"DRAWING WITH CODE": THE EXPERIENCE OF TEACHING CREATIVE CODING AS A SKILL FOR COMMUNICATION DESIGNERS

Abstract

In this contribution we present a didactical framework aimed at teaching design students how to use coding in support to their design process. This framework has been developed during the last four years in a course named “Creative Coding”, held in the Communication Design degree of Politecnico di Milano. The article firstly introduces the motivations that support the idea of teaching coding to design students, it specifies the approach to coding that is taken into account (creative coding) and it describes the strategies and the framework developed for teaching it. Lastly it presents and discusses results derived from the held editions, showing how the presented framework is capable of making design students conversant about coding and able to use this skill within a communication design project, with a beneficial boost in creativity and a better understanding of the feasibility of their ideas.