As novice designers, students have a difficult time evaluating large sets of complex data. Some of the difficulties stem from the validity of the collected data itself (i.e. “Garbage in Garbage out”); However, even when the data has been gathered using a robust process, students struggle with the highly interpretive process of extracting insightful meaning that leads to progress.

In order to understand and explore the process of effective interpretation, a link was formed between the idea of traditional “divination” (a recognizably, highly interpretive process) and the process of design synthesis. Previous work (Fry, 2013, 2014) has focused on the validity of the comparison itself, the actual process of divination, the formulation of appropriate questions, and a recognition of the type of answers one can expect from a divination inspired process.

This paper will continue the investigation between traditional divination techniques and the process of design synthesis (i.e. the “interpretation” of data to extract meaningful results) and will focus on identifying useful aspects of divinatory tools that might help in understanding current design synthesis tools and may help in the creation of new ones.