Design journal

Welcome!Welcome!Welcome!Welcome!
This design course offers a fresh perspective for students across disciplines to learn and apply
creative design skills in a hands-on learning experience. Our approach is different from
conventional design education in engineering, design and architecture schools. Our ultimate
goal is to help all types of technically-sound professionals to appreciate, understand and
apply creative design in their efforts to identify and solve problems that impact positively on
people’s lives.
Albert Einstein famously prioritised imagination over knowledge, “for knowledge is limited to
all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there
ever will be to know and understand”. 3.007 is designed to help a new generation of young
engineers and architects combine in innovative ways both imagination and knowledge.
We hope that you will enjoy this cross-disciplinary learning experience as much as we enjoy
preparing and running this course. Throughout the semester you will be exposed to very
diverse ways of conceiving and practicing design, and this may seem inconsistent and even
contradictory at times. Fret not! Design combines very different types of concepts, principles
and methods, from very explicit and systematic step-by-step processes all the way to very
intuitive and tacit experiences. Learn to appreciate the many ways of designing.
Introduction to Design 3.007
3.007 Introduction to Design
Singapore University of Technology and Design
Editor: Ricardo Sosa
With the contributions of: Kris Wood, Katja Hölttä-Otto,
Suranga Nanayakkara, Rajesh E. Mohan, Erik Wilhelm,
Foong Shaohui, Luo Jianxi, Hyowon Lee, Subhajit Datta,
Diana Moreno, Katherine Fu, Cassandra Telenko, Chong
Keng Hua, Stylianos Dristas, Oliver Heckman, Martin
Scoppa, Rizal Muslimin, Anna E. Chan, Asli Arpak, Victoria
Gerrard, Andre Chaszar, Sang-Gook Kim, John G. Brisson.
Student name: ____________________________
Student ID: _______________________________
Cohort: ______________ Team #: __________
Team name: ______________________________
design.sutd.edu.sg
learninglearninglearninglearningto design,
becomingbecomingbecomingbecominga designer

Experts agree that typical design education need to change:
“A cultural change is warranted in engineering, as is reform of the
established theory-based curricula; currently there is little emphasis on
experiential learning through design or the development of creativity. By
contrast, design pedagogy fosters creativity by developing and nurturing
problem solving skills and providing regular opportunities for students to
refine these skills through experiential project-based learning.”
(Ian de Vere, Swinburne)
"Today's designers are walking out into the world with more-or-less the
same tool sets as designers of 60 years ago“ (Ben Hopson, Core77)
“Engineering education is moving towards the development of engineers
who can both ask better questions and answer them more creatively.
Incorporating design thinking, prototyping skills are a key element in the
new paradigm.” (Micah J Lande, Stanford)
“In contemporary parlance ‘we have moved from the age of genius to
scenius’. Yet architectural education is still geared to producing the
solitary genius, rather than today’s collaborator” (Peter Buchanan, The
Architectural Review)
“Practical applications require tying together the knowledge of the many
specialties. They require generalists, people who have broad, integrated
understanding of the world. Moreover, the specialties are mostly about
science and engineering, but our new technologies impact people, lives,
cultures, and societies.” (Don Norman, jnd.org)
3.007 is a unique and innovative response to this call for action in design
education. To help improve, please share your comments and
suggestions; your instructors will be glad to learn from you.
This course introduces concepts of design at a variety of scales and
design disciplines. Participants will be exposed to core technology and
design themes including design principles, processes, modes of thinking
and analysis, and social and cultural aspects of design.
The subject introduces essential skills and mindset of innovation,
entrepreneurship, and methodologies in design including teamwork and
workflow organization, team building and leadership, written and oral
communication, graphic and analytical representation, and fabrication
techniques.
Student teams formulate and complete design projects, setting and
achieving milestones under a team of instructors composed of engineers
and architects.
For more information, see the “Additional resources” section including relevant precedents to teaching introductory design in Engineering, Product Design, Architecture and HCI.
Q. What’s different about 3.007?
A. Design in year one is different from other foundation courses:
1. In Science and Math, problems have correct answers, in Design part of the
problem is to define the problem and there are more/less appropriate
responses, but it is erroneous to reduce Design to problem solving.
2. Unlike most foundation courses in Design, here we integrate ideas and
techniques from different traditions and focus on a cross-domain
approach to design. We want you to develop a personal understanding of
design.
3. In most other subjects, learning is graded in individual tests and exams or
essays, whereas here students work in teams throughout the semester
and receive continuous feedback to assess both how and what they do
(process and outcome are equally important).
4. There is no textbook to teach you design; there are basic concepts,
methods and tools, but to learn design you have to do it. Learning by
doing is a hallmark of design, and it includes both explicit and tacit
knowledge.
5. This project-based course gives students control over their work: you will
gradually become responsible for structuring your learning, and
instructors will be there to support your creative efforts, don’t worry
about them telling you exactly what to do!
Q. Why teach design in year one?
A. Because we consider design to be a foundational component of your
education, and we want all students to experience design as early as possible to
prepare them for the future. Some may feel that it is premature to teach design
in year one, but we have seen first-hand how young students are capable of
producing extraordinary results in their projects. Not only their outcomes can be
humbling, this also gives them a new and wider perspective of what they need to
learn in their upcoming years, and why it is valuable to be well-versed in a range
of technical and human subjects that will enable them to dream of great
solutions and to implement them.
Q. Is this a journal, a diary, a workbook, lecture notes?
A. This A3-size document plays different roles: it summarises the key
ideas and concepts covered in lectures, it gives a semi-structured format
to help you document your decision-making and reflect as you learn and
practice design. You will see that activities start more ‘guided’ and
become more flexible and open, giving you the opportunity to decide
how do you feel more comfortable documenting your learning
experience. A few ground rules:
1. Students should not try to second-guess the instructors to find out
what they want you to do. Instead, great students challenge the
instructors’ expectations, go well beyond any instructions provided,
understand and transform constraints, demonstrate high motivation,
and back up their decisions with clear and convincing elements,
whether these are based on data, inspiration or argumentation.
2. Design processes are not recipes or check-lists, although some very
explicit techniques can be useful at several points. Design combines
science and art, so developing an awareness of when and how to use
different decision-making styles is one of the best lessons that
designers learn from day one and throughout their careers.
3. Feedback is useful, close communication with your instructors is
essential. This is why we ask you to hand in this journal on a weekly
basis, so they can develop a good understanding of your decisions
and progress.
Q. How innovative is this course?
A. Well, everything new has clear precedents. In our case this is the list of
sources that inspire, inform and guide us:
1. ‘Basic Design’ course at TU/Eindhoven and various MIT courses: 2.00, 2.00B,
2.007, 2.009, 4.021, 4.022, 4.023, 4.110…
2. van Boeijen, A.G.C. et al (2013) “Delft Design Guide” BIS Publishers
3. Otto, K. and Wood, K. (2001) “Product Design”, Pearson
4. Lean Startup meets Design Thinking: youtube.com/watch?v=bvFnHzU4_W8

Activity #1: Select 3 designs across disciplines that you consider great (products, technology, buildings, software, services, etc.). Depict them in these boxes (draw
them, paste a picture) and write down what specifically makes them great. Remember to cite your sources. Estimated time: 45 minutes.
Although clear stages and activities do exist in the design process, design teams may move back
and forth as they make progress, rather than in a linear trajectory or following a recipe.
H Plattner, C Meinel & LJ Leifer (Eds.), Design Thinking: Understand–Improve–Apply. Springer.
Assessment criteria: clarity □ □ □ depth □ □ □ reflective □ □ □ Graded by: _________________________
Design models:Design models:Design models:Design models:
Good news and bad newsGood news and bad newsGood news and bad newsGood news and bad news
Design is cross-disciplinary and it is practiced by many
professionals on a daily basis. Many scholars study it,
and these days we know a lot about design process,
design cognition, design strategy, design methods,
design principles, co-design, and hundreds of other
design issues. However, we are far from a
comprehensive and unanimous view of what is design
and how to practice, manage and evaluate it. Strong
disagreements also exist about how design should be
taught and learned. In 3.007, design is taught at a
cross-disciplinary level, we believe that there are
common elements between design teams from any
discipline –despite their very clear differences.
In 3.007, rather than teach students how one should
design, this course will expose you to many different
ways in which one can design. We will highlight
similarities and differences in the many concepts,
tools and approaches, but we really expect that you
will develop a reflective and critical eye to discern
what design can do, how you can integrate it in your
professional practice, and how you can use it to make
this world a better place for all.
I think this design is great because:
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Hundreds of models exist capturing design processes across disciplines and professional
traditions. The “double diamond” explains design in cycles of divergence and convergence.
Dubberly, H. How do you design? A compendium of models: www.dubberly.com/articles
A designer needs to wear many hats, be able to scope problems and draw
from ideas from a wide technical and social repertoire.
Gold, R (2001) The Plenitude, MIT Press
week 1 discover define develop deliver

