I visited 21 design firms and asked their designers and engineers what they thought about documentation. This is what I learned.
All by Samuel McKinnon
Why Study the Design Process?
Why would you undertake a deep study of engineering design, or the design process, when you could go about design on your own and learn from your own experience? There is value to be gained from studying design, and I want to add my own take on why studying design is an important complement to hands-on experience.
Quaker Oats and The Design of Everyday Things
I’m positing that this Quaker Oatmeal container is an example of good design. I’ll use some ideas from Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman to show you why.
How Artificial Intelligence Can Improve Engineering Design
Have you thought about how AI will affect your design work? I’m excited for the ways that AI can facilitate product realization work, and in this article I describe why.
Good Ideas: They Come From Your Head
It sounded like I was trying to find sources for plagiarizing answers. But I was genuinely concerned—if the internet is just some depository of mediocre thinking, where on earth was I supposed to go to find good ideas? She looked startled that I asked the question, but one millisecond later she gave me an answer that changed my life…
Ideation Techniques: Affinity Mapping
Engineers, scientists, and designers all gather data and then try to make sense of it later. We have equations and models to help us simulate this data. But we also have a problem – these tools were designed for numerical data, and not all data is solely quantitative. Affinity mapping is an abductive reasoning process that enables people to make sense of large amounts of subjective, qualitative, or observational data.
Ideation Techniques: Assessing the Effectiveness of your Brainstorming Session
Objective brainstorming feedback is hard to find. Most people will accept whatever ideas get thrown up and move on. But not us! We are intelligent citizens of the design community who want to get better at brainstorming! What resources are out there to help us improve our ideation practice?
Water, Water Bottles, and Why I Struggled Finding Water Bottle Stickers in Peru
Why was it so hard to find water bottle stickers in Peru? Why aren’t reusable water bottles popular in Peru, and why are they so popular in the United States? Read on to find answers to these pressing questions and change the way you think about drinking water.
Nuclear Power: Actuarial versus Perceived Risks
Actuarial risks can be quantified or measured. Perceived risks are felt when the outcome of a risk is negative, catastrophic, or involuntary. Learn how this applies to public opinion of nuclear power and think about how this could apply to your design work.
Not a Meme Article on the Design Process
This is NOT an April Fools’ Day meme article. Nothing could be further from the truth. Also, ignore the cat.
Restraint—a Key to Design Success
Studying the concept art from season one of the Mandalorian, as featured in Phil Szostak’s book The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, is not only thrilling, but a testament to the power of practicing restraint in design.
Memegineering
We don’t always publish memes, but when we do, it’s on April Fool’s day. Celebrate April Fool’s Day with some of our favorite engineering memes!
Realizing that you're Good Enough
An engineering student shares his thoughts and experiences about mental health.
Good Design: The VODA Heat Powered Stove Fan
A common deficiency in heating a room with a wood stove is that the heated air accumulates around the ceiling or dissipates off of the exhaust pipe instead of spreading out to fill the room. Stove top fans solve this problem by blowing hot air next to the stove into the rest of the room. Let’s look into the relationship between the fan, the stove, and the consumer for design principles we can apply to our future projects.
Design Lessons from Genghis Khan
To save you from the hassle of cramming for your own book report, and to remind us that design principles are scattered throughout all fields of study, I’ll summarize three design lessons we can take from the conqueror who established the largest land empire in world history.