Design Dependencies Visualisation Tool - initial alpha release

Heuristics play a great role in design creativity and learning. There is generally no systematic method designers can be provided with in order to derive optimal design solutions. In other words, it is neither possible to list all solutions to a given problem nor to prove the absolute superiority of a given solution. However, guidance can be provided to designers in the form of heuristics, i.e. set of solutions validated by practice, which have proven to lead towards satisfactory solutions, but which are not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect. Heuristics express a supposed causal relation between two design parameters. For example, in the context of automobile development, “overall weight” has a direct relation with “energy consumption in use.”

This tool allows displaying the network built by all causal relations between design parameters. It provides an environment to explore and navigate in this network in order to support creativity in design.

启发式方法在设计与学习创造力中扮演着举足轻重的角色。设计者通常无法获得一套系统的方法论来推导出最佳设计方案。换言之，既无法穷尽特定问题的所有解决方案，亦难以证明某一方案具有绝对优越性。然而，通过启发式方法，即一套经实践验证的解决方案集合，可以为设计者提供指导，这些方案已被证明能够引导至令人满意的解决方案，尽管它们并不保证是最优或完美的。启发式方法表达了两个设计参数之间假定的因果关系。例如，在汽车开发领域，“总体重量”与“使用过程中的能耗”之间存在直接关联。此工具允许展示由所有设计参数之间的因果关系构建的网络。它提供了一个探索和导航该网络的环境，以支持设计过程中的创造力。