The ability to design is the distinguishing characteristic of an engineer. Recent research has increased our understanding of both the engineering design process and effective means for teaching that process to neophyte design engineers. In that spirit, a design methodology was developed at the Institute for Innovation and Design in Engineering (IIDE), Texas A&M University. At the core of this approach is a design philosophy based on the cognitive skills of Abstraction, Critical Parameter Identification, and Questioning. This philosophy along with the design process is taught in the senior undergraduate design and graduate design courses. The goal of the methodology is not only to teach the design process to novice designers but also to instill in them the design philosophy that would enable them to perform design effectively and innovatively in any area of specialty. In this dissertation the design philosophy along with its role in the design methodology is explained. The Need Analysis and the Conceptual Design stages of the IIDE methodology are elaborated. The weaknesses in these stages are identified and addressed, by developing and incorporating design methods and techniques that fit the spirit and framework of the IIDE design methodology. The Object Function Method was developed to address certain aspects at the Need Analysis stage. There was need for an effective concept searching method within the Concept Design stage of the IIDE design methodology. This is addressed by the development of new search techniques and methods for effective concept discovery during concept searching. The usage and application of these methods and techniques is explained in detail along with examples. Additionally, this dissertation contains the results of a study conducted with two groups of senior design students, those who have been through the process and those who have not, to evaluate the effectiveness of applying the IIDE design philosophy and performing the Need Analysis and Conceptual Design stages for the given design challenge. The goal of the study was to investigate the relationship, if any, between the degree to which these aspects of the design methodology were followed and the quality of the resulting design solutions produced.

The basic concept of this work is that functional modelling techniques are applicable to and of practical use in, producing a qualitative model of conceptual engineering design. A qualitative function based model of conceptual design has been developed and a computer based implementation has been built and tested. The rationale behind the modelling scheme and the computer implementation are described in detail. In addition to a review of existing models of design the research provides a significant new capability in four main areas: • An ability to generate new concepts with a controlled degree of similarity to existing designs. • A new function based model of engineering conceptual design. • The COncept Design ASsistant (CODAS) system, a computer based implementation of the function based model, has been developed and tested. • A new symbolic representation language. CODAS is a hybrid case-based and function-based modelling system, implemented in the domain of mechanical device design, which demonstrates the practical application of this new model. The CODAS system aims to provide a design support tool which can invent both routine and novel devices based on experience gained from past successful design solutions. Fast and efficient data handling is achieved by utilizing Case Based Reasoning (CBR) technology to store and retrieve past design solutions which are defined in terms of a symbolic representation language. The underlying design model is function based and employs a technique of divergent function to form mapping to produce physical embodiments of the proposed functional solutions.

My research explores the potential of lifestreaming as a life design methodology. Life design is the design of one’s daily activities, habits and relationships. Like graphic or industrial design, life design can be approached using a specific methodology to solve problems–in the case of life design, problems of individual, daily life. “Lifestream” was first defined by computer scientist David Gelernter as a software architecture consisting of a time-ordered stream of documents. Lifestreaming has evolved into the act of documenting and sharing aspects of daily existence online. A lifestream website collects the things you choose to publish (e. g., photos, tweets, videos, or blog posts) and displays them in reverse-chronological order. Putting one’s life online might provide the critical perspective to help redesign it. After practicing lifestreaming for two years and performing four lifestream website experiments, I have devised a lifestreaming system that encourages users to gain more control over personal advancement and deliberate decision-making. / text

Private family garden + phenomenology + deconstructivism; alias landscape design cooking a la Czech is a thesis project the main purpose of which was to answer authors questions concerning the practical use of the two design approaches applied to project for a real site through a development of designs driven by the principles of the respective styles/movements. Emphasis were paid to the influence the movements have on architectural and garden design. Second aim was to investigate the appropriateness and usefulness of designing through a model creation in a miniaturised simulation of the real situation in three dimensions. Following, and the last step, was to investigate the effectiveness of the model to communicate and truthfully represent/simulate the impact of the proposed design interventions. Throughout the work on the project, stages and consecutive steps taken were recorded to document the process. Development of the project was divided into several phases. First, suitable site was chosen and data related to the property gathered. Second, phenomenology and deconstructivism had been studied - mainly through looking at precedent design work and development of visual annotated analysis. Third step, happening simultaneously with second, was creation of a model simulating the current state and conditions on the site. Fourth, preliminary design proposals were developed. As a reflection on step four, design guidelines were developed (step five) to provide more steady ground/base for development of a coherent and better focused final design, which was the product of step six. In the seventh step, a rough model of the final design was developed and had been gradually refined into a stage of a final model with minor changes to the design elements occurring throughout the process. The changes were executed as they became desirable after the three dimensional simulation of the proposed design was developed and a higher level of understanding of the spatial relations was achieved. In conclusion, a high effectiveness of the model "to tell the story" was observed and emphasized even further by digital photo-documentation targeted to "draw the viewer into the model space." Lessons about time demands for the model creation were learned and better level of understanding the way deconstructivism and phenomenology reflect in design work was achieved.

