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Lesson on Creating and Testing a Prototype

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Lesson on Creating and Testing a Prototype

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Quick Look

Grade Level: 9 (9-12)

The time required to complete this design process step is adjustable to as little or as long as the teacher desires. We suggest a minimum 120 minutes and a maximum dependant on the design difficulty and number of iterations.

Expendable Cost/Group: US $5.00

Cost is variable, depending on the materials required by teams to build their prototypes. Some example materials are suggested.

Group Size: 4

Activity Dependency:

Subject Areas: Science and Technology

NGSS Performance Expectations:

Summary
Students learn about the importance of creating and testing prototypes during the engineering design process. They start by building prototypes, which is a special type of model used to test new design ideas. Students gain experience using a variety of simple building materials, such as foam core board, balsa wood, cardstock and hot glue. They present their prototypes to the class for user testing and in the following activity create prototype iterations based on feedback. (Note: Conduct this activity in the context of a design project that students are working on; this activity reflects Step 5 and Step 6 in a series of seven steps that guide students through the engineering design loop.)
This engineering curriculum aligns to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Engineering Connection

Prototypes are routinely used as part of the product design process to give engineers and designers the ability to explore design alternatives, test theories and confirm performance prior to starting production of a new product. Almost every engineering discipline uses prototypes in some way, including aerospace, computer, mechanical, civil, environmental and electrical engineering.

Learning Objectives

After this activity, students should be able to:

Explore design alternatives through the creation and testing of prototypes.

Explain the difference between prototypes and models.

Compare and contrast the use of different construction materials in the development of prototypes.

Educational Standards

Each TeachEngineering lesson or activity is correlated to one or more K-12 science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) educational standards.

All 100,000+ K-12 STEM standards covered in TeachEngineering are collected, maintained and packaged by the Achievement Standards Network (ASN), a project of D2L (www.achievementstandards.org).

In the ASN, standards are hierarchically structured: first by source; e.g., by state; within source by type; e.g., science or mathematics; within type by subtype, then by grade, etc.

NGSS Performance Expectation

Click to view other curriculum aligned to this Performance Expectation

This activity focuses on the following Three Dimensional Learning aspects of NGSS:

Science & Engineering Practices

Disciplinary Core Ideas

Crosscutting Concepts

Design a solution to a complex real-world problem, based on scientific knowledge, student-generated sources of evidence, prioritized criteria, and tradeoff considerations.

Alignment agreement:

Criteria may need to be broken down into simpler ones that can be approached systematically, and decisions about the priority of certain criteria over others (trade-offs) may be needed.

Alignment agreement:

Suggest an alignment not listed above

Materials List

Prototyping materials and tools for the entire class to share may vary, depending on the project. Some suggested items include:

foam core board

balsa wood

cardstock

wooden or metal dowels

craft utility knives

rulers (if using utility knives, metal-edged rulers work best)

cutting surface, such as a plastic board, kitchen cutting board or back of a newsprint pad

hot glue and hot glue gun

scrap materials (have students scavenge or ask for donations)

Foam Core Tips Handout, one per team (if using foam core)

Worksheets and Attachments
Visit [www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_creative_activity5] to print or download.

Introduction/Motivation

How does a typical engineering design loop begin? (Take suggestions from the students.) That's right. The engineering design process begins by defining the engineering challenge, performing background research, brainstorming potential solutions, and evaluating several alternatives. And what is next? (Listen to suggestions from the students.) Next, an engineering team synthesizes this information to begin creating the product. Many times, something that works on paper proves to be very difficult to build. To help engineering teams assess the "buildability" of their project concept, they often create prototypes.

A prototype is a working model of a product that is used for testing before it is manufactured. Prototypes help designers learn about the manufacturing process of a product, how people will use the product, and how the product could fail or break. A prototype is not the same thing as a model. A model is used to demonstrate or explain how a product will look or function. A prototype is used to test different working aspects of a product before the design is finalized.

For example, a team of engineers designing a new cell phone might produce several cardboard and paper models to illustrate how the final product would look and feel. They may survey the general public to gain feedback about how the cell phone could look. The team might build a sturdier plastic prototype to test how easily the cell phone could break when dropped. If the prototype does not meet the team's design requirements, then they may complete an "iteration." Iteration is when engineers try again and re-design, re-build and re-test. Engineers often iterate many times before determining the final solution to a problem. Once a successful prototype has been developed, the engineering team can use it as a mock-up for full-scale manufacturing.

Your team will follow a similar process. By building a prototype, you should be able to determine if your chosen design solution is feasible and which aspects of your design needs special materials or further refinement. You will also ask other people to test your prototype to help you identify any problems a user might encounter. You will have time to complete iterations, or modifications, to your prototype in the next activity.

(Note: After conclusion of this activity, proceed to the next activity in the series, Design Step 7: Improve and Redesign/Manufacture a Product.)

Procedure

Background

New designs often have unexpected problems, and it is often difficult to determine whether a new design or product will perform as intended. Prior to large-scale manufacturing of a product, engineers often build prototypes. A prototype is a model of a product used to explore design alternatives, test theories, confirm performance and ensure the product is safe and user-friendly. Engineers use prototypes to figure out specific unknowns still present in the design.

For example, a student team designing a prosthetic hand that rolls dice could build a prototype using simple materials such as wood, rubber bands and string to test that the prosthetic hand performs the desired function of rolling and picking up dice. In most cases, an iterative series of prototypes is designed, constructed and tested as the final design emerges, is refined and becomes ready for production.

