Making Process Visible: A Grammatical Approach to Managing Design Processes

2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (3) ◽  
pp. 364-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moon Jung Chung ◽  
Patrick Kwon ◽  
Brian T. Pentland
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Complex Activity ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Improve Design ◽  
Overall Design ◽  
Process Specification ◽  
Current Design ◽  
Alternative Processes

This paper presents a novel framework for managing design processes using a formal grammar as the theoretical foundation to represent, manipulate and execute design processes. The grammatical approach allows designers to represent a complex activity concisely with a small number of higher-level tasks and to explore alternative processes within a space of feasible alternatives. These capabilities allow the engineers to “visualize” the design process so that they can fully understand the alternative methods before making any design decisions. The framework, called MIDAS, includes separate layers for process specification and execution. Using the process specification layer, designers can capture the overall design process and each designer can understand his or her task with respect to the whole design process. In the process execution layer, design tasks are executed according to the information in specification layer so that designers can be informed of the current design status, alternative design methods, and their impacts in a whole design process. The framework has the potential to improve design productivity by accessing, reusing, and revising previous processes for a similar design. We use a gearbox design process to demonstrate the framework.

Design processes for OBM firms in the NPD process

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Youngok CHOI ◽  
Youngeun CHOO ◽  
Ian DE VERE
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Electronics ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Overall Design ◽  
Development Cycle ◽  
Literature Reviews ◽  
Current Design ◽  
Business Functions ◽  
Product Development Cycle ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Project Personnel

For production-oriented companies such as original brand manufacturers (OBMs), management of the NPD cycle is essential to how their business functions. However, because these companies focus on R&D activities, engineering and manufacturing goods, they often see design as a small fragment of their product development cycle rather than as an integral part of the process. This paper investigates current design processes, identifying how each process is run by different businesses. Literature reviews and in-depth interviews are undertaken with key NPD project personnel from OBM firms and international brands, to evaluate firms’ current problems operating the existing processes. The findings show an overview of how the design process is carried out by various functional groups in OBM consumer electronics companies and international brands respectively. It is anticipated that contributions to this research will guide OBM firms’ activities in each process of design, and help to improve managing overall design practices.

scholarly journals Design Margins as a Key to Understanding Design Iteration

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia M. Eckert ◽  
Ola Isaksson ◽  
Chris F. Earl
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Functional Requirements ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Engineering Change ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Design Iteration ◽  
Temperature Ranges ◽  
Parameter Values

Design processes are subject to many uncertainties. Changes resulting from the need to respond to external uncertainties are one of the main drivers of engineering change and therefore for iteration in design processes. Another important cause of iteration in design processes arises from the dependencies in design information which is being generated as part of the design process itself. At the beginning of the design process engineers need to make an informed guess about the values of parameters that they need and can achieve. These values are passed on to others, who base their decisions on them. Design decisions are distributed and iterative among design teams, customers and suppliers. Communicated parameter values are uncertain in two different but related ways. First, there is the confidence, precision and commitment that the designers have in the values they specify. Second there are uncertainties in the values that can be achieved with the technology the new design employs. These issues become particularly challenging when they span design teams, customers and suppliers as they iterate to converge on a mutually effective solution. This paper looks at this type of convergent iteration through an example from the aerospace industry, which illustrates how uncertainty in operating temperature at the beginning of the design process requires a thorough understanding of the temperature ranges that solution alternatives, at different degrees of maturity, can operate under. This paper argues that the key to managing convergent iterations lies in communicating the available ranges of parameter values and in understanding how design margins have arisen in existing technologies. These margins on product parameters provide potential performance which exceeds immediate functional requirements. The paper develops and formalizes the concept of design margins and argues that margins are included into products for a variety of reasons that are not always transparent to different team members. Analysis of margins enables design companies to reason in terms of ranges of values describing the scope for design change in meeting customer and supplier requirements without being forced into unplanned iteration loops.

