The Backbone of Innovation: What Is Engineering Design Methodology?

Introduction

Everything man-made that you see around you from the largest road bridges, to the humble light switch can only be realised by great design. Design turns an idea into a useful artefact, the problem into a solution, or something ugly and inefficient into an elegant, desirable and cost effective everyday object. Great design provides the link between theory, and the needs of the end user.

The aim of this blog is to introduce you to the methodical steps that engineers use in creating functional products and processes; from a design brief to the work, and the stages involved in identifying and justifying a solution to a given engineering need.

Introduction to the Design Process

The success of any good design project comes down to several key principles. The most important is understanding the customer requirements. Once you are confident on exactly what the customer needs, you can follow some standard design philosophies to converge at the final solution. 

Within industry there are several key documents that are used:

Stakeholder Design Brief: This is a document which can be developed by the designer in consultation with the client. It should outline the main deliverables and scope of the project as well as key information such as timing and budgets.

Product Design Specification: This is the responsibility of the designer to turn the brief into a more detailed list of requirements. For example, weight limits, environmental aspects, ergonomic considerations, maintenance considerations etc.

Technical Design Report: This is the final report which should document the design process and describe the completed design. This should include final engineering drawings for manufacture.

The Design Process

A design project is always an iterative process. It is very rare that the first solution will be the best and final answer.

The Design Process is a way to think and design to solve problems. It is a process that can be replicated and used for a variety of different problems for small scale to complex products. The process has several stages and steps, and each of them can be methodized and be done regularly. There are several types of design processes, from 3-stage to 7-stage. For this module we will focus on the most common, the 5-stage process.

 The 5-stages are:

Empathise

That is, get to understand what your customer is asking for. This could include speaking and consulting with subject matter experts, observing current methods, and researching existing products that perform a similar task. Empathy allows a designer to set aside their own assumptions about the world in order to gain an insight into the user and their needs.

How would you go about understanding the customer’s needs? 

Below are some typical questions you should be asking during this stage of the process:

What challenges do you anticipate in understanding the user’s true needs or pain points?

What techniques will you use to understand the needs and perspectives of your target users (e.g., interviews, surveys, observation)?

How will you ensure you include diverse user perspectives in your research?

Define

During the define stage, you will analyse all the information you have gathered in the Empathise stage. At this stage you should be able to fully understand the customer point-of-view and understand the requirements. At this stage you should be able to create your Design Specification.

Generate Ideas

Now that you have a detailed Product Specification, you can start to consider how to solve the problem. Several idea generation techniques exist such as brain-storming sessions and cause and effect diagrams (also known as Fishbone or Ishikawa diagrams). At this point you should be creating some concept sketches to understand how the final product may look or work.

Prototype

This is the stage where you can create conceptual prototypes of the product in order to investigate how they work. This may require several different prototypes of different ideas, or several prototypes that each investigate a different aspect of the problem. Keeping the customer involved is vital to have a better idea of users’ behaviour, feelings and expectations. 

Each prototype may create new ideas (or uncover new issues), as such this should be an iterative stage, and may require several loops between idea generation (new sketches) and new prototypes.

Test

At this stage, you should test your selected prototypes with the customer, whilst replicating the ‘real-world’ conditions as closely as possible. This process allows you to go back to the previous stage, revise information, and rectify the errors to get the best output of the product. All the information gathered during this stage should be recorded for the final Technical Design Report.

As per figure 1.1, the five stages are not linear, they create a cycle until the product is completed, with later stages feeding back into previous stages as a way to refine the product.

Overall, the Empathise, Define, Generate Ideas, Prototype, Test design process offers several advantages, including:

User-Centred Approach: Ensures the product or solution addresses genuine user needs by prioritising empathy and understanding.

Encourages Creativity: Promotes brainstorming and innovative thinking during the 

Generate Ideas stage, leading to unique and effective solutions.

Iterative and Flexible; The process allows for continuous refinement by revisiting stages as required, particularly during Testing and Prototyping.

Early Problem Identification: Prototyping and testing at an early stage help to identify issues before significant resources are committed.

Collaboration-Friendly: Encourages cross-functional teamwork, drawing on diverse perspectives to create well-rounded solutions.

Cost and Time Efficiency: Testing and refining prototypes reduces the risk of costly errors later in the development process.

Improved Stakeholder Buy-In: Involving users and stakeholders throughout the process builds trust and ensures the solution meets their expectations

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