Most Read Articles of 2022
2022 was a great year for the BYU Design Review. We published 47 new articles and had 48,000 visits to the site. Thanks to everyone who wrote, read, and share articles this year; we’re happy to have you as part of our design community. Below, you can check out our most popular new articles of 2022. If you missed one of these, go give it a read! Learn something new to improve your design work or enlarge your perspective of engineering design.
BYU Campus in LEGO by Samuel McKinnon, Chris Mattson, Derek Ashby, Natalie White, and William Godfrey
We challenged dozens of BYU engineering students to design LEGO Architecture-style models of BYU buildings; here you’ll see some of the many outstanding designs that were created. If you’re a current BYU student, an alumnus, or have ever visited the BYU campus, we hope these designs bring back great memories.
Shigeru Miyamoto: Nintendo’s Super Power by Chris Mattson
Discover six ways to emulate the world’s most respected video game designer. Whether you’re an engineer, and artist, a coder, or an entrepreneur, these universal designer attributes are sure to power up.
Barely Tolerance-able by Brent Bateman
“Let me be absolutely frank with you. When I am arranging this kind of meeting, I will do all I can to avoid inviting engineers.” Get an attorney’s perspective on why working with engineers can be so difficult, and what you can do to be a better teammate on interdisciplinary teams.
Optimizing vs Satisficing: Tips for Product Design and Designing Your Life by Chris Mabey
What does it mean to satisfice something, and how is that different from optimization? Take it from the guy who spent an hour trying to find the best spatula: good enough is often the best. Read this article and see how it applies to your decision making skills.
Good Design: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, and The Phonetic Alphabet by Chris Mattson
Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo… this is the NATO phonetic alphabet. What made this design so enduring that it survived the analog age, and the onset and proliferation of the digital age? Why was this design so universal that it is used throughout the world with only minor regional adaptations?
Hidden Engineering by Cali McMurtrey
Machu Picchu, Petra, and Pont du Gard, were built centuries ago and have captured the awe and respect of thousands of people around the world. Get a licensed professional water engineer’s perspective on the engineering design that made these structures withstand the tests of nature and time. It’ll blow your mind.
Good Design: The iPhone by Jeremiah Sanders
What makes the iPhone so popular, and how has it risen to dominate the United State’s phone market? Jeremiah dives into these questions and more in this good design article.
Learn to Sketch: Shading and Shadowing Cylinders by Chris Mattson
Cylinders can be hard to sketch, and harder to shade. Luckily, there is a method to the madness. Read this article to learn how to shade and shadow cylinders in your sketching work.
Good Design: the Fanny Pack by Natalie White
“Fashion and engineering seem like they’re on different ends of the design spectrum. Yet overlap does occur, and at the intersection of fashion and engineering, great things happen. Things like the fanny pack.” Find out what makes the fanny pack such a great design!
Design in Christmas Movies: Elf and the Forced Perspective by John Salmon
A great quote from the article: “I’m not a believer in elves but I am for those 1.5 hours during the movie. That’s good design.” With the holidays coming up, review this article to get your dose of seasonal cheer and learn about what forced perspective is.
