Hasta La Ideas

Image Courtesy of Michael Ditullo

A continuing issue in industrial design education is when to allow students to move from sketch work to 3D CAD modelling during studio practice—or whether to let them use CAD at all! I’ve heard of first year undergraduate modules where students are ‘banned’ from the use of CAD in an attempt to encourage sketchbook work and more explorative conceptual design practice. In my view this approach is somewhat draconian and does little to deal with the underlying reasons that attract less experienced designers to the comparative certainty of 3D CAD.

Instead of setting constraints or limitations to dictate where and under what circumstances design tools must be used, design education needs to provide opportunities for young designers to reflect upon the nature of their own design activity and how this informs their use of design tools. Design students should consider the bigger picture that constitutes the various requirements of a design process in order to think about how tool use locates within and is informed by a requirement to design. This awareness will then provide opportunities for students to make more informed decisions when working with design tools; to be more critical in their use of CAD tools and more confident in their own sketching abilities.

My own research has explored the increasing variety of tools the industrial designer has at their disposal to support the development and communication of design intentions. Findings indicate that sketching continues to underpin design activity. Professional experience also influences the use of sketching in support of design activity. Less experienced design students tend to lack confidence in their sketch ability and they find the dynamic, unconstrained medium at odds with an approach to design activity that errs towards fixation and attachment to concept.

Figure 1: Design sketches used to support explorative design activity. Courtesy of Michael Ditullo

As part of my research I visited practicing designers at their places of work and interviewed them about their use of design tools. Interestingly, the designers often juxtaposed the affordance of sketching against the limitations of 3D CAD tools. Like many in design education, practitioners stressed the explorative, divergent affordance of sketching over the more constrained convergent nature of CAD. Of course they understood the value of CAD, but spoke of a concern for the ways it may limit student creativity, ‘a student’s design being too influenced by the constraints of this or that software.’

Of course, when used to support design activity, both sketching and CAD tools have the ability to complement one another in a process that has at its heart the representation and communication of design intent. Rather than limiting the use of a given tool, design education must provide opportunities for students to consider the relationship between their use of a given tool, the tool’s possible influence on their own design activity and how tool use is located within and informed by the wider requirements and responsibilities of the design process. Much criticism has been leveled at the inability of CAD to support the kinds of explorative design activity required for conceptualisation. There can be no doubt that the tool-in-hand has an influence on the character of the design representation. However, it is also true that a tool is only a tool insofar as it is used as such by the tool-user. In turn, the user is motivated by their own perception of the purpose of tool use. For students to make best use of the availability of an ever-increasing variety of conventional, digital and hybrid design tools, they require an understanding of tool use within a context of the dynamic requirements of the process of industrial design.

Figure 2: Like chess, CAD can be described as a process of ‘moves’, defined and constrained by the system. Courtesy of Michael Ditullo

Experienced designers know this and tend to take a process-first approach to the use of design tools. They think more about what is required in terms of the design process; stakeholder expectations; budget; communication of intent: from explorative, divergent conceptualisation to more constrained, convergent specification. In short, they draw upon a wealth of knowledge and past experience to guide their approach to design activity and tool use.

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