Week 2 - Introduction to Conceptual Design

In week 2 we discuss conceptual design and apply it to the Lego rescue design project.

In the model used by Mattson and Soreson, Concept Development is the second phase

  1. Opportunity development
  2. Concept development
  3. Subsystem engineering
  4. System refinement
  5. Producibility refinement
  6. Post-release refinement

The primary goal of concept development is to creating a viable conceptual design that solves the given problem.

NOTE: In order to gain practice in the team-based design activity, we are temporarily skipping over the process of determining the customer requirements. The goal of the design competition is to win a game. The rules of the game substitute for the customer requirements in this example.

Reading

Review Chapter 2 and read Chapter 5 in the textbook by Mattson and Sorenson.

There is a lot of information in those chapters. You will need to re-read them as you work on this class and on your project in Winter and Spring terms. On this first reading, try to get the big picture, especially these ideas

  • Design network representation of sequential, parallel and coupled (interdependent) activities represented in Figure 2.6, 2.7, 2.8 and 2.9
  • Stages of development in Section 2.5 and represented in Figure 2.10

Also note that the textbook by Mattson and Sorenson are heavily oriented about the "what-to-do" during each design phase. In the second half of the book they provide may tools that help with the "how-to-do" each phase. Nonetheless, Mattson and Sorenson focus more on the "what" than the "how". Other design textbooks provide more information on the "how", but those books also tend to be thick, ponderous and expensive. I can recommend other resources.

Beta Project Funding for AY 2017

The Beta Project is a source of resources for students to pursue self-directed, innovated projects.

Refer to the "how to apply" web page for more information.

Activities for Today

  • Overview of Phase 1 and 2 in design process
  • Sock Drawer Design
  • Group meetings
    • Say hello
    • Start a team contract
    • Prepare first prototypes for conceptual design
  • Overview of Internal Search
    • Brainstorming
    • Functional Decomposition

Sock Drawer Design

Yes, people think about organizing their sock drawer.

  1. In The life-changing magic of tidying up: The Japanese art of decluttering and organizing, Marie Kondo, spends 3 pages on "Storing socks", (English translation, 2014, Ten Speed Press, ISBN 978-1-60774-730-7, pp. 80-83)
  2. Simplified advice suggests that you can tidy your sock drawer in 10 minutes
  3. On 5 September 2016, a google search for "organize sock drawer" returned 106,000 results
  4. On 5 September 2016, a youTube search for "organize sock drawer" returned 4460 results
  5. A Vice President at Kajima Building & Design Group argues that his personal policy of "all my socks are black" are a model for ethical business practices, where "I made a commitment to myself to make decisions based on no gray areas.".

Learning about customer needs

Even if you think a particular design project is unimportant or even stupid, your personal preferences should not matter in the design process unless you are the customer. Your job as the designer is

  1. Elicit the needs of the customer
  2. Organize and translate the customer needs into engineering requirements
  3. Develop prototypes that embody ideas for meeting customer needs (solving the problem)
  4. Show the customer prototypes to elicit feedback on conceptual design
  5. Iterate steps 3 and 4 until the "architecture" of the design is solidified, ie. until the requirements for architectural design have been met
  6. Proceed design of engineering subsystems – many additional steps with iteration, which are not important in the sock drawer example

Different people have different preferences and requirements. Those preferences and requirements may change with time. Those preferences and requirements will likely change with your resources (money) and obligations (jobs & family)

In-class Exercise

We all have socks. We all have ways of storing our socks.

You work for a engineering design firm and have the assignment of gathering the client requirements for a sock drawer re-design. You are sent to the office (or home) of a very important client. Your job is to determine what this client needs in the re-design of her/his sock drawer.

  1. Pair-up with one other student
  2. Student A has three minutes to elicit the design requirements that student B has for a sock drawer.
    • Listen.
    • Take notes.
    • Ask questions to learn more and provoke constructive thoughts by Student A.
    • Do not offer advice or opinions
  3. Switch roles: For three minutes Student B interviews Student A.
  4. Stop. Look at your notes and extract the three most important client requirements that you will send, via email, back to your main office.
  5. Class discussion

Prototype a Sock Drawer

  • What would a prototype sock drawer look like? What would it be made of?
  • How would you use a prototype sock drawer to elicit customer feedback?
  • How would a second round prototype be used to develop conceptual designs for engineering subsystems?

Internal search refers to the process of developing design concepts by the team without reference to external resources. Internal search involves thinking up ideas, as opposed to looking for ideas or design solutions that may already exist.

For the design competition, our internal search will include


Document updated 2017-10-03.