Develop your Designing
Skills in D&T
Developing your ideas to ensure that they meet the needs of the brief
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Develop your Designing
Developing your ideas further
Developing your ideas further
No idea is EVER perfect. If it was, innovation would stop still and no new products would be created. This is an idea that many design students struggle to get to grips with, because there is a temptation to say "This is my idea, I want to make this".
In order to improve upon a concept, it is necessary to develop it further. There are a range of techniques which can be used to apply design thinking. These are detailed below.
When you are ready to move on from hand-drawn ideas, you may wish to move to designing using a computer. There is a link to Fusion 360 so that you can model it in 3-dimensions, ready for 3d manufacture.
Create a Fusion 360 CAD Drawing using the web app
6a. Try using 'SCAMPER'.
6a. Try using 'SCAMPER'.
SCAMPER is an acronym to help describe a thinking process invented in 1953. It was refined by an educational thinker called Bob Eberle in 1971 to help design students. It is now often used to help prompt designers to think about a problem from different perspectives.
It helps promote creativity by ensuring that each design sketch is different from the previous one.
SCAMPER Design Template
SCAMPER Design Template
Download and print this A4 template to help as a design guide and prompt you how to use the technique effectively to promote a variety of creative design ideas.
Click here to copy the A3 version, or just view it instead.
Examples of SCAMPER in action
Examples of SCAMPER in action
This image carousel shows examples of the SCAMPER technique being used to develop an initial design idea. Notice how freeform and fluid the design page is. Design ideas pages don't always need to be formal and neat. Engineers and designers like to see lots of ideas on a page with plenty of colour, shading and annotation (explanatory notes) to explain design thinking.
6b. 'SCARED' Design Template
6b. 'SCARED' Design Template
SCARED is simply a similar variation of SCAMPER.
Download and print this A4 template to help you edit it and use it in your own design work.
Click here to copy the A3 version or click here to view it instead.
6c. Carry out a 'Morphological Analysis'.
6c. Carry out a 'Morphological Analysis'.
A morphological analysis is a 'fancy' term for a method of exploring a variety of solutions to a design problem. The way it works is that the design criteria (list of requirements) is placed in a row or column and then each potential option is placed in a box next to it. Ideas are generated by cycling through combinations of the available options. Each idea is explored and evaluated on its own merits and then a final combination can be settled on.
This is a very efficient way of ideating (coming up with ideas) as it can save a lot of time having to draw over and over, and helps focus the designer on what is important.
This idea might help explain the process better. If we had a product with four design criteria and four options for each criteria, this would give us a potential 16 ideas to choose from (4x4).
Examples of MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS in action
Examples of MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS in action
Here is a morphological analysis for a more comfortable handlebar design on a bicycle.
Morphological Analysis Template
Morphological Analysis Template
Here is an A4 template which you can edit or simply download and print to help you carry out a morphological analysis using the help guide above.
Click here to copy the A3 version or click here to view it instead.
HOW TO USE IT
HOW TO USE IT
The idea is that you write your various design ideas in text form in the table on the left.
You then randomly combine an option from each of the columns and each of the rows.
Each major square of the template is dedicated to a single combination of the morphological analysis table.
Here is an A4 portrait version of the template above.
HOW TO USE IT
HOW TO USE IT
In this version, you write over the text in the criteria boxes with your options and then sketch the variations in the box for each column.
I.e. three sets of options for each criteria.
Click here to make a copy of it in A4 for editing and printing...
...or here for an A3 version.
If you look at the morphological analysis for the chair below, you can see there are 9 criteria (in rows) to satisfy and the designer has come up with 4 possible options for each criteria (in columns).
This would give up to 27 different varieties of design idea.
Design Development Templates
Design Development Templates
Use these templates to develop your ideas freely. Pick your preferred template from below. Remember to annotate your ideas, highlighting the changes you have made and why. Remember to reference your specification as much as possible. Use the ACCESSFM prompts to help you.
4x4 (Group) Design Development Templates
4x4 (Group) Design Development Templates
These templates are useful when you are seeking the feedback of other users. This technique is often carried out in a group where users move around in a carousel and take-turns sketching their own ideas for improvements on someone else's design ideas page.
Storyboard Templates
Storyboard Templates
Use a storyboard template for helping to explain the details and function of your idea in greater detail.
Initial ideas
Initial ideas
Help me organise my first designs
Evaluating ideas
Evaluating ideas
Help me establish if they are any 'good'.
Developing ideas
Developing ideas
Help me improve my ideas to make them better.
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