Activity #2: Capture here your initial thoughts about design, this course, and your expectations. We offer
these sample questions to get you thinking, but feel free to add/replace these with your own. Estimated
time: 45 minutes.
1. What may be the main challenges ahead for you in learning to design?
2. How has your intuitive definition of design starting to change this first week of the course?
3. What would you like to design by the end of this term? And before graduation? And in 20 years?
4. Here are 3 terms to read about: “satisficing” coined by Herbert Simon, “wicked problems” coined by
Horst Rittel, and “reflection-in-action” coined by Donald Schön. Look them up to frame your views.
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A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is
being designed and in the end must be unmeasurable
Louis Kahn, architect (1901-1974)
Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course,
if you dig deeper, it's really how it works.
Steven P. Jobs, entrepreneur (1955-2011)
Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design.
Charles O. Eames, designer (1907-1978)
What is design? It's where you stand with a foot in two worlds - the world of technology
and the world of people and human purposes - and you try to bring the two together.
Mitchell Kapor, entrepreneur (1950-)
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.Thomas A. Edison, inventor (1847-1931)
A designer is an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective
economist and evolutionary strategist.
Richard Buckminster Fuller, architect,
designer and inventor (1895-1983)
Engineering, medicine, business, architecture and painting are concerned not with the necessary but with the contingent - not
with how things are but with how they might be - in short, with design.
Herbert A. Simon, economist, computer scientist (1916-2001)
Form follows function - that has been misunderstood.
Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.
Frank Lloyd Wright, architect (1867-1959)
The practice of design is a very complicated business, involving contrasting skills and a wide field of disciplines. It has always
required an odd kind of hybrid to carry it successfully
Bruce Archer, engineer and designer (1922-2005)
Necessity is often not the mother of invention. When humans possess a tool, they excel at finding new
uses for it. The tool often exists before the problem to be solved
David E. Nye, historian (1946-)
Assessment criteria: introspective □ □ □ critical □ □ □ informed □ □ □ Graded by: ___________________

A Better World: Cases for discussion
Patented in 1818, running machine (draisine) is
the forerunner of the bicycle, by von Drais.
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/controlandpower/res
earch/motorcycles/history/thedraisine
Dymaxion concept car for 11 passengers designed
and built by design visionary Buckminster Fuller in
1933 had a fuel efficiency of 7.8 L/100 km
http://www.ivorybooks.com/
Founded in 2000, the most influential car-sharing
company so far: zipcar.com. Also check lyft.com
and uber.com
Wikipedia is a free-access, free content
encyclopedia and is the sixth most popular website
http://en.wikipedia.org
Over one million beneficiaries of provided with
Jaipur Foot / limb, calipers in 26 countries:
http://jaipurfoot.org/
The first rubber condom (1855) used Goodyear’s
rubber vulcanisation patent. It is one of the most
widely used products today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condom
Silicon photovoltaic cell, Bell Labs (1954)
http://www.californiasolarcenter.org/
Early version of a ‘mouse’ by Doug Engelbart, 1960
http://www.dougengelbart.org/firsts/mouse.html
A non-profit (est. 2001), aims to open access to
creative works. Several ‘Creative Commons’
copyright licenses are free of charge to the public.
https://creativecommons.org/
Cheong Gye Cheon Urban Restoration (2005) historic
and ecological restoration, CBD regeneration
https://lafoundation.org/research
PARK(ing) Day: annual global event where people
temporarily transform parking spaces into
temporary public places: http://parkingday.org/
Adjustable liquid-filled eyeglasses, Centre for
Vision in the Developing World:
www.vdwoxford.org
Powered ankle-foot prosthesis to assist level-
ground, stair-descent gaits: biomech.media.mit.edu
FingerReader: a wearable device both for visually
impaired people that require help with accessing
printed text, and an aid for language translation
http://fluid.media.mit.edu/
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_onlin
e_course
IndieWeb Camps aim to develop the ‘IndieWeb’ in
order to ‘re-decentralise the Net’
http://indiewebcamp.com/why
Pioneer graphics in engineering and statistics by
C.J. Minard. This early flowmap depicts geographic
location, army size and temperatures of
Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812.
http://www.twme8.com/
‘Vélos Jaunes’, an early public bike-sharing system
in La Rochelle, France in 1974
http://www.ville-larochelle.fr/
Rietveld Schröder House set to redefine family life
with a radical approach to the use of space (1924)
http://centraalmuseum.nl/
Shark deterrent wetsuits, Hamish Jolly
http://www.sharkmitigation.com/
Aravind Eye: high quality ophthalmic consumables
at affordable prices for developing countries
http://www.aravind.org/
Disaster relief reconstruction using recycled
cardboard tubes by Shigeru Ban
http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/works.html

A Better World: Game-changing Ideas
“A Better World” is the general theme for this course.
Design creates new possible future scenarios in order to
transform undesired situations into preferred ones with
positive impacts. There are many ways in which technology
and design have made our lives better –and many ways in
which they have created more problems or created
rubbish. This course raises some questions about Design
for a Better World: how can design help address pressing
challenges in our economy, society, environment, and in
our everyday life? How can design make a real difference?
These themes are for illustration to inspire you. Feel free
to select one or formulate your own questions.
1. Special populations
• Up until now, most of our built environment
(things, tools, spaces, information) has been
designed thinking of healthy adults. Only recent
designs across fields take into consideration
people with disabilities or the elderly as part of
the target populations (“Universal design”).
• Designing for special populations has produced
limited results, and more design teams are
adopting ‘design with’ approaches where
stakeholders are actively involved in the decision-
making processes.
2. Social issues
• Technology often embodies and promotes
behaviours that perpetuate unethical or unfair
social behaviours. Design can help raise awareness
and promote positive dynamics to address gender
equality, better governance, fair employment
practices, avoid racial or class discrimination, etc.
3. Health
• The future is “already here, just not very evenly
distributed” (William Gibson). How can design
extend access to diagnosis and treatment to wider
populations? Medication and rehabilitation
present big challenges too. Public health problems
include epidemics prevention and control. Doctors
insist that more should be done to advance
preventive medicine, how can design help? A
healthy diet and sleep habits are also areas of
concern.
4. Energy
• The transformation, distribution and consumption
of energy present many opportunities for
technology and design, from renewable sources to
higher efficiency.
• Radical energy solutions need to take ‘behavioural
economics’ principles to assist people build
awareness, develop habits, visualise impacts and
change expectations.
5. Disposable culture
• In the last 50 years, many products that used to
be reusable and washable became disposable and
today we take them for granted. But their impacts
are clearly negative. How can we maintain
convenience without damaging the environment?
6. Development
• What is a developed society, and what role can
design play in the myriad facets of development?
From poverty to hunger, education and
happiness, how can new designs help raise a more
sustainable well-being?
7. Peace
• From global scale wars and conflicts to domestic
violence and personal protection, design can
promote safe, courteous and kind relationships
bridging differences in everyday life.
8. Economy
• Unemployment, increasing income gaps, helping
people plan their retirement, creating new
income and revenue models. These are all
challenging areas that deserve careful
consideration by all specialists, and a design
approach can help address them across
disciplines.
9. Sustainable transportation
• At the personal level (“last mile”), urban scale and
long-range movement of people and goods,
innovations are needed to create alternatives to
the current modes of transportation.
10. Communication
• Information is critical in all aspects of life, yet
access is limited. How can design support
transparency, fairness and democracy?
• The “Internet of Things” refers to the possibilities
offered by connecting our environments and
devices to the existing Internet infrastructure.
What exciting opportunities lie ahead?
Assessment criteria: informed □ □ □ original □ □ □ clarity □ □ □ Graded by: ___________________
Activity #3: Make a list of 3 headlines from recent news articles. Choose one case from your list and do some research
about it. What is the big picture behind the story? What has led to it and why is it relevant news now? Is it part of a
trend or relates to other events? What social, technical or economic systems does the story exist within? Try to think
beyond the event and try to look at it from multiple angles –how would a different profession view the same story? Or
a mother? Or a child? Or someone from another country? Now try to identify the challenges that you see facing the
people affected by the story as they envision the Better World they wish to see. What barriers stand in their way?
What opportunities do they have for change? Imagine where design could make a difference to overcoming barriers or
realising opportunities. Even a small difference can have long-term impact to help make this a Better World.
Remember to cite your sources. Estimated time: 2 hours. For example:
- When a typhoon kills people, consider that most casualties in natural disasters are due to man-made factors,
including urban populations living in inappropriate conditions with roots in a dozen social, economic and political
factors. How can design help prevent, mitigate and respond to these catastrophes? How have individuals and
groups creatively responded in such emergency situations?
- Plastic bags are being banned in some countries: what are the real (deeper) problems with plastic bags, and how
would you differentiate symptoms from causes? Is banning a long-term solution? Consider that in the 1970s many
countries banned the use of CFCs, which has had a positive impact in stopping and reducing ozone depletion in the
atmosphere. When is banning desirable and effective? What alternatives can be offered?

