Choosing a Design

Your first step is to choose one of the following items to design. 

You will design a variant of the item below. For example, you can design a type of surfboard, a type of skateboard, a type of bicycle or a type of scooter.

Think about the item you will design, and what research needs to be done to determine your design.

• Elegance. An elegant design solution is simple, clever, or ingenious. It might have fewer parts to wear out or fail. It might combine solutions from different areas in an inventive way not seen before. All good designers strive for elegance in their designs.

• Robustness. A robust design is unlikely to fail, even when used in conditions more severe than it was designed for. It is sturdy or resilient, perhaps bending, but not breaking in hard use.

• Weight. A design might have to be lightweight or heavy to function as intended. Will yours be lightweight or heavy?

• Cost. What would be a good budget for your item? If you were to sell, or buy, your design, how much would you expect to spend on it?

• Special Resources. Do you have all the materials and equipment you need for your engineering project, or will you be able to obtain them quickly and at a very low cost?

• Time. How much time would you have to allocate for such a design?

• Safety. Is your solution safe to build, use, store, and dispose of?

WORDBANK

Consider - think carefully about (something), typically before making a decision.

Factors - a circumstance, fact, or influence that contributes to a result.

Various - different from one another; of different kinds or sorts.

Elegance - the quality of being pleasingly ingenious and simple; neatness.

Robustness - the quality or condition of being strong and in good condition.

Aesthetics - a set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty.

Prototype - an original model on which something is patterned.

Conditions - the circumstances or factors affecting the way in which people live or work, especially with regard to their well-being.