A philosophy often repeated and credited to Tom Kelley of IDEO, a successful worldwide engineering design and innovation consulting firm, is, " Fail often to succeed sooner." It might be helpful for students in the midst of prototyping iterations to see the value of this approach as expressed by professional designers. We learn more from failures than successes.

Rapid prototype machines can literally bring computer-aided engineering designs to life! Some examples of objects, tools and parts manufactured using a rapid prototype machine and CAD software.

Often, the term prototype is interchanged with the term "model," which can cause confusion. While several types of prototypes exist, for the purpose of this activity, we will make the following distinction: Whereas a model is used to demonstrate or explain how a product will look or function, a prototype is used to work out the kinks in a design or to try new ideas. Keep in mind that prototypes are unrefined versions of a future product. Most companies do not show prototypes to the general public to ensure that the public's opinion is based on the final product.

In some cases, engineers "rapid prototype" a part. Rapid prototyping is the automatic construction of physical objects using additive manufacturing technology and computer-aided design (CAD) software.

Basically, a virtual design from CAD software is "read" by a rapid prototyping machine that divides the design into thin horizontal slices. The machine then lays down successive horizontal layers of liquid or powder (such as ABS plastic material) and adhesive in the shape of the virtual design. The primary advantage of rapid prototyping is the ability to create almost any shape or feature, including assemblies with moving parts.

Before the Activity (Teacher Prep)

Collect various materials and tools that students can use to construct prototypes.

If using foam core board as a primary building material, review the tips outlined in the attached Foam Core Tips Handout, and make copies, one per team.

Student teams should continue with the same 3-5 members each, as determined in the first activity of this unit, Design Step 1: Identify the Need.

With the Students

1. Explain to students the purpose of building prototypes. Mention that several types of prototypes exist, but we will focus on creating prototypes for the purpose of testing different working aspects of a product.

2. (optional) Ask students the Investigating Questions about creating and testing prototypes.

Students perform user testing to see if their prototypes function as intended.

3. Show students the available building materials (or allow them to bring in their own if this was established in advance).

4. Review the Foam Core Tips Handout (if applies), or any other information on material use or tool safety.

5. Lead the pre-activity assessment (as described in the Assessment section) to give students a chance to sketch their ideas before constructing prototypes. Students are asked to complete a more detailed sketch of their design than in previous activities. Have them label materials and specify dimensions.

6. Give students "free time" to experiment with the materials and begin construction. Answer questions as they arise.

7. Early in the construction process, briefly stop the class to lead a mini design review as described in the Assessment section (activity embedded assessment). Have each team show the class their initial prototype, explain its purpose, and describe any challenges they have encountered during the build process. Follow with a class discussion to collaborate in figuring out possible solutions.

8. Once teams have finished the build process, have them swap prototypes and engage in the user testing as described in the Assessment section (post-activity assessment).

9. Ask the design teams to reflect on the feedback received by summarizing the feedback and what changes they intend to make in the next iteration of their designs in the Design Step 7: Improve and Redesign/Manufacture a Product activity.

Vocabulary/Definitions

balsa wood: One of the lightest varieties of wood available with remarkable strength. Because it can be carved easily and bent into a number of shapes, balsa wood is often used to build models and prototypes.

foam core board: A lightweight and rigid material commonly used to produce architectural models, prototype small objects and produce patterns for casting. It consists of three layers-an inner foam layer (Styrofoam, polystyrene, etc.) with outer facings of slick, smooth paper in various colors.

iteration: Repeating a series of steps to get closer to a desired outcome (that is, re-design, re-test, re-build to get nearer to an optimal engineering solution to a specific problem). Also: A version of the final product or solution. For example: Our third iteration passed the strength test.

manufacturing: The use of machines, tools and labor to make things for use or sale. On a large scale, the transformation of raw materials into finished goods.

model: A plan, representation (often in miniature), or description designed to show the main object or workings of a product concept.

prototype: A model of a product that is used for testing before it is manufactured. Prototypes help designers learn about the manufacturing process of a product, how people might use it, and its durability.

rapid prototyping: The automatic construction of physical parts and prototypes using additive manufacturing technology directed by computer-aided design modeling software. In additive manufacturing, a material is laid down in layers to create an object.

Assessment

Pre-Activity Assessment

Sketch It! Have students use their initial sketches or outlines created in the Design Step 3 activity to generate more detailed sketches of their envisioned prototypes, labeling them with dimensions and materials. Now that they have seen the available materials, they should have a sense for the degree of the complexity achievable in this first prototype. Review the sketches with the students to check that they are designing prototypes, not models. If time allows, have them draw the prototype sketches to scale.

Activity-Embedded Assessment

Design Review: Briefly stop the prototype construction process to bring the class together as a group. Ask each team to show its initial prototype, explain its purpose (what the team is attempting to test) and describe any challenges encountered during the build process. Write these challenges on the board and lead a class brainstorming session so students may offer solutions to other teams' challenges. (Note: Alternative options for performing design reviews include: asking the team to present to a small "client focus group" that includes the teacher and a few others, having students rotate around the room and review for one other team, or asking another class to come in to listen and provide feedback to initial design descriptions.)

Post-Activity Assessment

User Testing: To simulate user testing, have each team swap prototypes with another team. Ask teams to give each other feedback:

Is the prototype functional? What works? What does not work?

Is the prototype used to explore several design alternatives?

What improvements could be made?

Reflection: After user testing, ask the design teams to reflect on the feedback received. Have them write short documents for the teacher summarizing the feedback and what changes they intend to make in the next iteration of their designs.

Investigating Questions

Use the following discussion questions to help students gain understanding of an important aspect of engineering problem solving: creating and testing prototypes.

