The Design Process What is the Design Process

The Design Process

What is the Design Process? The Design Process solves problems in a systematic way. During the design process you carefully work out the details and make plans before making the solution. Once a problem is identified you follow a series of steps to develop a workable solution.

There are 8 Steps to the Design Process 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Identify problem and opportunities Establishing a design brief Investigation and research Generating possible solutions Selecting the best solution Developing the solution Modeling Testing and evaluation

Step 1: Identify Problem • Step 1 is where you will state the problem you are going to solve in one or two sentences.

Step 2: Design Brief • Here you state more clearly and in depth what problem you are going to solve. • Make a list of constraints – These are the rules you must follow when designing your solution

Step 3: Investigation and Research • Any research you have done to help give you ideas is put here, this includes: – Pictures – Surveys – Interviews

Step 4: Generating Possible Solutions • Here you roughly sketch or draw possible ideas for your design problem (use graph paper for neater drawing if possible).

Step 5: Choosing the best solution Pro/Con Table • Use a pro/con table, attribute matrix or a survey chart to help choose your best solution Design One Design Two Pro Con

Attribute Matrix (Rate your design from 1 being poor to 5 being good, total up the columns to find the best indication of the best solution) Criteria Put in this column the things the design must be (the constraints list from Step 2) Total Design 1 Design 2 Design 3 Design 4

Survey Chart Person Comment Rating /10 Total Choosing the Best Solution Conclusion (This is the spot you will state which design solution you are going to develop. Be sure to write more then “it just scored the highest , or people liked the design”. State WHY it is the best solution to your problem.

Step 6: Developing the best solution • In this step you will develop your best solution into a technical/orthographic drawing. Make sure you include all measurements, materials used any other information that may be important to your design.

Step 7: Modeling • Time to build/create • Make sure you have a build list or pattern to follow!

Step 8: Testing and Evaluation • Tell how the testing of your product went. Was it successful? What could you have done differently? What problems did you have developing it? And any other information you think is important.