Communicating Ideas

Product Design

Communicating Ideas

• Can be communicated in numerous ways• Methods chosen will determine design stage.• Most common is through sketches and drawings– Communicate to clients, end users, manufactures,

retailers etc..• Designers often sketch to communicate to themselves.– Helps them visualise products fully and examine problem

areas better.– Frees up minds, allowing to develop ideas further.

• Written notes, comments and observations are important methods of recording.

Idea Generation TechniquesBrainstorming

Mind Maps Analysis

Lifestyle boards

Design stores

Researching information

Transfer and analogy

Morphological analysis

Mood boards Synthesis

Brainstorming

• Best known technique• Widely used throughout most areas where idea’s

are needed to be generated• Works best as a group exercise but good for

initial thinking individually– Advantage: group members may begin to see topic

from a different view point.– Disadvantage: chain reaction thinking can begin

where different lines of thinking can be channelled into a limited number of ideas.

Morphological Analysis• Structured way to

generate ideas• Good for someone

working on their own• Encourages individual

problem solving• Visual method of seeking

solutions• Best highlighting

headings relating to design problem.

• By moving columns vertically creates different solutions and ideas for the product.

Lateral Thinking• Encourages creativity and stimulates imagination.• Helps them explore less obvious solutions.• There is no wrong answer, there are only better or worse

solutions.• Five Stages to creative thinking:

– Insight - Define a problem and identify needs and wants of the user.– Preparation – effort required to solve problems. All relevant

information begins to be gathered and organised.– Incubation - creative process begins and you become immersed in

the problem.– Illumination – sudden emergence of an idea that solve s the

problem. Mind may be forced by an idea.– Verification – Idea is considered and evaluated against known

criteria.

Lifestyle Boards

Mood Boards

Other options

• Design Stories• Mind maps• Researching• Synthesising• Model making

Question 1

• In order to generate ideas rapidly, designers sometimes make use of idea generation techniques.– A Name and describe TWO techniques– B Describe how each of these techniques would

be followed up by the designer.

Answer 1• A• Brainstorming – group activity. Initially include all ideas no matter

how silly. Word association• Mind map/spider diagram – place problem in centre and work

around connecting factors for the problem• Morphological Analysis – uses key words relating to the subject to

create a variety of solutions.• Technology Transfer – define a problem to be solved. Identify

problems to similar solutions re-design technology for new use.• B• Brainstorming would be followed up by selecting viable ideas by

making reference to the specification and developing them further by sketching possible solutions.

Question 2• 3. Companies produce a series of prototypes of

their products before manufacture.

• (a) For the product shown above, name and justify two strategies that the company could use to evaluate the performance of their prototype before the product goes into production.

• (b) State the name of and justify two further strategies that the company could use to evaluate the potential success of this product.

Answer 2(a) • Test rigs – ability to test and measure performance issues such asdurability, reliability and wear-and-tear over a variety of surfaces/time lengths.• User Trials – test and measure issues such as ease of use/maintenance; ergonomic factors; accessibility (corners of rooms/underneath furniture to get at dust traps); flexibility.• Any other suitable statement.

(b) • Surveys through questionnaires – ability to evaluate currentperformance issues such as customer satisfaction, market needs andwants, and problems consumers have with the product and potentialdevelopment opportunities to improve product.• Product placements – ability for market researchers to observecustomer reaction to the product when set against competitors’products (wow factor). Opportunity to observe the product’sperformance when used by a consumer in a typical home setting.• Any other suitable statement.