What is an advantage of building a prototype prior to full-scale manufacturing? (Possible answer: Exploring design alternatives with a prototype saves resources [time, money and materials] required to manufacture a final product.)

Why might most engineering companies refrain from releasing a prototype to the general public? (Possible answer: Because they want the public's opinions to be based on the final product, not on early versions and rudimentary prototypes.)

Safety Issues

This is the first point in the design cycle in which safety issues are important. Remind students to be careful when using hot glue, utility knives, and construction materials and tools.

Troubleshooting Tips

If students become frustrated with the way their initial prototypes look, remind them that prototypes are used to test out new ideas and are not meant to look perfect!

Activity Extensions

Limitations to Prototypes: Have student teams brainstorm the limitations of prototypes and generate lists of ideas. Engage the class in a discussion of these limitations and expand the discussion to talk about what can be done to accurately determine these factors for final production. For example, limitations might include evaluating costs, time to build, material function and actual environmental impact.

References

Prototype. Last updated January 1, 2010. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed January 27, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype

Rapid prototyping. Last updated January 13, 2010. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed January 27, 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/rapid_prototyping

Sloane, Paul. Failure is the Mother of Invention. Published October 13, 2004. Innovation Tools. Accessed February 9, 2009. http://www.innovationtools.com/Articles/EnterpriseDetails.asp?a=158

Copyright © 2009 by Regents of the University of Colorado

Contributors Lauren Cooper; Malinda Schaefer Zarske; Denise W. Carlson

Supporting Program Integrated Teaching and Learning Program, College of Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder

Acknowledgements

The contents of this digital library curriculum were developed under a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation GK-12 grant no. 0338326. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the Department of Education or National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.

Last modified: October 16, 2021

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Design Steps 5 and 6: Create and Test a Prototype - Activity

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Students learn about the importance of creating and testing prototypes during the engineering design process . They start by building prototypes, which is a special type of model used to test new design ideas. Students gain experience using a variety of simple building materials, such as foam core board, balsa wood, cardstock and hot glue.

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Engineering Design Process Graphic Organizer 2

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Engineering Design Process Graphic Organizer 2

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Engineering Design Process Graphic Organizer

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eGFI: Engineering Design Process Lessons & Projects

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eGFI: Engineering Design Process Lessons & Projects

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eGFI - For Teachers " Engineering Design Process

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Posted on by Mary Lord Students in grades 3 to 5 learn about basic principles of engineering through a series of 12 hands-on activities and lessons related to the Olympics and sports, including designing venues and protective gear.

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Engineering Design Process Graphic Organizer

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Engineering Design Process Graphic Organizer

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Key Info

The design process involves multiple loops and circles around your final solution. You will likely test your solution-find problems and make changes-test your new solution-find new problems and make changes-and so on, before settling on a final design.

At this point, you have created prototypes of your alternative solutions, tested those prototypes, and chosen your final design. So you're probably thinking that your project is finished! But in fact, you have yet to complete the final and most important phase of the engineering design process-test and redesign.

Test and redesign requires you to go out and test your final design with your users. Based on their feedback and their interaction with your solution, you will redesign your solution to make it better. Repeat this process of testing, determining issues, fixing the issues, and then retesting multiple times until your solution is as successful as possible. Keep in mind that minor changes this late in the design process could make or break your solution, so be sure to be thorough in your testing!

User Test

The first step in user testing is to get in contact with the users of your solution. Go back to your problem statement, and remember your potential users. You will want to test your solution on this group of people. For example, if you are designing a website for kindergarten students, you will want to test your final solution with kindergarteners.

When it comes to testing, there is no such thing as too many testers! The more people that you are able to test with the more you will find out. So try to find as many users as you can who are willing to help you. A good goal to reach for is three to five users for each round of testing.

The second step, after you have located three to five users, is to present your solution to these users while the users are in the problem environment. The problem environment is the situation or atmosphere in which the problem you are trying to solve happens.

If your solution is a product, give the product to the users in the environment where they would use it. For example, if you designed a pair of sunglasses, you would give your sunglasses to the users outside while the weather is sunny. You wouldn't ask them to try the sunglasses at night or indoors, because those aren't situations where they would be using sunglasses.

If your solution is a website or software product, ask users to test it on computers. You wouldn't want to just show them pictures or explain the website, because how they interact with the computer itself is also important.

If your solution is an environment or experience, place your user in that environment or experience, and see how they react. For example, if you designed an after-school program for students, invite users to attend this program or a mock version of it. However, in many cases, having your users actually visit your designed environment or go through your designed experience will not be possible. An example is a student who designed a new school bus but obviously does not have an actual bus to use for testing. In a case like this, use a storyboard to present your solution to the users.

The third and final step of user testing is observing the interaction between the user and your solution. Record your observations in your design notebook. Watch closely as people use your product, navigate your website, or go through your designed environment or experience. Listen to what they say, but also watch what they do, see how they react, note where or when they get confused, and write down everything that happens during their interaction with the solution. Below are three questions to ask during testing. The answers will be helpful when you move onto the redesign phase of test and redesign.

1. Are your users able to overcome the problem by using or interacting with your solution?

If yes, why are they successful?

If no, what problems do they encounter that prevent them from being successful?

2. Do the users ever need to ask you any questions when using or interacting with your solution?
If yes, what questions do they ask? During what part of their interaction do they ask these questions?

3. Do the users interact with your solution exactly the way that you intended for them to?
If no, what do they do differently?

4. If you have measurable targets for your solution, did you meet them?

Redesign

After you have tested your design, you will use your findings to complete a redesign of your solution. Use the findings from testing to:

Fix any problems that occurred, and

Further polish aspects of the design that were even more successful than you originally thought.

