Author: Neftaly Malatjie

1. • • – Good detailed mind maps

       – Got tutorial logs and reflection through discussion with tutors

       – good mood boards

       – reflective logs

       – Wide range of idea’s. 

1. • • Is your client business a brand new activity?
     • Has he already set up a business plan?
     • What about a marketing plan?
     • Does he have his own strategies?
     • Has he studied his competitors?
     • Does he already have advertising documents (brochure, print advertising, website)?

So challenge the assumptions of your design. Ask “why?” whenever someone makes a statement about how the product must be. Many times, there are excellent reasons that you really cannot dispute. However, when you come across an assumption that is not valid, then you have a better chance of coming up with a substantially different (and hopefully better) design.

Developing a design concept is the most “fun” part of design engineering. This is where your imagination can run free and you can come up with new and creative ideas.

Concept ideation, as the term implies, is about forming ideas. Ideation is generally a cognitive task – it is something you do with your brain. Some people ideate best alone, others work better in teams. Within the scope of design engineering, concept ideation is about looking at the requirements of a problem and coming up with a short description of the general class of product that can satisfy the requirements.

The result of the concept ideation phase should be at least one, but preferably two or three ideas that are substantively different (refer again to the urban vehicle example above). Write out your ideas in your journal, using short descriptive phrases. Make sure you bring all your ideas to the table when you meet your team. You may find that sketching is a good way to think about your ideas and to filter out the bad ones. You should feel free to sketch possible concepts for your ideas in your journal. Those sketches will be very useful later in the process, but you should not commit to any one particular sketch at this time.