Now that you have chosen your best idea, it’s time to create a detailed drawing or diagram of it. This part of the design cycle has two purposes:
Making decisions about how exactly your product/solution will look and work
Create a drawing that is detailed enough for another person to follow
When creating your diagram, imagine that you will give your drawing to a factory and they will produce your item. It should have all of the necessary details.
Lets look at some examples from a professional designer who is designing a backpack. The two types of detailed drawings here are called orthographic projection and exploded view.
(Image Credit: Megan Wu)
Orthographic Projection
This type of drawing shows the product from all sides. Front, back, left, right, top and bottom! Notice that it also includes dimensions (heights and lengths).
This kind of drawing is very useful if you are creating a physical product like a bag, shirt, cup, or guitar. It wouldn't be used for digital products like websites or apps.
This drawing does a great job of showing the backpack from all angles, but it doesn't have all the details needed to make the backpack. For example, it is missing the types of materials and colors. For someone to make the backpack, these need to be included too!
Exploded View
This type of drawing is useful for physical products that have many parts that fit together, such as a pen.
If you're product contains multiple parts that fit together, be sure to include an exploded view drawing.
(Image Credit: Megan Wu)
Student Example
This is an example from a project where students design a custom chess set. Notice how each piece is carefully drawn and includes measurements. At the end, there is also a table that lists the materials needed.
What do you need to do for this part of the Design Cycle?
Create detailed diagrams (drawings) that give all the information needed for anyone to create the product.
The type of diagram you do depends on your product. They can be hand-drawn or 3D digital drawings.
You may need multiple drawings to show different parts of the design
Be sure your drawings include dimensions (length, width, height) and materials
Create a table of requirements, that list the materials and tools needed, and any other important things that were not shown in the drawings.
Hints and Tips for Creating Detailed Diagrams
In the real world, designers might be giving these drawings to a factory or construction team to make. That's why in this part of the design cycle, we need to be super detailed. Anything that isn't clear from the drawing can be explained in writing and annotation.
So when creating your detailed drawings, imagine you were going to give them to another student. Would that student have all the information they need to create your design, just like you imagined it?