To make these changes, look at the answers to the three major questions you asked during testing:

1. Is your user able to overcome the problem by using or interacting with your solution?
If the answer is "yes," focus on why the user was successful. What specific aspects of your design helped the user to achieve success? Should those aspects become larger parts of your design? Should you make these features more prominent or more obvious to the user? Consider emphasizing these aspects of your design. Then, in the next round of testing, see if the user is able to achieve success even more quickly and easily.

If the answer is "no," focus on the problems that users encountered during testing. What prevented them from achieving success? What changes to your design would eliminate these issues? Make these changes.

2. Does the user ever need to ask you any questions when using or interacting with your solution?
If the answer is "yes," focus on the questions that the users asked you. Why did they need to ask you a question? Were they confused? What part of the solution wasn't self-explanatory? You normally wouldn't be there to answer questions, so how can you make sure that the next users won't need to ask the same questions? Make changes that will eliminate these questions.

3. Does the user interact with your solution exactly the way that you intended for them to?
If the answer is "no," focus on what the users did that you hadn't intended to happen. Did their unexpected actions make your design more successful or less successful? If less successful, what changes could you make to your design to prevent these unexpected actions? What issues are causing the users to interact differently than intended, and how can you fix those issues? Make these changes.

4. If you have measurable targets for your solution, did you meet them?
If your design requirements call for your solution to be better, faster, or cheaper, you should measure the improvement that you made. If you met your targets, great! If not, how can you redesign your solution to improve its performance?

Once you have made changes to your design, go back and test again with your users. See if the improvements and changes you made negatively or positively affected your solution. Ask yourself the same three questions again, and then repeat the redesign again. Repeat this test and redesign process as many times as necessary to make your final solution as successful as possible. It may seem like you are doing the same thing over and over again, but with each test and redesign, you are greatly improving your project!

Explore Our Science Videos

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Engineering Design Process: Test and Redesign

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The design process involves multiple loops and circles around your final solution. You will likely test your solution-find problems and make changes-test your new solution-find new problems and make changes-and so on, before settling on a final design. At this point, you have created prototypes of your alternative solutions, tested those prototypes, and chosen your final design.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Key Info

The design process involves multiple loops and circles around your final solution. You will likely test your solution-find problems and make changes-test your new solution-find new problems and make changes-and so on, before settling on a final design.

At this point, you have created prototypes of your alternative solutions, tested those prototypes, and chosen your final design. So you're probably thinking that your project is finished! But in fact, you have yet to complete the final and most important phase of the engineering design process-test and redesign.

Test and redesign requires you to go out and test your final design with your users. Based on their feedback and their interaction with your solution, you will redesign your solution to make it better. Repeat this process of testing, determining issues, fixing the issues, and then retesting multiple times until your solution is as successful as possible. Keep in mind that minor changes this late in the design process could make or break your solution, so be sure to be thorough in your testing!

User Test

The first step in user testing is to get in contact with the users of your solution. Go back to your problem statement, and remember your potential users. You will want to test your solution on this group of people. For example, if you are designing a website for kindergarten students, you will want to test your final solution with kindergarteners.

When it comes to testing, there is no such thing as too many testers! The more people that you are able to test with the more you will find out. So try to find as many users as you can who are willing to help you. A good goal to reach for is three to five users for each round of testing.

The second step, after you have located three to five users, is to present your solution to these users while the users are in the problem environment. The problem environment is the situation or atmosphere in which the problem you are trying to solve happens.

If your solution is a product, give the product to the users in the environment where they would use it. For example, if you designed a pair of sunglasses, you would give your sunglasses to the users outside while the weather is sunny. You wouldn't ask them to try the sunglasses at night or indoors, because those aren't situations where they would be using sunglasses.

If your solution is a website or software product, ask users to test it on computers. You wouldn't want to just show them pictures or explain the website, because how they interact with the computer itself is also important.

If your solution is an environment or experience, place your user in that environment or experience, and see how they react. For example, if you designed an after-school program for students, invite users to attend this program or a mock version of it. However, in many cases, having your users actually visit your designed environment or go through your designed experience will not be possible. An example is a student who designed a new school bus but obviously does not have an actual bus to use for testing. In a case like this, use a storyboard to present your solution to the users.

The third and final step of user testing is observing the interaction between the user and your solution. Record your observations in your design notebook. Watch closely as people use your product, navigate your website, or go through your designed environment or experience. Listen to what they say, but also watch what they do, see how they react, note where or when they get confused, and write down everything that happens during their interaction with the solution. Below are three questions to ask during testing. The answers will be helpful when you move onto the redesign phase of test and redesign.

1. Are your users able to overcome the problem by using or interacting with your solution?

If yes, why are they successful?

If no, what problems do they encounter that prevent them from being successful?

2. Do the users ever need to ask you any questions when using or interacting with your solution?
If yes, what questions do they ask? During what part of their interaction do they ask these questions?

3. Do the users interact with your solution exactly the way that you intended for them to?
If no, what do they do differently?

4. If you have measurable targets for your solution, did you meet them?

Redesign

After you have tested your design, you will use your findings to complete a redesign of your solution. Use the findings from testing to:

Fix any problems that occurred, and

Further polish aspects of the design that were even more successful than you originally thought.

To make these changes, look at the answers to the three major questions you asked during testing:

1. Is your user able to overcome the problem by using or interacting with your solution?
If the answer is "yes," focus on why the user was successful. What specific aspects of your design helped the user to achieve success? Should those aspects become larger parts of your design? Should you make these features more prominent or more obvious to the user? Consider emphasizing these aspects of your design. Then, in the next round of testing, see if the user is able to achieve success even more quickly and easily.