Chapter 02 “Abundance, Asia, and Automation” of “A Whole New Mind:
Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future” by Daniel Pink (2005)
“We review a total of 72 experiments,
reported in 63 articles… Taken together,
creative thinking does not appear to critically
depend on any single mental process or
brain region, and it is not especially
associated with right brains, defocused
attention, low arousal, or alpha
synchronization, as sometimes
hypothesized.”
Dietrich, A., & Kanso, R. (2010). A review of EEG, ERP, and
neuroimaging studies of creativity and
insight. Psychological bulletin, 136(5), 822.
Pink portrayed a decade ago a shift to an increasing
importance of creative skills across areas. As he explains
the world seems to be “moving from an economy and a
society built on the logical, linear, capabilities of the
Information Age to an economy and a society built on
the inventive, empathic, big picture capabilities”.
Although some of his premises are debatable and
perhaps too simplistic, the main idea that creativity and
design can help take every profession and occupation to
the next level is hard to challenge.
The complex problems that we face today demand
creative work whether to improve well-being, foster
healthy societies, respect Nature, and in general to make
human life more sustainable and fair. When the author
explains and illustrates abundance, he refers to a global
middle class, but billions of humans subsist in extreme
scarcity. Data from both rich and poor countries show
that income gaps are increasing substantially. Economic
prosperity does appear paradoxical, and the “craving for
transcendence” cited by Pink is recognisable in recent
years.
Asia can be viewed from multiple ideological angles, as a
supplier of low cost “international knowledge workers”
or as a source of great creative and innovative potential
with millenary cultures, young dynamic populations and
in an ongoing process of building manufacturing and
design capacity. Lastly, automation is pervasive and
computers “are proving they can replace human left
brains”, yet many researchers are also exploring the
(creative) limits of artificial generators.
“Humans need not apply” captures relevant ideas:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU
Japanese artist Takashi Murakami http://wsj.comhttp://www.rplsearch.com/will-a-robot-take-my-job/
Indian rock band Parikrama
http://proaudio-central.com
Battery operated motorised ice cream cone
http://www.schooloftoy.com
Consumerism3D hand printer: http://the3doodler.com
Product after-life disposal:
http://www.projectbaseline.org
Traffic congestion and air pollution:
http://www.autoevolution.com
Luxury cars : http://www.bmw.com
Chongqing, China mobile phone sidewalk:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/16/

Entrepreneurial mind-set
The Creativity of Science and Engineering: youtu.be/eOonVbOMX78
Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right
Henry Ford
If you don't build your dream someone will hire you to help build theirs
Tony A. Gaskins
To do great work, you need to feel that you’re making a difference, that you’re putting a meaningful
dent in the universe and that you’re part of something important. This doesn’t mean you need to find
the cure for cancer. It’s just that your efforts need to feel valuable. You want your customers to say,
“This makes my life better”. You want to feel that if you stopped doing what you do, people would
notice. What you do is your legacy. Don’t sit around and wait for someone else to make the change
you want to see. And don’t think it takes a huge team to make that difference either.
Jason Fried and
David H. Hansson
Key ideas about developing an entrepreneurial mind-set in design:
• Just like in Entrepreneurship, there are NO instructions to follow, you lead.
• Pick a topic, problem or perspective that you are passionate about.
• Open-ended projects are learning journeys where instructors define a theme,
pose a challenge, and provide advice and guidance to students, who gradually
claim ownership and responsibility for their projects.
• A key aspect in creative entrepreneurial and design work is to identify
opportunities and to generate innovative approaches to address problems or
create value in novel ways.
• Before generating creative ideas (and arguably more important) is that problems
are viewed in novel and creative ways. The way a problem is framed, either
opens or prevents access to new solution spaces.
• One of the biggest obstacles for creative ideas is the fear of failure. This is
specially important in societies and systems where failure can be stigmatised and
penalised.
• Entrepreneurial and design projects necessarily start with incomplete information
and high uncertainty. Early decisions (the fuzzy front end) require adaptable
mind-sets and tolerance to ambiguity. In a team, members with such strengths
should lead at this stage (and be prepared to transfer leadership later on to
mates with better convergent and implementation skills).
• In creative ventures, it is important to develop a vision, an ambitious and well
grounded view of what the future should look like.
• Be curious, be passionate, be proactive… and have fun!
time into design project%fromtotal
20406080100
design freedom
available information
In other words, in design, innovation and entrepreneurship you start making decisions under
high uncertainty, and one of your aims becomes to obtain information throughout the
process. Alas, you will never have full information about a really novel idea.
“It's really sad to have biological limbs, you're
constrained by nature and you can’t upgrade”
Hugh Herr: http://www.dailymail.co.uk
“We started at: What does the user want? And we think the user really
doesn’t want to carry a wallet. Why do you want to do that?” Tim Cook
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101989345
“Let’s retire the term entrepreneur.
It’s outdated and loaded with
baggage. It smells like a members-
only club. Everyone should be
encouraged to start his own
business… Instead of entrepreneurs,
let’s call them starters. Anyone who
creates new business is a starter.
You don’t need an MBA, a
certificate, a fancy suit, a briefcase,
or an above-average, tolerance for
risk. You just need an idea, a touch
of confidence, and a push to get you
started.” “Rework” by Jason Fried
and David H. Hansson

Chapter 10 “Begin Anywhere” of “CAD Monkeys, Dinosaur Babies, and T-Shaped People: Inside the World of
Design Thinking and How It Can Spark Creativity and Innovation” by Warren Berger (2010)
www.wovel.com nandahome.com www.toms.com
Why, how and where do we start designing?
Activity #4: Select a couple of products, systems,
buildings, etc. that you think are innovative and do
some research to understand ‘where they come
from’, that is, how did the original idea come about.
Did the inventor/ designer/ engineer/ architect
identified a new or tackled an old problem? Did
she/he develop a new technology or a new
application that turned out to address a latent need
or market opportunity? Share here your main
reflections on the notion of “beginning anywhere”:
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Activity #5: Analyse the moments and experiences that comprise YOUR daily life and identify design
opportunities at every turn. Try NOT to imagine potential solutions at this point, just think what needs
improvement and why.
What could be different/better at 6am? What could be different/better at 8am?
What could be different/better at 12pm? What could be different/better at 4pm?
What could be different/better at 11pm? What could be different/better at 1am?
Assessment criteria: clarity □ □ □ original □ □ □ not-solutions □ □ □ Graded by: ___________________Assessment criteria: clarity □ □ □ informed □ □ □ reflective □ □ □ Graded by: ___________________

