Design and Computational Thinking. Mixed Strategies and Cognitive Models for Communication Design Education.

Many theoretical approaches have framed the relationship between design and computation, both as part of the design process and as part of the design output. While the presence of a computational component is becoming more and more prevalent both in new media old-media devices communication products, computational aspects are generally considered to be separate from the design process. This paper proposes a conceptualization of Communication Design outputs in algorithmic terms, highlighting the rule-base, systemic and abstract components that characterize them. In the discussion section, the perspectives, advantages and drawbacks of such a conceptualization are analyzed in relation to current research in computational thinking, present technological trends, and its possible role in design education.