Design computing now goes well beyond documentation and production needs. It includes innovation, simulation and digital fabrication that expands rather than reduces designers' creative options. In short, digital technology promotes experimentation and discovery, what I call Computer-aided ideation, CAI (Jonson 2005).
Designers who focus on innovation through analogue tools alone highlight knowledge and skills of computing technologies. For example: 'Computers arrived too late for me. I don't believe I can use them to their potential. The computer pushes for a rigour that is hard to include in research development; it can't accommodate the doubts that are necessary, and this can be difficult for creativity. I see the computer as another instrument complimentary to sketches, models, reading and so on - not an exclusive way of working'. Alvaro Siza, RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2009.