If the answer is "no," focus on the problems that users encountered during testing. What prevented them from achieving success? What changes to your design would eliminate these issues? Make these changes.

2. Does the user ever need to ask you any questions when using or interacting with your solution?
If the answer is "yes," focus on the questions that the users asked you. Why did they need to ask you a question? Were they confused? What part of the solution wasn't self-explanatory? You normally wouldn't be there to answer questions, so how can you make sure that the next users won't need to ask the same questions? Make changes that will eliminate these questions.

3. Does the user interact with your solution exactly the way that you intended for them to?
If the answer is "no," focus on what the users did that you hadn't intended to happen. Did their unexpected actions make your design more successful or less successful? If less successful, what changes could you make to your design to prevent these unexpected actions? What issues are causing the users to interact differently than intended, and how can you fix those issues? Make these changes.

4. If you have measurable targets for your solution, did you meet them?
If your design requirements call for your solution to be better, faster, or cheaper, you should measure the improvement that you made. If you met your targets, great! If not, how can you redesign your solution to improve its performance?

Once you have made changes to your design, go back and test again with your users. See if the improvements and changes you made negatively or positively affected your solution. Ask yourself the same three questions again, and then repeat the redesign again. Repeat this test and redesign process as many times as necessary to make your final solution as successful as possible. It may seem like you are doing the same thing over and over again, but with each test and redesign, you are greatly improving your project!

Explore Our Science Videos

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Engineering Design Process: Test and Redesign

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The design process involves multiple loops and circles around your final solution. You will likely test your solution-find problems and make changes-test your new solution-find new problems and make changes-and so on, before settling on a final design. At this point, you have created prototypes of your alternative solutions, tested those prototypes, and chosen your final design.

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Key Info

Development involves the refinement and improvement of a solution.

The goals of development work are to:

Make it work!

Reduce risk.

Optimize success.

Methods of development work include:

What is Development Work?

Development Work

Development involves the refinement and improvement of a solution.

Some development work might be needed very early in the design process in order to evaluate different potential solutions. For example, it might not be possible to compare the cost of early design concepts without doing some development work to estimate what the cost of an alternative would actually be.

Development work continues throughout the design process, often even after a product ships to customers.

Goals of Development Work

Make It Work!

Of course, the primary goal of development work is to make a workable solution to your problem. This goal is true of all development efforts.

Risk Reduction

In any complicated development effort, for example, building a robot for a competition, you will be uncertain about how well certain elements of your design solution will work. In a situation like this, it is very important to eliminate the uncertainty as soon as possible. This is called risk reduction. The longer you wait to eliminate the risk, the more likely that you will waste time on a solution that will fail. It is much better to find out that a potential solution will not work early in the design process before choosing your final solution for development. Fail fast, fail early!

To do risk reduction, use an appropriate method of development. For example, one strategy is to prototype just a small part of the potential solution, the risky part, to make sure that it will work.

Optimization

Almost any design problem has multiple requirements. In many cases, requirements might conflict with each other, at least somewhat. For example, if you try to maximize almost any characteristic of a solution (speed, appearance, etc.), the cost will go up. Optimization is the process of finding the best trade-off between your different requirements, and it is an important part of almost every development effort.

Methods of Development

Methods of Development

Drawings

Designers use drawings to record ideas so that they are not forgotten, to communicate ideas to others, and to study how different parts of a design work together during development.

There are several types of drawings. Sketches are rough freehand drawings done very quickly and usually showing just the outlines of an object. Pictorial drawings portray a photo-like view of objects. Technical drawing is an accurate way of drawing that shows an object's true size and shape. It is often done with CAD (computer-aided design) software and is used in plans and blueprints that show how to construct an object. Technical drawings show in detail how the pieces of something relate to each other.

The founder of Science Buddies tells a story of how he learned the value of drawing something before building it:

Being extremely impatient, I hated to draw plans before I started building-it took too much time! My dad was an excellent draftsman and he always drew a sketch before building anything. He tried to teach me to do the same, but instead I liked to just visualize everything in my head, then hammer away. As the things I built became more and more complex, the lack of adequate plans became troublesome. I remember when I first tried a telescope mount I was building. As I swung it around the polar axis, it clanged into another part of the mount and I had to rebuild it so I could look at the whole sky. Eventually, I learned what my father had been trying to teach me: it's important to have a plan. (Hess 2001, p. 3)

Learn more about drawing.

Modeling

Models can be physical objects, such as a scale model of a solution that shows all the parts in correct proportion to each other. Generally, scale models do not actually work. Designers use them to visualize the solution and see how it looks.

A completely different kind of model is a mathematical or computer model. Designers use these models to predict how a solution will work. For complex problems, this can be extremely valuable, because the computer model is often much less expensive than building the solution itself, and it can assist the designer in making trade-offs among different requirements.

Prototyping

A prototype is an operating version of a solution. Often a designer makes a prototype with different materials than the final version, and generally it is not as polished. Prototypes are a key step in the development of a final solution, allowing the designer to test how the solution will work and even show the solution to users for feedback.

Occasionally, designers will prototype pieces of the final solution very early in the design process. Sometimes designers will make several prototypes during the development of a solution.

Learn more about prototypes.

Storyboards

Storyboards are a series of graphic illustrations or images for the purpose of visualizing a video, website, software program, environment, user experience (like a theme park ride), or the like. Storyboards show how the solution appears as the user interacts with it over time, highlighting any problems in the flow of the experience.

Learn more about storyboards.