Modern product design projects are often challenged by their interdisciplinary nature, increasing product complexity and time pressure. The challenge for product designers is to recall all relevant design aspects that are potentially applicable and important for the product to be designed at the right time. The negligence of certain design aspects may result in increased development costs and in inferior products. A recommended way to handle complexity in the design process is to work systematically, with checklists and guidelines offering a possibility to support product designers in this task. However, design guidelines that provide a comprehensive and generically content that support product designers holistically in their design projects are not readily available. Moreover, in-depth evaluations of the role, use, usefulness and usability of design guidelines are quite rare in the current literature. Therefore, the research study presented in this thesis sought to accomplish two tasks: the generation of a comprehensive set of generic and practically aimed product design guidelines in a paper-copy format that holistically supports product designers in their often complex design projects; and the evaluation of these generated design guidelines with the purpose of determining their role, use, usefulness and usability for product designers. A comprehensive and generically applicable set of product design guidelines in a ready-to-use paper-copy format that holistically provides in-depth information for the product design aspects that need to be considered during a design process was generated. Besides, a research study, using questionnaires and interviews, with product design students and professional product designers in New Zealand was carried out with the purpose of determining the role, use, usefulness and usability of the generated design guidelines for designers. As a consequence, valuable insights into the role of the guidelines as practitioners� design tool for professional designers and noteworthy findings about the role of the guidelines as educational tool for novice designers were obtained. The findings suggested that the use of guidelines as a tool in the design process is generally not very prevalent due to the designers� lack of knowledge about the benefits, location and accessibility of useful product design guidelines. Furthermore, it has been found that the designers used the generated guidelines sporadically and driven by their interest or demand in the design aspects applicable to their projects. In terms of the guidelines� usefulness it has been identified that the guidelines evaluated were generically applicable to different projects and provided a specific in-depth content. The guidelines have also been found to be quite useful as educational, planning, management and evaluation tool for novice and professional designers. However, in terms of the guidelines� usability, several problems were determined that made the generated guidelines too inefficient to be beneficial for the participants, especially for the professional designers. Accordingly, it has been concluded that a change of the guidelines� format into a digital interactive format, is likely to solve most of the identified problems and provide a useful and usable tool for product designers respectively.

O objetivo deste trabalho é fazer uma contribuição ao Método de Desenvolvimento Automotivo, especificamente sobre a concepção de novos produtos automotivos, por meio de uma análise crítica a partir de uma hipótese proposta de método de um estudo de caso. O estudo de temas pertinentes procurou incluir temas multidisciplinares ligados à Estética do Produto Industrial e à sua História, ao Gerenciamento de Projetos, a Metodologia de Estímulo à Criatividade, a Ergonomia e Fatores Humanos. O Método Proposto por hipótese, baseado na experiência do autor, incluiu de forma sintética quatro fases de desenvolvimento: a pesquisa, a proposição de alternativas, a definição da melhor alternativa e a execução. O estudo de caso está baseado em uma oportunidade de conceber um semi-reboque autoportante para produtos perigosos, o que permitiu que parte do método pudesse ser testada em sua eficiência. As conclusões do trabalho revelaram pontos em que a aplicação do método hipotético mostrou-se satisfatória e outros apresentou oportunidades de melhoria bem como de continuidade da pesquisa. / The contents on this work it is a contribution to Development automotive Method, specific to new products concepts, through a critical investigation. The theme study case was covered multi-disciplines topics such as: Product Esthetics and History, Project Management, Methods & Creativity stimulus and Human Factors. By the hypotheses the method proposal contemplated synthetic four phase development, Research, Alternative Solutions, Definition of he Solution and the Execution solution. The base study is supported by the opportunity to design a new product: No chassis truck trailer, to transport danger liquid materials, also to try this method for efficiency. The conclusions showed several points for hypothetical method applications with a satisfactory results, it is encouraging to continue this research.