Sample well-framed problems:
“We decide to tackle child obesity, since it is a
growing trend in many countries including Singapore
and will target one or more of the key factors involved:
sedentarism, eating disorders, stress, nutrition, food
preparation, advertising, genetics, and inherited
habits.”
“Doing laundry wastes too much water, requires too
much energy and generates unnecessary waste.
Something radically different needs to change to
reduce pollution and improve efficiency dramatically.”
“A new space is required for exhibition and work
activities. The design should reflect a forward-thinking
integration of technology and design. Allocated space
and budget are attached.”
“Studies A and B of creative teams report that existing
software applications don’t offer adequate support for
creative collaboration.”
Not so well-framed problems:
“I want to help people lower their energy
consumption by automating lights at home” (Jumps
straight to a specific solution)
“Students need a system to locate their lecturers
outside class hours” (Fails to inspect actual
problems and lacks a basic understanding of
teaching/learning dynamics)
“Buildings should promote courteous behaviours
between dwellers” (Based on personal biased
impressions, easy to challenge if no further baseline
data or concrete examples are given)
“We will design an electric baby stroller” (Why? Who
needs it?)
“The problem with poverty is people lack money”
(Not only a circular argument, also ignores a myriad
non-financial factors)
Problem scoping
Across disciplines, problems are identified, defined and initiated
differently. In some areas, the process is viewed as ‘messy’ and
undetermined, others follow more systematic approaches. In all
cases, information gathering and interpretation is crucial to become
familiar with the topic and to develop new ways of seeing the
problem. There are many ways to achieve this, and many ways of
judging the quality of how a problem is framed.
Asking people what problems they face is an obvious first step, and
specific techniques will come later, but in this initial design
experience, we suggest that you first develop a personal choice
about the topic or situation you would like to tackle. It is important
that you feel highly inspired and motivated to work on this project.
Studying the context and previous solutions can be revealing.
Precedents are important sources of knowledge since the impact of
existing buildings, products, vehicles and systems is clearer as time
progresses. “Precedents contain design knowledge that can be
accessed and reused in the context of the problem at hand” (Akin,
2002). By analysing the competition, firms build and update their
product strategy. In this initial stage of a project, individual work is
ideal to collect information and to analyse the many factors
influencing and approaches taken so far in relation to one or two
themes of your personal interest.
As you gather information and analyse precedents, your purpose is to
learn the vocabulary, extract principles, derive lessons learned and
develop heuristics from them. At this stage you may also bring your
own experiences or talk to experts in order to guide your search.
Architects tend to visit buildings, browse books, magazines and
catalogues, look at online collections, and read about the place,
dwellers, codes, and historical background. Roboticists look at videos
or directly at available technologies through catalogues and products
in order to survey the range of behaviours and performance of
current robots. In these and other areas, good designers maintain an
open eye and grow a rich repertoire of solutions, becoming
knowledgeable about the latest and the historical developments in
their domain(s) of interest.
Investigative work is required to analyse precedents, and for this it is
important to develop criteria to assess the quality of the information
(accuracy, veracity, validity, authority), and to compare multiple
sources. Good design starts with a thorough, meaningful and
reflective analysis of what has been done before.
Warning: it can be tempting to extend this stage indefinitely. Besides
being really selective and critical about the information you cite, a
key skill is to know when to suspend the search mode. Criteria you
can use include: time, intuition or a pre-established goal (i.e., “once I
find 3 weaknesses of existing solutions”). Your instructors will be a
helpful source of feedback to help you decide when to move on. But
don’t worry, your team will keep coming back to research mode
iteratively during the project.
Sample problem scoping techniques:Sample problem scoping techniques:Sample problem scoping techniques:Sample problem scoping techniques:
Precedent Analysis:
• Gather all available documentation about a set of exemplary
cases
• Investigate the problem addressed and the goals of the
designers
• Inspect the design techniques, tools and principles used
• Do a critique of how the final design responded to the original
goals
Patent landscaping:
• Identify the potential technologies relevant to your design
• Search patents initially by abstract or claims
• Make a short list of the most relevant patents and follow the
patents cited by them
• Identify patent classification codes if you need to narrow down
your search (US, European or International class codes exist)
• Assess reliability of the most relevant patents by searching for
products or commercial applications based on them
• You can use Google Patents or www.freepatentsonline.com
Jobs to be Done (JTBD):
• Distinguish means (activities) from ends (jobs): people drill holes
(low means) to hang pictures (higher means) to decorate a room
(the real “job” people want done)
• What are the various alternative designs involved in a “job”? List
their advantages and disadvantages and define a ‘pain point’
that to focus on
• Talk to people to find out how they perceive means and ends.
What trade-offs are they willing to make? What prevents them
from changing?
Life-cycle analysis (LCA):
Identify opportunities estimating how a design performs in:
• Materials and production: number of different materials,
sources (renewable, recycled), impact (hazardous,
recyclable), number of parts, easiness of disassembly, repair
or replacement, number and type of manufacturing or
building processes
• Distribution: environmental impact of transportation, type
and amount of primary and secondary packaging
• Use or operation: energy consumption under operation,
use of refills or consumables, energy use in standby or idle
mode, reliability, durability, upgradable
• End of life: reuse of components, refurbishment, recycling,
biodegradable, pollutants
• Existing alternatives: shared ownership, multi-function
products, rental services, digital alternatives
Remember to ask a librarian or email to: library@sutd.edu.sg for assistance. Academic integrity: library.sutd.edu.sg/sulb/AcademicIntegrity.html

Theme(s) of initial interest:
Initial questions and issues:
Key information or precedents:

Essential design questions:
Is the intersection the real problem?
Is it about the light timing, traffic, visibility, speed?
Where are the student going, why are they crossing the road?
When do they cross and how many?
Why do students jay walk?
Awareness
Background research and precedents are informative, but so is
to observe, that is, to pay close attention to our surroundings.
This is not a passive, easy or trivial process –we are used to
seeing but not to observe. A fundamental design skill is to
learn “to see the world with fresh eyes”. With the right
attitude, practice and investing enough time, you can learn
new and valuable things by observing your surroundings.
What are the light sources in the room? How does the
cafeteria layout influence our behaviour? Why are certain
items placed lower or higher on the supermarket shelves?
Why is information organised such way in that website? What
makes people choose that product over other competing
options? The response to such questions are not simple and
straightforward, and very often one can reveal quite
interesting insights by observing how products are used, how
spaces are inhabited, how people make choices and errors,
and how they behave and interact with others. Try to go
beyond ‘common sense’ explanations.
Passive methods like observation are useful throughout the
design process (you may also use them later when testing
prototypes). And in the initial stages, visual examination can
be a rich and powerful source of problem identification.
Some useful questions that an architect may ask include:
- What is the spatial structure of this place like?
- How do people behave in this place?
- What do they feel and think about this place?
A website developer may ask herself:
- What are the main types of visitors to this website?
- What information are visitors expecting to find?
- What is the time that this person has available?
- What causes people to get lost and frustrated when browsing
websites?
The designer of a museum exhibition is likely to focus on:
- What is the baseline knowledge of visitors about this theme?
- What inspires and triggers curiosity from existing exhibitions?
- How critical is accuracy/maintenance in this type of displays?
Lastly, an engineer developing a new pet robot may wonder:
- How are robotic pets safer than live dogs and cats?
- What are the latent needs that pet robots can address in five to
ten years from now?
- How do different family members become attached to pets?
Guidelines:Guidelines:Guidelines:Guidelines:
Dos:
1. Define a place or situation that you want to analyse. Write down a description of the
setting and the goals.
2. Make your initial assumptions explicit, and define criteria for analysis.
3. If possible, invite someone else to observe with you, and engage in a meaningful
discussion after to share and compare observations.
4. Observe how people are already identifying problems, how they cope with them and
how they adapt to them, improvise or solve them.
5. This is a passive method, so try to remain unobtrusive. If appropriate, do take a
photograph, a quick note or make a simple sketch to capture an idea.
6. Sit down and analyse the results. Compare to what you have read.
7. Be flexible and make adjustments as you go, but write down why you make changes
during the process.
Don’ts:
1. Don’t draw conclusions from this process, it’s a great source to discover and reveal
issues, not to establish any statistical correlations.
2. Don’t mix this with interviews. You can and should talk to people later in the design
process.
3. Remain safe and apply common sense, don’t make people uncomfortable.
4. Avoid the tendency to observe in order to confirm your assumptions and beliefs. Be
prepared for the unexpected.
Original customer problem statement:
“Reconfigure the intersection by of College Ave and
Educ Ln so the students can cross the road”
City of Collegetown
What people… Methods Knowledge
Say
Do
Know
and feel
Interviews
Observation
Generative
sessions
Explicit
Tacit
Latent
DeepSurface
Adapted from: maketools.com
Visualization of urban running paths using shoe sensors (yesyesno.com)
“Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context - a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan”
Eliel Saarinen
User adaptations and “chindogu” help reveal problems

Assessment criteria: ________ □ □ □ ________ □ □ □ ________ □ □ □ Graded by: ___________________
Activity #6: Complete this table and add a sketch based on your observations. Indicate place and time of the day
AEIOU Description (what is) Analysis (why it is) Questions, insights Comparison to
assumptions, to other
situations and to notes
by other observers
Activities
Environments
Interactions
Objects
Users

Assessment criteria: inventiveness □ □ □ idea sketching rules □ □ □ quantity/diversity □ □ □ Graded by: ___________________
Activity #7: Practice your idea sketching here using this challenge: imagine more than ten alternative and innovative ways of weighing an elephant without using/building a scale.
Idea sketching is not about drawing
beautiful portraits or copying a
landscape artistically. It is a rapid way
to think and communicate ideas often
better than natural language.
Sketching helps understand the
physical and the conceptual worlds,
and is suitable for exploring spatial and
time events and relationships. Idea
sketching is NOT an artistic skill, it is a
universal tool to organise, clarify,
generate and communicate ideas.
Remember the ‘rules’: speed over
accuracy, think as you draw and draw
as you think, annotate doodles with
brief text, clarity over artistry, move
your elbow not your wrist.
ted.com/talks/tim_brown_on_creativity_and
_play
Thomas Edison
Frank Gehry
“Rapid Viz” by Larry Belliston and Kurt Hanks