Analysis, Running the Numbers

Sometimes development work can be as simple as adding up the weight of all the components of a solution to see if the total weight meets the requirements. Similarly, you might add up the cost of all the parts to get a total cost or predict the speed of a vehicle by looking at the power of the engine. Analysis of this type is an important part of the development of many solutions, and it is often called running the numbers.

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The Engineering Design Process: Development Work

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Development work for the engineering design process

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Key Info

A prototype is an operating version of a solution. It is often made with different materials (cheaper and easier to work with) than the final version.

Prototypes allow you to test how your solution will work and even show the solution to users for feedback.

Creating prototypes may involve using readily available materials, construction kits, storyboards, or other techniques that help you to create your solution quickly and with little cost. Keep in mind that these are mockups of your final solution, not the real thing!

Prototyping

A prototype is an operating version of a solution. Often a designer makes a prototype with different materials than the final version, and generally it is not as polished.

Prototypes are a key step in the development of a final solution, allowing the designer to test how the solution will work and even show the solution to users for feedback. Occasionally, designers will prototype pieces of the final solution very early in the design process. Sometimes designers will make several prototypes during the development of a solution.

Prototypes can help you to develop the structure, function, and appearance of your solution.

Prototyping Physical Structures, Objects, and Mechanical Designs

Readily Available Materials

Cardboard, paper, poster board, mat board, and Foam-core are excellent modeling materials for prototypes. You can cut them easily with the proper knife, and you can assemble them with a variety of tapes and glues. You can find these materials at an art supply store. Plastic sheet and wood are also good modeling materials.

Found objects like plastic bottles, straws, aluminum cans, and other things lying around the house can often fill a need in your prototyping.

Construction Kits

There are a number of construction kits that are excellent for prototyping. Don't think of these as kids' toys; even professional engineers use them for prototyping simple devices!

Lego, Lego Mindstorms, and Lego Technic. Pieces are easy to assemble, but also come apart easily.

Fishertechnik. This system is more sophisticated than Lego, and it is less likely to fall apart.

Meccano. Meccano has been around a very long time. Parts are metal, not plastic, and they are bolted together.

Prototyping Electrical and Electronic Devices

Solderless breadboards are ideal for prototyping simple electrical circuits. You can learn how to use a breadboard in the Science Buddies reference How to Use a Breadboard.

You can also purchase commercial prototyping boards and development systems that can be quite sophisticated.

Prototyping Experiences and Environments

Storyboards are useful for prototyping experiences (like a theme park ride or an interactive museum exhibit).

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The Engineering Design Process: Prototyping

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A prototype is an operating version of a solution. It is often made with different materials (cheaper and easier to work with) than the final version. Prototypes allow you to test how your solution will work and even show the solution to users for feedback.

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Key Info

#1 Rule when creating alternative solutions: DON'T SETTLE FOR YOUR FIRST IDEA!

Good designers try to generate as many possible solutions as they can before choosing one that they feel is the best. This creative process of developing ideas is called ideation.

Methods of ideation include:

Examining existing solutions

Creating and using analogies

Conducting brainstorming sessions

Sketching and doodling

How to Create Multiple Solutions

Why Create Multiple Solutions?

When solving a design problem, there are always many possible good solutions. If you focus on just one before looking at the alternatives, it is almost certain that you are overlooking a better solution. Good designers try to generate as many possible solutions as they can before choosing one that they feel is the best. Even "wild and crazy" design ideas that you end up rejecting might have some pieces that can make other designs better.

Ideation

Ideation, also known as idea generation, is the creative process of developing ideas. Start ideation after you have settled on a design problem that you want to solve and have done your background research, including the analysis of existing solutions. If you have not researched existing solutions, be sure to do so before starting ideation. Existing solutions are a great place to begin the ideation phase of your process because they give you a starting platform for ideas.

Generating lots of ideas is important to solving your design problem, so follow these key rules! One key rule for successful ideation is no limits. Start huge. Don't confine yourself to only one or two great ideas, and don't be afraid to think outside the box. No solutions are impossible during the ideation phase, so consider even the craziest of ideas. There will come a time later on when you will weigh your ideas against one another based on how easy they are to implement, but not yet. Ideation is the perfect time to put aside all judgment, and see how many design solutions you can come up with!

#1 Rule when Ideating: Don't settle for your first idea!

If you think you have a great solution to your problem right from the beginning, you might be tempted to stick with that original idea. Even if it's the most perfect, without-a-doubt, best possible way to solve your problem -- don't stop here! Fixating on your first idea is a terrible mistake, because it stops your creative process before it even has the chance to get going. You never know what new ideas could branch off of your original idea or what new ideas might come to you over time, so you have to give the process (and yourself) a chance.

The list are many creative techniques to help you come up with design ideas.

Existing Solutions

Existing solutions to your problem (or similar problems) are one of the best sources for creating design alternatives. Studying these designs will give you creative ideas of your own. Can the best features of existing solutions be combined in new ways? Can two entire solutions be combined to form one, better solution? Are there pieces missing from existing designs that if added, might make the designs more successful? Ask yourself these questions and see what new ideas you can come up with.

Analogies

By comparing your design problem to an entirely different situation, you may notice solutions that never would have come to mind otherwise. Try to create analogies between your design problem and random objects and people. For example, ask yourself:

How is my design problem like [random object or problem]?

How would I solve my problem using a [random object]?

How would [random person, company, or group] solve my problem?

Choose random objects and people to create these analogies. Even though they may seem unrelated, the analogy will force your mind to come up with ideas to fit the specific cases of the random objects and people.

Example: Imagine you are designing a better lunchbox for students. Try these analogies to spark new and interesting design ideas...

