If you’re gift shopping for someone you know who is a designer or an engineer, this article is for you. (And if you are that designer or engineer, this article is definitely for you!)
All in Pop Culture
Product Development Lessons from the NES Controller
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Controller is an icon of the 1980’s and a symbol of the video gaming industry. This article describes the history of Nintendo as it relates to the NES and derives general product development lessons from the design of the NES Controller.
Minimalism in Design– Understanding Your Scope
The relationship between scope and minimalism doesn’t hold true in every case, but if you observe brands, you will definitely notice a pattern: the minimalism in their logos and their products frequently corresponds to their scope.
Laughing through the Pain of Engineering
We should all find an excuse to laugh now and then. The BYU Design Review is not pranking you today, but we did think it timely to take a break from our normal content and bring some smiles to our readers’ faces.
Good Design: Wilson Airless Gen1 Basketball
The basketball has had a uniform design for almost 100 years. What happens when a major sporting goods company decides that it is finally time for a change? The R&D team at Wilson put their minds together and came up with a pretty ingenious design.
Design Lessons from Movies: The Polar Express
It’s now December and we’re entering “the most wonderful time of the year.” It’s also time for my annual analysis of a Christmas movie. Today I want to share some interesting facts and thoughts about The Polar Express. I’ll also share lessons I believe we as designers can take from this movie.
Holiday Gift Ideas for Design Engineers— 2023
The holidays are coming up, and it’s time for our fourth annual gift list for design engineers!
Halloween, Tradition, and Design
How does Halloween connect to design? Let’s turn our attention to the intersection of tradition and design. As tradition has affected the celebration of Halloween, so too has tradition affected design practices.
Good Design: Silly Putty
It squishes, it bounces, it breaks, and it occupies a spot in the Smithsonian museum!? Most of us have played with Silly Putty, the iconic pink goop, but few know its origin story and the lessons it has for designers and engineers.
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 Design: Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% 2
Nike has returned to its roots by providing exceptional performance, comfort, durability, and even fashion to elite and non-elite runners alike. Through my own experience and research, I can verify that Nike encapsulates this new vision in its Zoom Vaporfly NEXT% 2 shoe design
Life Lately - Memes for the Stressed Design Engineer
Engineering can be hard… but it’s harder when you aren’t laughing. Happy April Fool’s Day!
NFL Stadiums and Human Centric Design
This year, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs face off at my home stadium– Arizona’s State Farm Stadium. What needs to be considered when designing NFL stadiums? And what design principles can we learn?
How did ChatGPT Perform as an Author?
On January 24th, 2023 we asked ChatGPT to be a guest author of the BYU Design Review. This week we discuss the experiment and how ChatGPT performed. If you’ve somehow missed hearing about ChatGPT, here is another chance to learn about a new technology that might become a part of our everyday lives.
How ChatGPT Can Help Design Products (Written by ChatGPT)
ChatGPT is taking over the world!… Or is it? Here is the first article on the BYU Design Review written entirely by an artificial intelligence. No edits were made by a human of any kind. What do you think? Impressive or Over-hyped?
Design Principles behind Jack-o-Lantern Carving
I learned the hard way that carving a jack-o-lantern takes dedication and planning. I’ve learned a few more lessons from pumpkin carving since then and, in the spirit of Halloween, I’ll share those with you today.
BYU Campus in LEGO
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.
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.
Ski Design for the Olympics
When designing a ski for the Olympics, you should know the precise conditions in which that ski will be used and design for those use cases. If not, a sub-optimal ski design will keep you off the podium.
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.