A Digital Design Coach for Young Designers

The present use of digital media in architectural practice and education is primarily focused on representation, communication of ideas and production. Designers, however, still use pencil and paper to assist the early conception of ideas. Recently, research into providing digital tools for designers to use in conceptual designing has focused on enhancing or assisting the designer. Rarely has the computer been regarded as a potential teaching tool for design skills. Based on previous work by the author about visual thinking and the justification for a digital design assistant, the intention of this paper is to illustrate to the reader the feasibility of a digital design coach. Reference is made to recent advances in research about design computability. In particular, research by Mark Gross and Ellen Do with respect to their Electronic Cocktail Napkin project is used as a basis on which to determine what such a digital coach may look and feel like