Every single product that has been made, is currently being made, or will be made has economic, environmental, and social impacts. How can we design to have better impacts and what are social impacts? Read on to find out.
All in Design Philosophy
Should we design things we don’t understand?
Over the last few years you have probably heard the words machine learning (ML) and AI thrown around more and more. Using tools like Microsoft Azure Learning Studio you can get an ML algorithm running in a few minutes without ever writing any code. Is it ethical to design products with tools I don’t fully understand?
Haste Makes Waste, But Not Always
It can be extremely difficult to know how much time to spend on a particular design task. Do it too quickly and you might waste time and money. Do it too slowly and stakeholders will conclude that progress has stopped. This article gives eight things to practice as you learn to strike a good balance between spending too much versus too little time reaching development milestones.
Megatrends and Product Development
How can we know what changes will take place over the coming decades? Yes, we won’t know everything about the future world but long term trends that will affect all areas of life can be known, and then used to estimate future conditions. These are called megatrends.
The Peer Review Process and Why it Matters for Design
With attacks on the scientific community happening everyday, I thought it would be helpful for people to know more about the peer review process. Yes, the peer review process does have problems, but currently it is our best bet at getting to the facts. Find out why this matters to you as a designer.
First Principles Design
I started thinking about the story behind the things around me later on in my middle school career. I can't remember what exactly initiated the thoughts, but I remember them eating at me. "Why is this thing like this? Why couldn’t they have done this other thing?" I began contracting the product designers' disease of perpetual criticism of the created environment around me early on.
A Good-Better-Best Framework for Design
The long term relationship between a design team and it’s client has everything to do with what the design team delivers and when. Setting clear expectations about the quality and completeness of the design work keeps both the design team and the client from changing the expectations without thoughtful discussions together. Simply articulating early in the development process, what good, better, and best solutions look like can make all the difference in what is delivered and in the long term relationship.
Storytelling in Design
Think of your favorite fictional characters. Who are they? Do they live in a world like ours or somewhere very different and far away? What do they look like? What do they like to do? Consider your relationship with these characters. Though they are not real, you are invested in their story.
The Yin and Yang of Conceptual Design
Conceptual design is the early part of the design process, which is often envisioned with post-it covered walls, smart interdisciplinary teams, and concept sketching. Conceptual design is full of energy and optimism. Until it is not. In this article I give a few tips – centered on the ancient philosophy of yin and yang – that help me keep conceptual design full of energy and optimizing the whole time.
Design through Analogy
Metaphors, similes, parallels, allegories, symbols, and, of course, analogies are some of the tools designers, engineers, and scientists often use to communicate, discover, and develop their trade. Johannes Kepler was one of the foremost scientists to apply analogies to discover the design of our solar system. We should follow his example in our efforts.
Iteration: The most important concept in design
If you think your design will be “right/good/complete/perfect” after just one cycle of creation, you’ll be disappointed and frustrated. It won’t be right, it probably won’t even be good. If you accept that iteration is a normal, healthy, and expected part of the design process, your love for, and competency in, designing things will skyrocket.
Learn to Create, Design to Learn
The ability to create, and to become better at creating, is implicit in the nature of the brain’s neural network. As one approaches the peak of efficient work and cerebral focus, creativity becomes a self-sustaining process: the flow of ideas morphs into a rapid current that carries the creator and maximizes both the pace of the work and the enjoyment that comes with it. We all seek to innovate in such a way, but how do we achieve this level of creation on a regular basis?
Mechanical Design
As someone who loves design of all kinds, it can be easy to get carried away and lose track of where I, as a mechanical engineer, fit in the design world. For me it is important to understand what makes mechanical design different than any other kind of design. Understanding this puts me in a better position to know how my specific training and design decisions can affect the world.
Lenses to Interpret the Visual Form of Products and Why it Matters
Lenses are useful to focus and bend light. In design, metaphorical lenses can likewise focus our attention and bend our design towards various essential factors.
“Caveat Emptor” – Let the Buyer Beware
Caveat Emptor… Who are you really designing for? Yourself? The Customer? The Customer’s Future?
Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood, And I Took the One Designed Better
We spend a larger portion of our lives in a vehicle than we realize. That doesn’t mean we can forget about design while traveling by car. The lessons for good design can still be found all over our roadways and transportation system. Keeping your eyes on the road can let your eyes see some good design features too.
Dieter Rams: Less but Better
Although design is largely concerned with the future and what we’ll design it to be, it’s valuable to look to the past for inspiration and to quickly learn what might have taken decades for our predecessors to learn.
Human-Centered Engineering: A Conversation with Professor Nathan Johnson
Editors from the BYU Design Review recently sat down with Professor Nathan Johnson, an associate professor in The Polytechnic School of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, with research areas in global sustainability and systems engineering. Check out a few short passages taken from the interview.
Two Dramatically Different Approaches to Design: From the Art of Innovation
While the book, The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelly, is full of useful anecdotes, principles, and tips, there is one timeless principle that I wish more creative people knew and practiced – especially engineers. It’s related to seeking feedback.
Kansei Engineering
Some great ideas come from Japan and Kansei Engineering is one of them. The principles of kansei can make us more sensitive to customers’ emotions and thus more proficient, design engineers.