Chapter 01 “The Psychopathology of everyday things” of
“The Design of Everyday Things” by Donald Norman (2013)
Assessment criteria: accuracy □ □ □ originality □ □ □ clarity □ □ □ Graded by: ___________________
In this classic book, engineer and cognitive scientist Don Norman
introduces and illustrates with clear examples some key design ideas
including: discoverability, understanding, usability, human-machine
interaction, experience, engineering design, human-centered design
(HCD), affordances, and signifiers. Reading this chapter should be
useful to appreciate the myriad factors that design teams take into
consideration behind design decisions. As users, we seldom take the
time to pause and think: “Why is this product / space / app / system
the way it is? How can it be better?”
Design does present “a fascinating interplay of technology and
psychology, that designers must understand”.
Activity #8: Register and explain here 2 examples of clearly perceived ‘affordances’ from everyday designs:
Then register and explain here one example of ‘bad design’ that causes errors and frustrations:
Sketch, describe, or paste a photograph here
Please explain:
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Sketch, describe, or paste a photograph here
Please explain:
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Sketch, describe, or paste a photograph here Please explain:
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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http://www.fosterandpartners.com
http://www.zdnet.co.kr

Creative teamwork
The “Marshmallow Challenge” is a hands-on experience on team dynamics intended to get you and your team actively thinking about
the great potential of collaboration, as well as the non-trivial challenges of coordination, communication and creative problem solving.
Activity #9: Capture here a summary of this experience and your reflections after doing this team activity.
Design is a creative team effort. Creative teamwork is much more than a
group of people operating together. As in all great teams, goals are shared by
members, they strive to collaborate and their skills complement each other,
and overall, they are seriously committed to give their best effort. In creative
teams, work gets even more challenging –and more rewarding. Edison
famously said that creativity is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, so
creative teams need to balance individual contributions and team synergies in
divergent as well as convergent work (see previous discussion on Design
Models in this book).
Many students have told us that creative teamwork is a highlight of this
course. For many, this is the very first time working in a term-long team
project. However, in many cases conflicts arise, and rather than avoid them, it
is important that your team learns how to use conflicts in positive ways, to
share and discuss openly, to listen and improve ideas.
RecommendationsRecommendationsRecommendationsRecommendations totototo workworkworkwork inininin creativecreativecreativecreative teamsteamsteamsteams::::
1. Identify the diversity of strengths in your team, and the different styles of
working; creative teams require a wide range of assets, so diversity is
paramount. This is useful to bid/assign roles and responsibilities, including
who should lead the team at certain phases.
2. Prepare individually before a team session, give your best effort during
team activities, and then reflect individually on how the team made
decisions. Ask for help if you need it, offer your help to others. Combine
individual and team activities in clever and efficient ways.
3. Avoid splitting tasks between teammates and then merely putting the
outcomes together before submission. Do establish internal roles and
deadlines, but share with your team how you are doing, so everyone gets
to improve what is being done.
4. Establish, follow and help enforce a list of ground rules for your team in
general and for specific activities in particular (ideation sessions, finances,
etc.). Is punctuality a top priority? What are the preferred ways of
communicating, the best time for all to meet? How will the team handle
potential misunderstandings and tensions?
5. Not everyone needs to build strong friendships, but do get to know well
your teammates, you will be surprised for how much you have in common
despite your apparent differences, and also how much you can learn from
each other despite your similarities.
6. Remain open and flexible. A great creative team cultivates a culture of
trust and comradeship that motivates contributions, learns from failure,
avoids criticisms, and discourages ‘idea ownership’ (truly awesome ideas
can’t be attributed to a single person, they grow in the right atmosphere).
7. Your ‘team’ can include other people: classmates, friends, experts, users,
etc. there are many people who can easily inform, inspire and teach you.
8. Enjoy the process, have fun and make sure your entire team has fun!
Assessment criteria: introspective □ □ □ clarity □ □ □ balanced □ □ □ Graded by: ___________________

Empathy
Questions to ask yourself when planning an interview or a survey:
- Can I get this information in easier or more reliable ways? (Census, published studies, estimates)
- What do I want to find out with this activity?
- Who should we talk to? Am I avoiding sample biases?
- How can we approach people to build trust and obtain meaningful responses?
- How might the interviewee feel engaged or offended or interested in this dialogue?
- How would I feel if someone asked me these questions? How can my intent be misunderstood?
- What ethical risks am I taking? What assumptions are we making?
- How many people do we need to talk to?
- Have we piloted our questions? Are they clear?
- How can we critically analyse what people told us? What didn’t they tell us?
- Do the responses simply confirm my own biases and ideas? Or do they reveal new, unexpected issues?
- Why are these responses so consistent/inconsistent, short/long, clear/confusing, expected/unexpected?
- Are these responses useful to reveal and clarify issues, or can we justify conclusions from them?
Write down the 3 most important questions that you will use in your interviews:
I want to ask people: _________________________________________________________________________________
because ___________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
because ___________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
because ___________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Empathy can be developed by deconstructing the information provided and figuring out
appropriate questions to assist people to think through and articulate ideas. Powerful
questions generate curiosity in the listener, stimulate reflective conversation, are thought-
provoking, surface underlying assumptions, invite creativity and new possibilities, generate
energy and forward movement, channel attention and focus inquiry, stay with people,
touch a deep meaning, and evoke more questions.
Compare these questions:
- Are you satisfied with the current situation? (leads to a “yes/no” response)
- When have you been most/least satisfied with this situation?
- What is about this situation that you find the most/least satisfying?
- Why might it be that this situation has had its ups and downs?
Try to answer these sample questions yourself (or ask a classmate):
- Do you think it is important to be in class on time? Why? Why? Why?
Vogt, E.E., Brown, J. and Isaacs, D. (2003) The Art of Powerful Questions,
Whole Systems Associates. You can find the pdf online.
Surveys
Set of questions with multiple choice responses, or
open-ended to gauge people’s opinions and knowledge.
Typically administered to several (30+) people to obtain
statistically valid data.
The typical process includes background work in order
to select focus, select target audience and sample size,
design questions. Piloting is encouraged to clarify
questions. Prepare paper or online survey and
administer. Collect, analyse statistically and interpret
data. Identify similarities and differences, potential
errors and biases, potential population segments.
Present all data anonymously and in aggregate form. Be
careful when drawing conclusions from surveys, bear in
mind that very often correlations are artefacts of the
underlying assumptions and the framing of questions.
“Two creativity killers when talking to clients, users and teachers:
1. to ignore them, 2. to believe them. The secret is to interpret”
@designcomputing
Interviews
In-person user information gathering method that can
be used to explore an initial set of issues, help the
interviewee reflect and articulate their thoughts. Ranges
from open-ended dialogues to semi-structured
interviews to in-person surveys. In structured sessions, a
fixed set of questions is applied; in unstructured: a short
list of general topics is used to probe particular areas.
The typical process includes background work to define
type of interview, select focus and target audience
(typical users, lead users, etc.). Design questions or
interview guide and pilot it to improve the process.
Avoid questions with “yes/no” answers, prepare to ask
“why?” and “please tell me more”. Contact interviewees
and interview them. Record answers and seek
permission if you want to record conversation. Interpret,
organize and anonymise all data (use code names).
User opinion User behavior User beliefs
Surveys: ask large groups
to choose between
options
Focus group and review
sessions: enroll people to
evaluate or try out an
idea
Record and analyse
emotional responses to a
specific set of stimuli
(i.e., semantic differential
techniques)
Semi-structured
interviews: engage in a
dialogue to inspect a
specific topic
Generative sessions: give
people tools and
materials and ask them
to imagine and build
things
Record and analyse what
people say while solving
a structured task (i.e.,
think aloud methods)
Contextual dialogue:
spend time with people
in their natural context
and engage in
conversations
Ethnographic
observations: immerse
yourself in situations
where you can witness
issues of interest
Listen to people chat and
articulate their ideas in
their natural setting (i.e.,
conversation analysis)
Increasingdegreeofstructureandexplicitness
Increasing importance of ethical considerations
Sanders, E. N. (2000). Generative tools for co-designing. In Collaborative Design (pp. 3-12). Springer London.

