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What is "Research"?
What is "Research"?
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
Project Requirements
Project Requirements
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
Research Methods
Research Methods
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
What is "Experimenting"?
What is "Experimenting"?
In Creative Engineering, to Experiment means to - as quickly and efficiently as possible - determine basic viability of your ideas/products functionality
This step is critical to ensure as little wasted time as possible is spent trying to design something that fundamentally doesn't work
Experimentation Methods
Experimentation Methods
Since the objective with experimentation is quickly proving or disproving fundamental concepts related to your ideas/products, this process should be "quick and dirty"
For physical ideas/products think, 'popsicle sticks & duct tape'
This means NO CAD, 3D Printing, or any other process that would require relatively significant time & effort - again, focus on proving the core functionality to see if the solution is valid or not
Additionally, for physical ideas/products, it is best to experiment with physical tools/components, to get a real-world "feel" for how it may/may not work - stay away from digital tools, for now
For digital ideas/products think, 'MS Paint and PowerPoint'
Experimentation of digital ideas/products can be done either using digital tools or physical tools, but oftentimes digital tools are more efficient
Results of Experimentation
Results of Experimentation
From your experiments you should be able to decide two things:
Whether or not your ideas/solutions have potential
Which of your ideas/solutions for a problem are best to pursue
From there, you either pick the best idea so far and continue forward, or you take a step backwards and either try a different solution to the same problem, or tackle a different problem-solution altogether, based on your "Brainstorm" phase
The direction here is irrelevant - the key is to keep moving, and avoid getting bogged down through "paralysis by analysis" - where you spend too much time thinking and staying in one place, rather than moving. Taking a step back here is not failure - it is progress
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