A Prescription for Information Prospecting, Data Mining, and Design Refinement

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
William H. Wood ◽  
Alice M. Agogino
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Design Space ◽  
Mathematical Framework ◽  
Design Specification ◽  
Design Data ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Overall Design ◽  
Critical Design ◽  
Downstream Processes

Abstract We present a prescriptive methodology for conceptual design based on a process of information gathering and refinement. While these activities are generic to conceptual design, a mathematical framework is developed toward structuring the design space, approximating the design space by generalizing design data, and formalizing the iterative process of narrowing the design space while refining the level detail in the design specification. As a prescription for conceptual design, this method formalizes the conceptual design process around a key tradeoff — the value to be gained by making design commitments balanced against the reduction in size of design space these commitments bring. Because conceptual design decisions carry tremendous leverage through to all downstream processes, formalizing conceptual design toward reducing arbitrary design decisions and focusing attention on the most critical design concerns holds the potential to improve greatly the ultimate product of the overall design process.

scholarly journals DESIGN THINKING DONE BY BUDI PRADONO IN THE HOTEL U JANEVALLA DESIGN PROCESS

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-32
Author(s):  
Nadia Rahmalia Putri ; Jonathan Hans Yoas S.
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Test Procedures ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Overall Design ◽  
Direct Observations ◽  
Problem Solving Process

Abstract- Design thinking is the process by which architects carry out problem-solving approaches to address problems in the design process. The process of problem-solving is the process of finding the most appropriate solution from all solutions that are created. Solutions, which are taken and become design decisions, are the forming factors of the overall design of the building and its process is influenced by the normative positions of the architect. One of the architects in Indonesia who has a strong character that always produces an attractive architectural design is Budi Pradono. His architectural firm named Budi Pradono Architects or often abbreviated as BPA. One of the interesting buildings of BPA is the U Janevalla Hotel in Bandung. Seeing the appearance of the building which is attractive at a glance, reflected the complexity in the planning process because its formation is unusual and very iconic. The purpose of this study was to find out how was design thinking carried out by Budi Pradono in the design process of Hotel U Janevalla Bandung. The methods which were used in this study were a qualitative method, data that were obtained from literature studies, direct observations to the object, working drawings, and from interviews with the main architect and architect who were in-charge to the project U Janevalla Hotel. It was concluded that Budi Pradono's design thinking in the problem-solving process from the concept stage to the periodical inspection was clearly influenced by his normative positions and that became a reflection of the Hotel U Janevalla's design attractiveness. In Budi Pradono's design thinking, proper architecture with architect's normative position is an architecture that has innovation itself, because it is derived from the results of mapping the latest phenomena based on research and prioritizing experiments by questioning the production of conventional buildings. The problem that arose in Budi Pradono's design thinking was how he could make the design of the attractive hotel and fulfill the proper architecture which matches his normative position. Budi Pradono's aim of creating a hotel with attractive designs added sub-problems in his design. This issue made the problem-solving process became complex but could create a more innovative and potential solution. Besides that, the increase of sub-problems was also caused by unexpected things that appeared in the process and required design decisions. The problem-solving procedure which was used in Budi Pradono's design thinking was the whole procedure but it was dominated by the use of generate-and-test procedures. Rules which were used in several problems solving cases were an analogy of dancing rules, building and environment's relationship rules, operator’s rules, 4 star's hotel standard rules, and industrial design rules. The type of problem-solving that was carried out most often was the problem-solving that continued to develop with adjustments or rules and finally found an appropriate solution decision. Key Words: Design thinking, design process, hotel, Aceh Bandung

Causing a Stir

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilo POTOCNJAK-OXMAN
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Collaborative Design ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Design Team ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Early Stages

Stir was a crowd-voted grants platform aimed at supporting creative youth in the early stages of an entrepreneurial journey. Developed through an in-depth, collaborative design process, between 2015 and 2018 it received close to two hundred projects and distributed over fifty grants to emerging creatives and became one of the most impactful programs aimed at increasing entrepreneurial activity in Canberra, Australia. The following case study will provide an overview of the methodology and process used by the design team in conceiving and developing this platform, highlighting how the community’s interests and competencies were embedded in the project itself. The case provides insights for people leading collaborative design processes, with specific emphasis on some of the characteristics on programs targeting creative youth

