Tool-idea cycle

While there is much speculation about what aspects of designing will be taken over by computer algorithms in the years to come, the future of the design profession will probably require much more creativity, flexibility and adaptation. Such requirements highlight how designers make use of ideation tools, analogue and digital, and how tool use, in turn influences ideation. This iterative adaptive process, or tool-idea cycle, which includes copying of procedures, typically triggers new ideas and innovation. The tool-idea cycle, then, as evidenced in the world of ideas, from the ancient Greeks to Silicon Valley tech geeks, signposts design futures.