Analogy: How is designing a lunchbox like designing a hotel?

Answer: When designing a hotel, you need to design for the people who will be staying in it. Think about the furniture, the decorations, the size of the rooms, etc. Try applying these to your lunchbox. What about the size of the lunchbox? Are there any components you could add to your lunchbox to serve as furniture-like features? Does the food in the lunchbox need furniture to sit on? You may never have considered these ideas without comparing a lunchbox to a hotel.

Analogy: How would I design a lunchbox using a skateboard?

Answer: You might create a lunchbox that has wheels, or a lunchbox that could be attached to a skateboard, or a skateboard that has a compartment to store food, or a lunchbox that could strap to the bottom of someone's feet. All of these are lunchbox designs that you might never have considered!

Analogy: How would Facebook design a lunchbox?

Answer: Facebook might design a lunchbox that you can take pictures with, or a lunchbox that has a computer screen on the inside. All of these are lunchbox designs you may never have thought about!

Brainstorming

Group brainstorming is a great way to generate lots and lots of ideas. Ask your friends, parents, and relatives if they would be willing to help you brainstorm ideas to your design problem. Gather a few of these people together for 30 minutes to an hour and tell them about your design problem. Then, leave the rest to discussion! Keep in mind:

Fewer than five or six people per brainstorming session are best.

No judgment! No ideas are bad ideas during ideation.

Post-it notes are a great way for the people to show their ideas to the group.

You should write down all of the ideas mentioned in your design notebook.

Sketching and Doodling

You can come up with great ideas by using all of the techniques listed, but ideation really isn't complete without sketching and doodling. Drawing is an ideal way to express your ideas and to visually connect multiple ideas to one another. Draw everything on your mind! Even if the idea is not fully developed, try to draw it and see what it looks like. Sketch all of the ideas that you have already come up with using other ideation techniques. By sketching, you will see new aspects of those ideas and be able to come up with even more.

"Sleep on It!"

Ideation isn't a one-day activity. In fact, it should be the longest phase of your entire design process. So don't feel like you need to come up with your perfect solution in one sitting. Ideate until you feel like you've run out of ideas. Then, sleep on it and return to ideation the next day or a few days after that. You will be surprised at how many more ideas you are able to come up with!

Checklist

Create Multiple Solutions Checklist

Answer the questions in the quick checklist below to find out if you considered enough alternative (different) solutions.

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The Engineering Design Process: Brainstorm Multiple Solutions

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Brainstorm alternative solutions for an engineering design project

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ED Defining the Problem - Worksheet electronic

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The Focus of Your Background Research

For an engineering design project, you should do background research in two major areas:

Users or customers

Existing solutions

Users or Customers

Research your target user or customer. Everything humans design is ultimately for the use of another human. (Think about it- even products designed for animals or plants are first purchased by another human!) Your choice of target user will sometimes have a big impact on your design requirements. For example, if you design something for a toddler, you need to make sure that there are no small parts that could be swallowed. Some customers are more sensitive to the cost than others, and so forth. You might describe your target user in any number of ways. Here are some examples:

Age (old, young, infant)

Gender

Occupation

Hobby interests

Amateur or professional

Whether users have disabilities and require accommodations

Size

First-time user or experienced user

Existing Solutions

Research the products that already exist to solve the problem you defined or a problem that is very similar. No one wants to go to all the trouble of designing something they think is new, only to find that several people have already done it. That would be depressing! So, you want to investigate what's already out there. Only then can you be sure that you're making something that more effectively fills a need. And keep in mind that what is "better" depends on your requirements. You might want to build something that's been around for hundreds of years, but do it with recycled materials from around the house. The device might be old, but the construction materials new (or used!).

Research how your product will work and how to make it. When it comes time to build their solution, savvy designers also want to use their research to help them find the best materials and way to do things, rather than starting from scratch. Background research is also important to help you understand the science or theory behind your solution. If you are entering a science fair, judges like to see that you understand why your product works the way it does and what causes it to perform better than other products.

How to Conduct the Research

Engineers are lucky, because there are three ways to do research regarding users and existing solutions:

Observe users first-hand, either as they use a similar product or solution or in the environment in which they encounter the problem.

Examine and analyze similar products and solutions. Looking at similar products is super important. Other engineers spent a lot of time designing them, so you might as well learn everything you can from their work. And it is fun! You might even want to take similar products apart! (Ask first!)

Conduct library and Internet research.

Making a Background Research Plan: How to Know What Information to Look For

When you or your parents are driving a car, there are two ways to find your destination: drive around randomly until you finally stumble upon what you're looking for OR use a GPS or look at a map before you start. Finding information for your background research is similar. Since libraries and the Internet both contain millions of pages of information and facts, you might never find what you're looking for unless you start with a map! To avoid getting lost, you need a background research plan.

Target Users

To help clarify the definition of your target user, you'll want to ask questions like this:

Who needs _________?

Who wants _________?

Who buys _________?

What does my target user [a child, an elderly person, etc.] need or want in a _________?

How much would my target user be willing to pay for a _________?

What size should I make _________ for my target user?

Similar Products

Then, ask questions to help you understand products or programs that fill similar needs to the need you identified:

What products fill a similar need?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of products that fill a similar need?

What are the key, must-have features of products that fill a similar need?

Why did the engineers that built these products design them the way they did?

How can I measure my design's improvement over existing designs?

How It Works and How to Make It

These are some example questions that will help you understand the science behind your design.

Who invented _________?

How does a __________ work?

What are the different parts of a __________?

What are the important characteristics of a __________?

How is performance measured for a _________?

Where does _________ get used?

