Most-Read Articles from 2019 on the BYU Design Review
The BYU Design Review’s most-read articles from 2019 are listed here, with the most read appearing first. If you read them when they were published, consider sharing them with a friend, or reviewing them yourself by reading the tiny synopsis below. For those you haven’t read, we hope you enjoy reading them now.
Two Ideas a Day by Scott Jensen
Scott shares his experience with the simple approach of writing down two new ideas a day. It’s straightforward and accessible. We can all do this, and it will make us more innovative.
A favorite quote from the article: “As innovators, it is our job to be observant enough to recognize the pain points and creative enough to come up with ‘breakthrough ideas’ to solve them”.
3 Things CAD Beginners Should Do by Max Liechty
Max’s insightful tips come from what he observed while being a CAD Teaching Assistant for multiple years. He discusses thinking in a new dimension, finding buttons, and making mistakes.
A favorite quote from the article: “Go ahead and make mistakes. Make so many that you begin to weep or threaten to uninstall the software from your computer. There is no better way to create a design than getting started on one”.
Letters of Recommendation by John Salmon
No matter which stage in life, we may find ourselves needing a letter of recommendation. John gives useful, practical, tips on how to proceed through the process.
A favorite quote from the article: “Once you do identify someone [to write a letter] and they agree, ask for specific ways that will make it easier for them to write your letter. Essentially, remove obstacles between them and an awesome letter for you. Sometimes I prefer the applicant to give me a bulleted list of points I can make about them in my letter. The list should include specific reasons why you are the right person for the position.”
Design for Star Wars by John Salmon
Star Wars is a genre and designing for it is not trivial. Thousands and thousands of people all over the world will critique each frame to discover inconsistencies and themes. How do the filmmakers, model makers, scriptwriters, and others do it? John gives four thoughts about it.
A favorite quote from the article: “Often the animators would develop half a dozen models for a particular character and then George Lucas would choose one that he believed would be best. For those half dozen models, there would be scores of iterations before and often many more iterations afterward, especially if Lucas wanted to combine the features of two models. The iterations of Yoda alone are quite interesting to see and interestingly, the final design was inspired by the face of Yoda’s own designer, Stuart Freeborn. (Do a search of his face, you may be surprised if you’ve never seen Freeborn before.)”
Making Products that Don’t Suck by Chris Mabey
Chris discusses the importance of having your design work critiqued by someone else. He draws on his own experience at Fezzari and insights from Ed Catmull’s book on Pixar’s approaches.
A favorite quote from the article: “You pour all of your efforts into a design only to spend an hour having every weakness of your design pointed out. It’s a lot like cleaning a wound with alcohol. The process is painful, but it needs to happen to prevent infection.”
A Baseball Conspiracy? by Chris Mabey
Why has the number of home runs in Major League Baseball increased noticeably since the All-Star Game of 2015? Chris digs in and discovers some interesting things about how the official ball mysteriously changed (the coefficient of drag is lower), with Major League Baseball not taking ownership of the change. Based on his product development experience, Chris gives four possibilities of how/why this happened.
A favorite quote from the article: “For the baseball, it is extremely unlikely that a change, resulting in a lower coefficient of drag, would be done without a change order from Major League Baseball. If such a change was accidental, it is fortunate that it resulted in more home runs instead of less, and for such a regulated sport, it would have likely been changed back once noticed. The truth is that the new ball has been used for four years without reverting back to the previous design.”
Ambiguity and Design Freedom by Chris Mattson
Chris explains why ambiguity is good by relating it to design freedom and flexibility for the designer. He shows that although it can be frustrating for new engineers to deal with ambiguity, it is the design engineer’s job to thrive in an ambiguous environment.
A favorite quote from the article: “Without ambiguity, there is no design freedom. Without design freedom, there is no decision-making. Without decision-making, there is no design.”
The Pastry Chef Who Teaches Engineers by Chris Mattson
While pastry chef Claire Saffitz reverse engineer’s the strawberry PopTart, Chris Mattson dissects her process and relates it to engineering design.
A favorite quote from the article: “One of Claire’s Best Attributes: She does not, in any way, expect her first version of the food to be right. That’s not even on her radar. Her first versions are to learn and understand. She knows they are launching points for refined versions that will eventually be right.”
Self-Imposed Deadlines by Jake Hunter
Jake is one of the most accomplished young people we know, which makes his article on how he does it even more valuable. In the article, he provides his thoughts on time management, productivity, and personal life.
A favorite quote from the article: “You have the capacity to think and to do. You can ideate and create. Once you realize what you are capable of, get to work.”
The Wright Brothers and The Airplane: Five Attributes of Great Engineering Design by Alan Parkinson
Alan shares insights about how the Wright Brothers became the first in flight. He specifically digs into their personal characteristics. We can all be a little bit more like Orville and Wilbur.
A favorite quote from the article: “They built a wind tunnel in their bicycle shop and performed hundreds of carefully conducted experiments on airfoils, aspect ratios of wings, the effects of uprights, etc. They developed the most extensive and accurate database on a flight that existed at the time in the world.”