Activity #10: Use this space to reflect on your personal interviewing skills
“ It’s so fascinating to look and listen to people”
http://interviewproject.davidlynch.com
“HONY now provides a worldwide audience with daily glimpses
into the lives of strangers”
http://www.humansofnewyork.com

Co-design
SampleSampleSampleSample participatoryparticipatoryparticipatoryparticipatory methodsmethodsmethodsmethods::::
- Design charrettes: long and intense sessions where groups of people from
different walks of life or disciplines share views, build consensus, prepare a
design program or a brief, or generate design ideas coordinated by a
facilitator.
- World café: one of many hybrid techniques to shuffle views and ideas between
groups and across individuals. More: www.theworldcafe.com/principles.html
- Design probes: artifacts are used to help users elicit functional, emotional, and
personal responses. Useful to help people reflect on their context and to
understand their culture, views, beliefs and values.
- Shadowing: an observational technique suitable for public spaces or with
explicit consent from users, where the designer follows in close detail a
person’s actions while completing a specific task (for example supermarket
cashier). Ideal to explore and discover issues early in the process.
- Wizard of Oz testing: experimental setting where subjects interact with a
product or system that they believe or pretend to be fully functional, but
which is actually being operated or partially operated by a human being. Ideal
to expose people to early ideas, observe their reactions and ask for feedback.
- Focus groups: widely used across several fields, generally consist of organising
a gathering where people are exposed to ideas and their reactions, evaluations
and feedback are systematically captured.
- Empathic design: a set of role-playing techniques to ‘step into the user’s shoes’
and understand aspects of the user’s experience by simulating conditions such
as disabilities, etc.
- Message boards or graffiti walls: a way of collecting opinions, ideas and
responses to open-ended questions from large groups, usually at public spaces
where a board (or large paper sheets) and markers, chalk or pens are attached
inviting people to share their views, usually prompted by a powerful question
(such as the “Before I die…” installation by artist Candy Chang)
It is important to always consider the ethical dimension of participation. In
general, ask first, be respectful, humble and mindful, handle all information
confidentially and in anonymous formats, respect privacy, be aware of cultural,
gender and generational perceptions, build trust.
More:
- www.designpracticemethods.rmit.edu.au
- www.hcdconnect.org/toolkit/en
Design teams across multiple areas adopt and develop
participatory approaches as a way to open decision-making
in design to the people who are ultimately affected or
involved in the problems at hand.
A variety of methods and tools exist, most of them with
origins from development studies, anthropology, and action
research. Debates are common between designers in
regards to the effectiveness, the relevance and the limits of
participation. In principle, few would argue against taking
people’s views and concerns, the disagreements are mostly
about how and when to do it. An “expert mind-set” views
people as audience or informants who supply information
or feedback with which experts design for them. A
“participatory mind-set” views users as leading change and
design as a facilitation aid to help articulate, explore and
implement the solutions created by the people to address
their problems.
Between these two extremes, many variations and degrees
exist, for example the “voice of the customer” (VOC) is used
in different fields to capture user needs and preferences,
and to link them to product features and characteristics.
Open innovation (or ‘crowd sourcing’) techniques are used
to gather external ideas and identify external opportunities
to develop new technologies and new products.
As expected, ‘participation’ is interpreted differently across
design areas, teams and individuals. Current research
efforts in this area include: development and evaluation of
methods; power, trust and ethical matters; collaborative
creativity; impact evaluation; barriers and challenges;
modes of representation and decision-making; mutual
understanding and collaboration; etc. If you are interested
in participation in design, Opportunity Lab in SUTD runs
multiple practice and research initiatives where you can
learn and contribute.
Liz Sanders and her team use this map to present participatory approaches in design: http://www.maketools.com

Use of diagrams to challenge the status quo –
example in hotel service design:
The green diagram on the left was constructed to
model the current customer experience of entering
a hotel where the guests, a family, arrives through
the entrance, splits during check in such that the
main person can check in and the rest of the family
can wait in the lobby; and finally where after check-
in the family goes to the hotel room together.
Challenging the existence of the areas (these could
be product functions or system components as well)
as well as the direction of the human flow can help
think of more interesting service concepts. For
example, as shown in the yellow diagram on the
right, reversing the main person flow from entrance
to the reception triggers an idea of having the
receptionist walk to the arriving family instead. This
can further lead to the idea of completing the check
in process in the hotel room and thus eliminating
the lobby function.
Functions and programs
Abstraction and various system diagrams are used in all
forms and phases of design. In particular, diagrams in
functions and programs are used to model the system
elements and their interactions in order to focus on what
the system should do rather than how it will achieve it.
There are numerous methods to do this.
Designs can be modelled as assemblies, subassemblies
and components; or as functions and sub-functions; or as
actors and activities; etc. The essence of such modelling
is the explicit model of all the elements and how they
interlink with one another. For example, an adjacency
matrix (top left) captures areas with specific purpose as
well as their adjacency. This information can also be
represented as a bubble diagram (top right). In both, size
and colour are used to communicate additional features
such as size or frequency of use. The interlinks can
represent also other things such as order of
communication or people flow. Similar to the bubble
diagram, one could also diagram the functions of a
product or a system in a functional model (bottom
picture). In this diagram the interactions between the
functions are the material, energy, and information flows
between these functions, including the flow direction.
A particular selection of a diagram to use depends on the
situation, discipline, goals, etc. In general, they can be
used at least in the following ways:
- Organization of the design process: Decomposing the
problem with clear boundaries between the system
elements, seeks to help organise design process by
reducing complexity and explicitly highlighting the
different parts of the system and their interrelationships.
- Help focus the project: Programming refers to “the
thorough and systematic evaluation of the interrelated
values, goals, facts, and needs of a client”. Architects use
programs to clarify goals and issues, and “to provide a
rational basis for design decision making”. Similarly other
designers can generate a diagram based on customer
needs and then use the model to ensure they are met.
Designers can also build programs to set goals, discover
related facts, and to develop a list of requirements.
- Enable more holistic design: They are many ways to do
this, but as an example, the bubble diagram could be
used to view the project thorough different lenses to
identify a range of values including human, cultural,
environmental, technological, temporal, economic,
aesthetic, and safety.
- Creative reasoning: Diagrams can help abstract the
problem and widen the scope of idea exploration. For
example, instead of focusing on components e.g. what
type of cooling fan to design, focusing on the function of
the fan (transmit thermal energy) enables many other
solutions from heat sinks to liquid cooling.
- Questioning the status quo: Related to the creative
reasoning, the diagrams can also be used to challenge
the status quo and reason about the resulting design.
Hershberger, R.G. (2000) The Architect’s Handbook of
Professional Practice, The American Institute of Architects
Space adjacency matrix of a building. The black dot represents primary adjacency and the white dot represents secondary
adjacency. In this bubble diagram no other line can cross a primary adjacency, but secondary adjacencies can cross each other:
http://carolynjeanmatthews.wordpress.com
Functional diagram of a popcorn (Otto and Wood, 2001). Can you identify the material in the bottom row of the diagram?
____ ____ ____ ________
Reception
Entrance
Lobby
Hotel
room
Reception
Entrance
Hotel
room
Family
Rest
of the
family
Main person
Main
person
Family
Family
Family
Receptionist
Rizal Muslimin “Because function seems to derive from the designer’s intention, it has no clear, uniform, objective, and widely accepted definition”
Umeda, Y. and Tomiyama, T. (1997). Functional reasoning in design. IEEE Expert, 12(2), 42-48.

Activity #11a: Choose a mechanical device and draw a detailed functional model here –
including possible innovations that you can generate from this analysis.
Assessment criteria: accuracy □ □ □ detail □ □ □ analytical + generative □ □ □ Graded by: ___________________
Activity #11b: Choose a service or a space and draw a detailed activity diagram here –including
possible innovations that you can generate using the diagram.

