So you've come up with a bunch of ideas, prioritized, and narrowed them down - now what?
In the context of Creative Engineering, Research means to find and collect data points, filter the data into valuable information, and determine idea/product needs
This step is critical to ensure you do not start designing things without first determining what is actually necessary for the design - if you fail to perform this step, you might fall into the classical trap of designing unnecessary things
Requirements are things you idea/product needs to have or would be good to have - we distinguish between these as Essential vs. Non-Essential Requirements
Determining which requirements are essential or not, it is important to think about the key characteristics of what a customer would need vs. something that you or a potential customer might want
Functional characteristics are likely (not always) a needed/essential requirement
Aesthetics characteristics are likely (not always) a wanted/non-essential requirement
When performing research you will often find similar ideas; do not get discouraged. Analyze the ideas for their individual characteristics and properties, such as:
Market/Target customer(s)
Specific Functionality Range(s)
Form/Aesthetics
Quality/Cost/Delivery
With this information, you can
You likely can also glean additional ideas that you may not have thought of previously