Position statement: Can software design benefit from creative computing?

Design is one of the most elusive tasks in any engineering or creative activity. Design problems have been recognized as wicked or ill-structured. Software design is even more difficult because software is the most complicated man-made artifact and system. One of the key characteristics of design is its creativeness. The question is, therefore, can design benefit from creative computing? In other words, can software design be a successful subject of the research on creative computing? For a long time, people have been search for design methodologies so that design can be mastered through education and learning, even become mechanical and automated. Researchers in the subject area of Computer Aided Design (CAD) have developed software tools to support various design activities in design process but the creativity, which still relies on human beings. The research on software design in the past decades has made some breakthroughs that may lead to a revolutionary new type of software design tools so that software developers can benefit from creative computing. These research results combined with the general theory of design methodologies may make creativity in software design benefit from automation. The following briefly examine such theories and research results in the light of creative computing.