Will Love Tear Us Apart: Adapting the Lyrical to the Ludic

CounterText ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-235
Author(s):  
Gordon Calleja
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Game Design ◽  
Digital Games ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
The Core ◽  
Lyrical Poetry ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Made In

This paper gives an insight into the design process of a game adaptation of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart (1980). It outlines the challenges faced in attempting to reconcile the diverging qualities of lyrical poetry and digital games. In so doing, the paper examines the design decisions made in every segment of the game with a particular focus on the tension between the core concerns of the lyrical work being adapted and established tenets of game design.

Roles of externalisation activities in the design process

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Maral Babapour Chafi
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Physical Models ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Knowledge Gaps ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Digital Modelling

Designers engage in various activities, dealing with different materials and media to externalise and represent their form ideas. This paper presents a review of design research literature regarding externalisation activities in design process: sketching, building physical models and digital modelling. The aim has been to review research on the roles of media and representations in design processes, and highlight knowledge gaps and questions for future research.

Study on a Knowledge-Reuse-Based Rapid Product Design Process

2008 ◽  
Vol 392-394 ◽  
pp. 543-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hun Guo ◽  
Guo Xing Tang ◽  
Dun Wen Zuo ◽  
T.J. Liu ◽  
W.D. Jin
Keyword(s):  
Product Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Iterative Process ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Design Reuse ◽  
Knowledge Reuse ◽  
Construction Machinery ◽  
Current Design ◽  
Product Design Process ◽  
Three Factor

Design reuse is the application of past designs knowledge and successful experience to current design process and it is a significant method for rapid design. A knowledge-reuse-based rapid product design model is proposed and a three-factor product design iterative process model is studied. Finally, it is applied successfully in the rapid product design of construction machinery combining with the requirement of the construct machinery product design.

scholarly journals Explicating concepts in reasoning from function to form by two-step innovative abductions

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehud Kroll ◽  
Lauri Koskela
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Abductive Reasoning ◽  
Parameter Analysis ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Functional Aspect ◽  
Specific Design ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Step Process ◽  
Design Reasoning

AbstractThe mechanism of design reasoning from function to form is suggested to consist of a two-step inference of the innovative abduction type. First is an inference from a desired functional aspect to an idea, concept, or solution principle to satisfy the function. This is followed by a second innovative abduction, from the latest concept to form, structure, or mechanism. The intermediate entity in the logical reasoning, the concept, is thus made explicit, which is significant in following and understanding a specific design process, for educating designers, and to build a logic-based computational model of design. The idea of a two-step abductive reasoning process is developed from the critical examination of several propositions made by others. We use the notion of innovative abduction in design, as opposed to such abduction where the question is about selecting among known alternatives, and we adopt a previously proposed two-step process of abductive reasoning. However, our model is different in that the two abductions used follow the syllogistic pattern of innovative abduction. In addition to using a schematic example from the literature to demonstrate our derivation, we apply the model to an existing, empirically derived method of conceptual design called “parameter analysis” and use two examples of real design processes. The two synthetic steps of the method are shown to follow the proposed double innovative abduction scheme, and the design processes are presented as sequences of double abductions from function to concept and from concept to form, with a subsequent deductive evaluation step.

Classification of Iteration in Engineering Design Processes

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Safoutin ◽  
Robert P. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Design Automation ◽  
Automated Design ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Standard Definition ◽  
Design Iteration ◽  
Formal Study ◽  
Poor Understanding

Abstract As engineering design is subjected to increasingly formal study, an informal attitude continues to surround the topic of iteration. Today there is no standard definition or typology of iteration, no grounding theory, few metrics, and a poor understanding of its role in the design process. Existing literature provides little guidance in investigating issues of design that might be best approached in terms of iteration. We review contributions of existing literature toward the understanding of iteration in design, develop a classification of design iteration, compare iterative aspects of human and automated design, and draw some conclusions concerning management of iteration and approaches to design automation.

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