Design brief
In every design project, a ‘design brief’ is established as the
starting point or in the early stages of a project. Although
the term brief is commonly used, there is no agreement as
to what exactly it is and how it should be done. Briefs can
be seen in contracts when appointing an architect, in calls
for design competitions, and in requests in software
development. At the heart of a brief is the list of ‘design
requirements’, which also vary considerably in nature and
detail across disciplines and from one project to another.
Creative design briefs describe the nature of the project
(design, redesign, renovation, update, advertising),
establish the goals and needs to tackle, the list of
requirements, and ideally the set of evaluation criteria to
assess the final outcome of the project. In this case, we
have defined a basic set of grading rules for this course, but
your project requirements become part of your final
grading rubrics: how well does your final solution solve the
problem and meets the success criteria defined at the
beginning?
In some areas, requirements are also called ‘specs’, and
they are prescriptive when they specify valid value ranges
(for instance established by a norm), procedural when they
specify materials, processes or cost limits, and performance
when they specify desired behaviours or operation levels.
Some requirements are measurable in standard metric
units, whilst others call for creative ways to estimate them
(“how friendly is this product?”), and yet others escape any
form of objective assessment (“this design should represent
the company/city values”).
Requirements are the end of the convergent stage in
problem scoping and framing. While requirements should
not lead to specific solutions, they do give the necessary
focus and clarity in order to advance to the solution stage
of a project. A good brief gives a big picture, frames a
problem and establishes the criteria to guide and constrain,
yet simultaneously support the creative design process.
A design brief clarifies what is initially requested or
identified, the design team should now have a full
understanding of what the client and the users need and
expect from the resulting design.
Basic parts of a design brief:Basic parts of a design brief:Basic parts of a design brief:Basic parts of a design brief:
1. Goals and vision of the new design
2. Budget and schedule
3. Target audience and scope of the project
4. Analysis of precedents, functions, activities
5. Requirements
6. Constraints including resources and time
7. Deliverables and deadlines
webdesignerdepot.com
Sample requirements:Sample requirements:Sample requirements:Sample requirements:
- The product weight is under 1.5 kilograms
- The main target user is young working mothers
- The budget allocated for this lighting project is $100,000
- This toy is suitable for toddlers (18 to 24 mo)
- The final prototype is built by 05 December
- This product adheres to norms ISO 1234567
- The new bridge becomes an icon of this city
- The system allows users to upload pdf files
- The product follows Universal Design guidelines
- The new fridge door reduces costs in 30%
- The website appeals to our young clientele
- The joint allows oscillation at speeds of 20000RPM
- The final retail price per unit is less than $2
- Manufacturing processes available are injection
moulding and vacuum forming
- All materials used are biodegradable
www.sciencebuddies.org/engineering-design-
process/design-requirements-examples.shtml
Engineering Design and Communication. Principles and Practice. Yarnoff et al., Northwestern University
Storyboards are useful to elicit design requirements, they support breadth and
depth in examining issues related to a problem identified and to desired
situations.
Create storyboards to:
• Define the actors or users of the system and to develop a vision
• Inspect the surrounding settings and contexts
• Identify other people, systems, devices or solutions
• Analyse the current situation, conditions, and constraints
• Draw analogies from other problems, even from distant domains
• Analyse the target behaviour of users as they would interact in a future
system
• Imagine how such interactions may happen, show events, processes and
resources
• Show to people and get them to reflect and share ideas
adaptivepath.com
kellyangley.wordpress.com

Activity #12: Document here your personal reflections on problem scoping and crafting a design brief:
Assessment criteria: clear □ □ □ reflective □ □ □ informed □ □ □ Graded by: ___________________

Activity #13: Analyse these ‘design briefs’. Add and analyse a third design brief that you find in your area of interest or that is related to your project (studentcompetitions.com). Draw some conclusions for how YOUR design brief should be.
Assessment criteria: analysis □ □ □ clear □ □ □ conclusions □ □ □ Graded by: ___________________
Oakley Disruptive By Design Competition Brief:
“Create an innovative design that will disrupt elite sports performance in a way that hasn’t
been seen before. It needs to be an idea that's more than just an adaptation of an existing
approach. It needs to be something new and radical. Something that is truly Disruptive by
Design. The most disruptive ideas come from unfamiliar and unexpected places. Take
inspiration from the wider world: nature, aerospace, architecture, science fiction. There
should be no limits to your sources. There are also no restrictions on the format of the
design. It could be a product, a garment, a new way to use technology, a digital design, or
something entirely new that responds to or enhances elite sports performance. Prove that
you have what it takes to be one of the disruptors of the future, and you could win the
opportunity to immerse yourself in the R&D culture at Oakley’s Design HQ in California,
USA.” More: disruptivebydesign.com
ArchMedium Lisbon Open Room Competition:
“Since 2008, the world has been going through a tough financial crisis, which has
subsequently translated into a crisis of values. The big recession, which originated in the
United States, has its origins in the real state bubble burst and the resulting financial and
mortgage problems. The competition departs from the socioeconomic context of southern
Europe, more precisely from the delicate situation in Portugal. The country is rich in
culture, architecture and history but the cuts policies have reduced the call to carry out
public construction…
We propose a unique piece of architecture, which is described as a large container of
activities. Public investment is reduced to public equipment and the expense is optimized
by hosting as many events and creating as many uses for the building as possible. It is a hall
open to the citizens, activating the surrounding public space and articulating good
architecture with limited resources. It’s a container that aims to react to the magazine-
cover-like architecture that has been generated, instead relating to the historical context of
the place, the socioeconomic conditions and the moral sustainability of the proposal. It is
an architecture of values that seeks its referents in history, in vernacular architecture and
in the Portuguese masters. In the mouth of Río Tajo, seven hills shape the uneven city of
Lisbon. One of the elevations is the historical neighbourhood of La Alfama, the oldest
district in Portugal’s capital. As a former fishing suburb, La Alfama forms dens and compact
environments where different activities naturally intermingle.
Each team will submit only one din-A1 size (59,4, 84,1cm), landscape or portrait panel with
their proposal.” More: es.archmedium.com/Concursos/LOR/Descargas/LOR_Brief_en.pdf

Creativity and Innovation
MythsMythsMythsMyths ofofofof creativitycreativitycreativitycreativity
1. Creative inspiration takes place on a flash
2. Creative talent is innate
3. Creative thinking is associated with intelligence
4. Creative ideas are unprecedented and completely unique
5. Higher incentives and total freedom guarantees creative ideas
6. Individuals are more creative than teams
7. Experts are more creative than novices
David Burkus, Assistant Professor of Management at Oral Roberts University explores
these and other myths in his books. Visit: davidburkus.com
SuggestionsSuggestionsSuggestionsSuggestions totototo cultivatecultivatecultivatecultivate creativitycreativitycreativitycreativity beyondbeyondbeyondbeyond thethethethe useuseuseuse ofofofof techniquestechniquestechniquestechniques::::
• Become an avid learner across traditional disciplines (and unlearn a few things, too)
• Make things, build stuff (and break apart others)
• Sketch and write down your ideas
• Cultivate analogical/metaphorical reasoning
• Be curious, inquisitive and persevere, question everything
• Identify your strengths, find your own way
• Learn to collaborate, find partners and accomplices
• Try new things once in a while, if possible visit or travel to unexpected places
• Talk to strangers, watch and read unfamiliar topics
• Improvise, be flexible, adapt and don’t be afraid to change your mind
• Ask questions, value feedback, learn to listen
• Learn a few techniques and practice, practice, practice
Creativity is finding novel and useful ideas, innovation is the implementation of these
ideas into workable solutions. 99u is a web portal dedicated to provide “the action-
oriented insights that you didn’t get in school, highlighting real-world best practices for
making ideas happen” 99u.com
Every design project is different and teams must learn to
explore and define problems in ways that focus their
creative efforts. Creativity requires problems that are well
defined and have clear and justified requirements and
constraints. A good balance between freedom and
restriction creates a conducive environment for creative
work. Too much freedom and the team will get lost, lose
focus and find themselves in unproductive discussions. Too
many restrictions, and no room is left for creative options.
As teams embark on idea generation, it also pays to be clear
about where and how much change is required. A common
mistake is to seek to reinvent the wheel.
Creative reasoning is not a talent of gifted individuals –that
is an obsolete idea where creation was considered a divine
gift. Although there are clear innate individual differences,
creativity requires a complex combination of different skills,
so diverse teams have a potential advantage to generate
creative ideas or concepts and to develop them into
innovative design solutions. This potential, of course, is
easily hampered by team problems including poor
communication, individual competition, disagreements, etc.
Divergent reasoning is central to creativity. It can be defined
as the mental process to produce as many different ideas as
possible in a give period. In divergent thinking there is no
“correct answer”. When teams genuinely collaborate, share
and build upon each other’s ideas, divergent thinking is an
effective (and fun) way of exploring the solution space.
Diversity is important in divergence, since teammates can
bring different experiences, interests and knowledge to the
table. Ideation sessions require careful planning, and need
to be short (30 minutes max.). Several ideation techniques
and approaches can be used individually or in teams. Not
every ideation session yields the expected outcomes,
perseverance is a critical factor of creativity.
Creativity is often associated with artistic activities, this is
clearly a misconception since it is valuable to explore new
ideas to address complex problems across disciplines. In a
recent creativity workshop with Singaporean managers in
an MBA programme, we collected these views:
- “I have a new definition of creativity [it] is not just artistic
outputs but also learning from failure, perseverance and lots
of luck in the long journey towards success. I need to reframe
to see failure as a (necessary) platform to ultimate creative
success. This probably means I need to be less kiasu!”
- “Growing up in a family of engineers, I never would have
associated creativity with engineering. In a similar vein, I
never imagined myself to be creative, because I wasn’t
artistic. I realize that I actually am creative, as I reflect on my
strengths.”
- “I realised that I always had a narrow perception of what
“creativity” means. From the class, it dawned to me that
actually, creativity covers a broader dimension in that it
includes any phenomenon whereby something new and
valuable is created such as an idea, a painting, a solution, an
invention etc.”
“a bestselling book on
creativity for people who
do not like books on
creativity”
You cannot prove from past data whether any new thing in the world – any new idea or
innovation – will work. Managers are inclined when someone puts forth with a new idea to
respond, “Prove it in order for me to go forward”. That’s what a good manager does these days –
he or she is analytical and asks for proof. But since you can’t prove a new idea in advance, all the
new ideas are viewed as dangerous and problematic because they aren’t provable.
Roger Martin,
Dean of Rotman School of Management
Some books about creativity based on evidence from research and practice. Be careful, there are a lot of dubious resources on this topic

