The interplay between architectural design tools and information affordance in the digital era

This paper examines how the interplay between digital tools and information shapes architectural design. While the influence of digital tools on design practice has been widely studied, little attention has been paid to their growing dependence on information retrieval. As access to information becomes ubiquitous and design tools grow in complexity, designers increasingly rely on external information, raising concerns about bias, fixation, and constrained exploration. Drawing on qualitative log data collected during a 10-week architectural design elective, the study investigates how design processes unfold through interactions between tools and information. Using an affordance-based lens, the study conceptualizes design activity as emerging from the interaction between design knowledge and tool knowledge, and examines how information retrieval reshapes this relationship during the design process. The findings indicate that tool-related information plays a structuring role in design activity, orienting decisions, prompting shifts in design direction, and, in some cases, contributing to convergence and fixation. Grounded in an educational context, the study provides insight into how information shapes design exploration in digitally mediated settings. The results highlight how tool-related information retrieval contributes to shaping design exploration in digitally mediated environments, particularly for novice designers, while offering perspectives relevant to contemporary architectural practice.