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Topic outline

 

  • Time: 28 hours
    Level: Introductory

 
 

Introduction

  • Introduction Resource
  • This unit looks at the process of design – from assessing the complexity of design as an activity, to exposing the difficulty in making general conclusions about how designers work. You will be able to...
 

1 Design and designing

  • 1.1 Design Resource
  • Design is everywhere. Look around you, and consider the objects you see. For example, in my office I can see my computer, a telephone, a pen, a coffee mug, my sunglasses, a stapler, my wallet, my diary,...
  • 1.2 Problems and solutions Resource
  • One way to look at design is to consider it as a problem-solving activity. For example, a person designing the interior of a house has to solve many problems such as how to make it functional in an appropriate...
  • 1.3 What is good design and good designing? Resource
  • I stated in Section 1.2 that we are all capable of undertaking design activity. I am now refining this to the activity of designing. Some people have developed their skills and abilities to a high level...
  • 1.4 Designing as model-making and model-using Resource
  • Any attempt to integrate skills, knowledge, abilities and sensitivities in formulating a design is going to be difficult, and the outcome from one designer's work is likely to differ from another person's...
  • 1.5 Design and needs Resource
  • In the opening sections I raised the question of ‘need’ as a foundation for design activity. A dilemma came to light: although we might look for needs before generating design proposals, we recognise that...
  • 1.6 Designing as heuristic problem-solving Resource
  • Generally, solving design problems is different from solving puzzles or mathematical equations. One major difference is that design problems are often not well-specified. This is discussed in more detail...
  • 1.7 Design as finding a good problem – solution pair Resource
  • Design is an interesting form of problem-solving, since part of the problem is to find an accurate way of expressing what the problem is. This may sound paradoxical, but it is quite simple really. For...
  • 1.8 Design, creativity, invention and innovation Resource
  • Before proceeding further, it is worthwhile clarifying some of the terminology which surrounds the design process. The words given in the heading above are often used almost synonymously, and in this unit...
  • 1.9 Design is … Resource
  • Most design is routine: it's a job. It's people at drawing boards, working at computers, building models, arguing in meetings and learning by doing design work. The subject of design is broad and it takes...
 

2 Design and innovation 1: the plastic kettle

  • 2.1 Issues of supply and demand Resource
  • Section 1 attempted to tease apart the various factors and processes that might be found in design activity. Designs can be the result of quite complex interactions which in turn are influenced...
  • 2.2 Who dares wins? Resource
  • As sales were so buoyant, does this indicate that the new plastic kettles were an immediate runaway success? Well, actually no. The early plastic kettles quickly became shabby, primarily because the polymers...
  • 2.3 The significance of ‘need’ Resource
  • I started this section with a reference to needs and I want to return to this now. There was no explicitly stated ‘need’ for a kettle made of plastic or a kettle shaped like a jug. Even if a manufacturer...
 

3 Models of the design process

 

4 Conceptual design

 

5 Concept to prototype

  • 5.1 A process of focusing Resource
  • In the last section I examined one part of the design process in detail: the generation of concept. Towards the end of this stage, ideas for a design are given some detail. However, they are still not...
  • 5.2 Down to the detail Resource
  • A little later I will describe an example of a product undergoing this process of defining the detail where you can follow the decisions that are made. First I will give some general examples to give a...
  • 5.3 Design and innovation 2: the ‘Res-Q-Rail’ stretcher Resource
  • One of the difficulties with designing is that it is almost always complex. There are contexts, which impose particular constraints on parts of the design and their connections. To describe a design case...
 

6 Design and innovation 3: the Brompton folding bicycle

  • 6.1 Reprise: concept to prototype to production Resource
  • Go to buy any functional product, and you will almost certainly be presented with a range of different designs. Some of the differences will just be in the styling, but there may also be real differences...
  • 6.2 Bicycle origami Resource
  • Andrew Ritchie started designing a folding bicycle in 1975, stimulated by the Bickerton folding bicycle design. The Bickerton (Figure 44) is made from aluminium, and is hinged at the chainwheel bracket....
  • 6.3 Prototyping and improving Resource
  • In Ritchie's first prototype design (P1) the rear wheel hinged forward in its own plane from the lowest point of its triangular support structure, as in the production model in Figure 46. However, unlike...
  • 6.4 The second prototype (P2) Resource
  • The major design difference between P1 and subsequent prototypes was the removal of the complex skewed hinge required to move the front wheel in its own plane underneath the bicycle to sit alongside the...
  • 6.5 The structural heart of the machine Resource
  • A bicycle consists essentially of a horizontal beam, to which is attached the wheels and a seat post. It is this beam which, structurally, is the most important part of the bicycle. There are forces acting...
  • 6.6 The first production run Resource
  • Let's return to the story of the development of the Brompton. Because Andrew Ritchie could not sell his idea, he decided to set up his own factory to manufacture the bicycles. He borrowed money from friends...
 

7 Conclusions

  • 7.1 The context of design and innovation Resource
  • In this final section I would like to lead you to consider several different ways of looking at design. This is meant to introduce some of the issues and debates which have engaged designers.
  • 7.2 Innovation Resource
  • Design is rather like problem solving. We try to define the problem, perhaps in terms of a client's requirements, then search possible solutions for a satisfactory outcome. However, design itself is much...
  • 7.3 Uncertainty Resource
  • We have noticed during the unit that designing takes place under various degrees of uncertainty. This is another way to classify design. From the early stages to a concept are full of uncertainty, whereas...
  • 7.4 Style Resource
  • The term ‘industrial design’ is often used to denote those design activities mainly concerned with the appearance and aesthetics of a product. In contrast the term ‘engineering design’ is often used narrowly...
  • 7.5 Examples of context: televisions, aircraft and soap powder Resource
  • Designs are not just differentiated by what they do and how they do it, or what they look like, but also by the wider social and economic contexts in which they are created and used. To illustrate this,...
  • 7.6 End note Resource
  • To end on a lighter note I would like to touch on a famous design case study from the history of navigation. Clocks in the 1700s only worked accurately if their mechanisms were kept still on the mantelpiece....
 

References and Acknowledgements

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