Concept generation
Brainstorming
An intuitive divergent thinking process, established as a structured
technique by A.F. Osborn in the book Applied Imagination (1953). Today
it is widely used with mixed results, often due to inadequate facilitation.
The main guidelines are:
- Maximise quantity
- Defer evaluation
- Build on the ideas of others: combine and improve ideas (1+1=3)
- Prioritise unusual, wild, crazy ideas
- Decompose ideas
- Capture ideas, keep focus and observe time
C-Sketch (6-3-5)
Collaborative Sketch (C-Sketch) or Brainwriting builds on the classic
cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse) technique and consists of a sequence of
silent sketching periods after which individuals exchange their drawings
to build on each other’s ideas.
Six individuals form a team, they sketch 3 ideas on a large format paper
and pass their drawings every 5 minutes, hence 6-3-5 (Bernd Rohrbach).
Participants are encouraged to draw on others' ideas for inspiration, thus
stimulating the creative process. Ambiguity, re-interpretation and re-
representation are supported by this technique. After 6 rounds in 30
minutes the team has thought up over one hundred ideas.
Mind-mapping
Diagramming technique to visually arrange information using tree and
radial layouts. It is useful to organise new ideas and concepts, to look at
their relationships, and to identify opportunities to inform and guide idea
generation processes. Suggested guidelines include:
• Combine images, symbols, words. Start in the middle of the page
• Use colours to code types of ideas and relations
• Ideas are described in single words/images and on a separate branch
• 7 +/- 2 initial branches from the central image or word
• Generate as many sub-branches as possible, focusing on empty spaces
• Keep mind maps visible in your working space (pinned up to the wall)
• Use hierarchies, emphasis and associations in your mind map
Register here your experience using Brainstorming (make sure that
each session doesn’t exceed 30 minutes):
Register here your experience using C-Sketch (you may try alternative
rules, but do keep it a silent activity):
Register here your experience using Mind-mapping (you may want to
try mind-mapping software and apps):

Activity #14: Draw an individual mind map with the main ideas produced in your own individual and team ideation sessions.

Concept generation (2)
S.C.A.M.P.E.R.
Another classic technique known under different names and generally
attributed to Osborn. It is a mnemonic or acronym for “Substitute,
Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to other uses, Eliminate and Reverse”. Such
‘idea checklists’ can be adapted for the domain and type of problem at
hand. The main idea is to apply general self-directed questions to
stimulate idea generation.
For example, in “Substitute” you can ask what parts of this problem can
be exchanged with other similar problems? or what component, principle
or rule can be replaced? What if the user, context, purpose, scale, or
materials could be changed?
Bio-inspiration
“Design by Analogy” is a general approach to build connections between
seemingly unrelated problems and situations. Source cases and examples
can be taken from previous designs in the same or a related field, or from
Nature. Biomimicry seeks to emulate natural patterns, principles and
strategies, i.e., ‘velcro’ from the small hooks found in burr needles, an
effective attachment strategy for seed dispersion.
A recent and very useful tool to apply bio-inspiration is organised by the
Biomimicry Institute at www.asknature.org, where bio-inspired
applications and natural phenomena are organised by function.
___________________________________
Register here your experience using S.C.A.M.P.E.R. (feel free to create
your own ‘idea checklist’ and mnemonic):
Register here your experience using bio-inspiration (check
biomimicry.net/about/biomimicry/a-biomimicry-primer):
Find another creativity technique and capture here your experience
using it. (www.mycoted.com/Category:Creativity_Techniques)

Activity #15: What have you learned from your initial experience using these ideation techniques? What can you and your team do differently to improve your creative productivity?

Communicate and persuade
Communication formats and practices change
considerably across design areas and even between
communities of practice and cultures. In some cases,
concise and well-defined formats are the norm, mainly to
summarise objective data and results, such as those
obtained in experiments, surveys, etc. In other cases, as
Marshall McLuhan said, “the medium is the message”
and the visual format plays a central role in design
communication.
Project reviews in engineering tend to define a common
template that students follow to organise their
information, findings and conclusions. In architecture
design pin-ups, students are free to generate their own
layouts, visual materials, and typographic elements
creating a unique visual identity for the project or for the
design team. In robotics and human-computer
interaction design, it is customary (and often required) to
submit a short video that showcases the designs,
explains the design process, or demonstrates the
performance of the artefact or interface. Although
practices vary, there are five types of communication
that are critical across design areas, and are useful
elements in any professional career:
1. Written: reports, proposals, meeting minutes, cover
letters.
2. Oral: meetings, design reviews, ideation sessions,
project presentations.
3. Visual: idea sketches, diagrams, posters, slides,
portfolio, video.
4. Scientific: mathematical equations, diagrams,
notation, statistical analysis.
5. Interpersonal: teamwork, client meetings, interviews.
To design visual media (posters, video) plan your content
using the guidelines shown here, then choose a grid to
organise a layout, colour scheme, graphic elements, font
types and sizes according to the hierarchy of
information, and try as many alternatives as feasible.
Engineers market their skill through the ability to communicate
A. Ertas and J. Jones
open-building.orgEngineering and Communication course, Northwestern University z3333129.blogspot.com
Plan:Plan:Plan:Plan:
• Content:Content:Content:Content: What is your key message? What are the
premises and the arguments? Do you need data and
numbers? What are the conclusions?
• Composition:Composition:Composition:Composition: What is the purpose of this
communication? Why now? What for? How are you
presenting? What is the storyline?How do others
present? What format and language will you use?
Why? Why not other?
• CrowdCrowdCrowdCrowd: Who is your audience? What do they
already know? What do they expect to learn/see?
Why do they care?
Review:Review:Review:Review:
• Did you show it to someone outside the team? Did
they get the main idea without a lot of explaining?
Produce:Produce:Produce:Produce:
• What are available tools? Did you know that the
tool itself doesn’t add much value Did you pay
attention to details?

Use this space to sketch and annotate ideas for organising information in a poster/video format
Sample resourcesSample resourcesSample resourcesSample resources
1. Good slide design:
presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/09/whats_go
od_powe.html
2. Common visual design errors: www.articulate.com/rapid-
elearning/5-common-visual-design-mistakes/
3. Ten slide design tips: www.garrreynolds.com/preso-tips/design/
4. Visual design articles: www.ethos3.com/category/design/
5. Charts and diagrams tutorials:
flowingdata.com/category/tutorials/
6. Visual design tutorials: support.canva.com/hc/en-
us/sections/200193900-Design-Tutorials
7. Visual design articles: www.nngroup.com/topic/visual-design/
8. Video showcase (CHI 2013): chi2013.acm.org/program/by-
venues/video-showcase/
9. Video tutorials: vimeo.com/videoschool
10. Video editing for non-professionals:
www.adobe.com/inspire/2013/11/screencast-premiere-pro.html

Activity #16: Practice here abstraction: the process of gradually stripping away details to keep what conveys the essence of
an idea, figure or concept.
Assessment criteria: effort □ □ □ ________ □ □ □ ________ □ □ □ Graded by: ___________________
Pablo Picasso turned a highly literal (realistic) bull into a series of abstract elements that make up an expressive
representation. The last image is a simple line that still effectively conveys a bull: www.artyfactory.com

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