On the role of computational support for designers in action

• Model of interactions among the main actions that designers perform in design tasks.
• Characterization of the current computational support for designers in action.
• Taxonomy of human-based, computer-aided, computer-based or computer-augmented actions.
• Identification of challenges in computationally supporting the use of tacit knowledge.
• Identification of progress in the computationally augmented capabilities of designers.

Designers' actions are high-level mechanisms based on heuristics and assumptions learned from professional experience. Significant research has been devoted to understanding these actions as well as finding ways to aid, automate, or augment them with computational support. However, representing and manipulating such tacit knowledge in computational environments remains an open area of research. In this paper, we map designers' actions and relationships to compare them with computational approaches for the generation, evaluation, and selection of design alternatives, and attempt to integrate all of the above. The analysis provides a more thorough understanding of the role of computational approaches in supporting designer actions and identifies challenges and areas of future research.