Abstract This thesis describes part of the work that has been done in the Chemical Process Engineering Laboratory of the University of Oulu to systematize conceptual process design. The aim has been to develop a design methodology, i.e. how process design is done, based on a carefully elaborated concept analysis. The starting point has been that all the knowledge related to process design, i.e. not only the procedural knowledge related to the design activity itself, but also the declarative knowledge related to the design target (process) and the environment (project) in which the design is done, should be systematized. The process design methodology can be represented within a single formalism by treating the activity, target and resources as structural parts of the project object. In that case, each design decision becomes properly constrained by the goal and the resources available, and is also stored together with the domain knowledge on which the decision was based. This holistic approach was adopted when the phenomenon driven process design methodology was built to systematize chemical process development while simultaneously supporting creativity. This thesis concentrates on knowledge generation activity as part of the phenomenon driven process design methodology. A brief description of the generic chemical process object model is presented, after which the focus is on the design activity and the strategy of design. The phenomenon driven process design of an MTBE production process is described as an illustration of the methodology. It is shown how combinations of reaction and separation, such as reactive distillation, evolve naturally during a design project. For the evaluation of attainable state distributions, which is an important design task implied by the methodology, a robust method was developed to solve the modified MESH equations of reactive distillation. The method was also applied when developing a rigorous calculation method for the determination of minimum energy demand of multicomponent distillation.

Private family garden + phenomenology + deconstructivism; alias landscape design cooking a la Czech is a thesis project the main purpose of which was to answer authors questions concerning the practical use of the two design approaches applied to project for a real site through a development of designs driven by the principles of the respective styles/movements. Emphasis were paid to the influence the movements have on architectural and garden design. Second aim was to investigate the appropriateness and usefulness of designing through a model creation in a miniaturised simulation of the real situation in three dimensions. Following, and the last step, was to investigate the effectiveness of the model to communicate and truthfully represent/simulate the impact of the proposed design interventions. Throughout the work on the project, stages and consecutive steps taken were recorded to document the process. Development of the project was divided into several phases. First, suitable site was chosen and data related to the property gathered. Second, phenomenology and deconstructivism had been studied - mainly through looking at precedent design work and development of visual annotated analysis. Third step, happening simultaneously with second, was creation of a model simulating the current state and conditions on the site. Fourth, preliminary design proposals were developed. As a reflection on step four, design guidelines were developed (step five) to provide more steady ground/base for development of a coherent and better focused final design, which was the product of step six. In the seventh step, a rough model of the final design was developed and had been gradually refined into a stage of a final model with minor changes to the design elements occurring throughout the process. The changes were executed as they became desirable after the three dimensional simulation of the proposed design was developed and a higher level of understanding of the spatial relations was achieved. In conclusion, a high effectiveness of the model "to tell the story" was observed and emphasized even further by digital photo-documentation targeted to "draw the viewer into the model space." Lessons about time demands for the model creation were learned and better level of understanding the way deconstructivism and phenomenology reflect in design work was achieved. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

The purpose of this study is to document the design process as it is adapted to compressed timeframes. I have termed this adapted design process single-session design. This study will also explore the application of this type of design methodology in industry where the research and development phases of products are continually being compressed. The primary research for this study is extracted from the examples of rapid design observed repeatedly on the Robot Rivals television series on the Do It Yourself network. The scope of this television series is a competition between two teams of engineering students to design, build, and operate a robot in a single day. The show yields an ideal platform to study the design process in a highly adaptive and compressed form. This study will show how the design process can be adapted to function in a fast-paced situation. The design process in general has been studied for quite some time. However, to date there is no focused research on a specific design methodology that is intended for extremely short-term projects. This research provides insight into the situation where significant time constraints stimulate creativity and ingenuity in designs. / Master of Science

The necessity to change the mechanism of the arm folding is to make a major difference in the field of Sun roofing systems and also to reduce the cost of the Awning system. The reduction of cost may help the market of the awning system to reach the Upper- Middle Class customers. In this project various technical solutions were investigated by simulation softwares and the data was taken into consideration. The best solution has been processed and investigated in depth with cost and material cost with high preference which cannot be exceeded when compared to today’s Awning arm folding solution. The best solution for replacing today’s mechanism is a torsion spring folding mechanism. The torsion spring has been designed and simulated using the SolidWorks simulation software. A virtual bench test of the Awning system has been created and designed using SolidWorks and the working mechanism has been tested virtually. The torsion spring’s data was calculated by using a spring dimension calculator. The spring data has been included in the bench test and the test simulation has been run by a virtual technique and then the result has been obtained by the virtual test bench. The torsion spring’s stress and strain analysis during maximum load on the Awning in an open condition has also been calculated for the study purpose of the spring stability and compared with the previous method of the awning system in order to calculate the factor of safety (FOS) equal or more stabilise for the environment as it has been used. The environmental condition is a main focus in this project. There are different types of weather conditions in Sweden. Customers may use the Awning during rainy weather. While it is raining the rain water are collected on top of the fabric. In order to withstand the weight of the water the arm of the awning should be strong. Hence the environmental condition is a main factor in this project with respective to speed of the wind. The economical manufacturing cost for the product and the replacement of the arm folding mechanism are mainly focused.