Examining the Role of Design Tools in Quality of Ideation and Presenting Architectural Designs

Problem Statement:

 The various design tools, which have received attention and have been used in educational structures and professional activities of architects, undoubtedly influence the design process, from the incidence of reinforcement aspects in ideation to presenting architectural projects. Hence, such tools must be chosen within the context of logical and unbiased interactions to identify their strengths and weaknesses.

The extant study aimed to identify and compare judgment criteria for design tools to improve the design and guide designers in choosing appropriate tools that are matched with various topics or design progress steps.

The present paper was conducted based on futurology. The Delphi method was an approach adopted to identify experts’ consensus.  To this end, the factors affecting design tool selection were examined. The subject was studied and identified over three discussion courses by using binary matrixes for structure evaluation through the hierarchy method. 

Design tools have various forms and potential. Each aspect of precision, ambiguity, functional simplicity, accessibility, and flexibility is evaluable based on the design topic and designers’ inherent talents. Thus, it is not a smart action to be decisive in selecting a tool or insisting on a specific feature regardless of factors affecting design, designer(s), and design step.