museum of Modern Art)
* Good Design Award (Chicago Athenaeum)
* Good Design Award (Japan)
* Graphex
* IF product design award
* James Dyson Award
* Prince Philip Designers Prize
* Prix Versailles

Related topics

* Aesthetics
* Agile
* Concept art
* Conceptual design
* Creative industries
* Cultural icon
* .design
* Enterprise architecture
* Futures studies
* Indie design
* Innovation Management
* Intelligent design
* Lean Startup
* New product development
* OODA Loop
* Philosophy of design
* Process simulation
* Slow design
* STEAM fields
* Unintelligent design
* Visualization
* Wicked problem

* Design brief
* change
* classic
* competition
* architectural
* student
* director
* education
* elements and principles
* engineer
* firm
* history
* knowledge
* language
* life
* load
* museum
* paradigm
* rationale
* review
* specification
* studio
* technology

* Commons
* Wikibooks
* Wikinews
* Wikiquote
* Wikisource
* Wiktionary

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design tool. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Engineering:Design_tool&oldid=4118473"
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template