What is __________ made of?

Why is __________ made from or using __________?

What is the best material, component, or algorithm for building ________? (You may even ask this separately for the different parts of your device or program.)

Talk to People with More Experience: Networking

One of the most important things you can do while working on your project is talk to other people with more experience than yourself: your parents, teachers, and advisors. This process is called networking. Some advisors or mentors may have had classes or work experience related to the science involved in your project. Others may have used or even designed products like the one you are researching. Ask them, "What science concepts should I study to better understand my project?" Better yet, be as specific as you can when asking your questions.

And by the way, networking is something many adults don't expect students to be good at, so you can probably surprise them by doing a good job at it! The best networkers, of course, enjoy the spoils of victory. In other words, they get what they want more quickly, efficiently, and smoothly.

The reality is we have all networked at some point in our lives. Remember how you "networked" with your mom to buy you that cool water gun or "networked" with your grandpa to buy you that video game you always wanted? Well, now you are "networking" for knowledge. Train yourself to become a good networker, and you might just end up with a better project (and don't forget that you'll get a little smarter too in the process). So take our advice: work hard, but network harder.

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background besearch plan for an engineering design project

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Background Research Plan for an Engineering Design Project

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For an engineering design project, you should do background research in two major areas: Users or customers Existing solutions Research your target user or customer. Everything humans design is ultimately for the use of another human. (Think about it- even products designed for animals or plants are first purchased by another human!)

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Lesson Plan Ideas from Science Buddies website

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Lesson Plan Ideas from Science Buddies website

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Free science lesson plans designed to engage students through hands-on experiments and activities. Chemistry, life sciences, physics, engineering and more, for elementary, middle and high school teachers.

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This lesson is designed to guide your students through the engineering design process (Figure 1) using a classic hands-on activity: an egg drop. You can read about the engineering design process, or assign your students to read about it, in much more detail in this project guide. You can also read about the differences between the engineering design process and the scientific method.

Your students will use readily available materials to build a device that can protect an egg during a fall. Egg drop contests frequently reward students whose eggs survive drops from the highest height. Students might only get one chance-if your egg breaks, you are done. This version of the project is intended to emphasize the iterative nature of the engineering design process. Students will be allowed to test their designs before they try them with a real egg. This will give them a chance to identify flaws and improve their designs.

Optionally, this project can be linked to several other physics topics:

Energy/Energy Conversion/Conservation of Energy: when you raise the egg drop device off the ground, it gains gravitational potential energy (usually just called "potential energy" for short, when "gravitational" is implied by the context). When you drop your device, it falls and gains speed. The potential energy converts to kinetic energy, but the total amount of energy is conserved. When the device hits the ground, all that energy needs to go somewhere. It can be "absorbed" by the device and converted into elastic potential energy (e.g. stretching a rubber band), it can be converted into heat or sound, or it can go into breaking molecular bonds in the materials of your device (or the egg, which is what you want to avoid!). You want to design a device that can safely absorb/dissipate all the kinetic energy on impact without breaking the egg.

Newton's laws of motion: when your device hits the ground, it experiences a very large change in velocity in a very short period of time. This means it has a very large acceleration (acceleration = change in velocity / change in time). According to Newton's second law of motion, Force = mass × acceleration (F=ma), so if there is a very large acceleration, there must be a very large force. If you can decrease the egg's acceleration (e.g. by adding a parachute so its velocity is not as high to begin with, or adding cushioning so it does not come to a stop as quickly), you will decrease the force on the egg, making it less likely to break. You can also think in terms of Newton's third law of motion: for every reaction, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When the egg hits the ground, it pushes on the ground-but the ground also pushes back up on the egg.

Pressure: pressure is force per unit area. If you apply the same force over a larger area, the force is more "spread out," and the pressure will decrease. Imagine standing tiptoe vs. standing flat on your feet. The total force (your weight) is the same in each case, but when you stand on your toes, the contact area with the ground is much smaller, so the pressure is higher. Now think about the same concept with an egg. Are you more likely to break through an egg shell if you press down on it with the entire palm of your hand, or if you press with the same force using a needle? In the latter case, the same force is concentrated on a very small area (the tip of the needle), which is more likely to break the egg. Students can use this knowledge to design a device that evenly distributes the impact force across the surface of the egg, making it less likely to crack.

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Egg Drop Project Teaches Engineering Design | Lesson Plan

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Use the Egg Drop to teach your students about the engineering design process.

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TeachEngineering Project Ideas for 6-8 Grade

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TeachEngineering Project Ideas for 6-8 Grade

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Projects include a summary, learning objectives, materials list, printable worksheets & attachments, vocabulary, procedures, assessments, and activity extensions.

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The engineering design process encompasses a mindset that emphasizes open-ended problem solving and encourages students to learn from failure. Experiencing the engineering design process nurtures students' abilities to create innovative solutions to challenges in any subject!

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Can be printed to use during projects or for stations.

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Discuss how your solution can be improved.

This is the time to make revisions, new designs, and repeat the process until you make your solution the best it can be.

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Test the prototype and look at the results.

Ask:
Does it work?
Does it solve the need?
What were the results?
What doesn't need to be improved?
What does need to be improved?

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Build a prototype based on your idea.

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Look at the need/problem, the constraints or limitations, and your research. Use this to compare your best ideas, pick one of the ideas, and make a plan on how to move to the next step with that idea.

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Brainstorm solutions and research ideas based on your identified need/problem.

Ask:
What are some ways I can solve the problem or need?
What have others done?

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To research the problem you identified.

Ask:
Why do engineers do background research before they design a new product?
What are some examples of background research?

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How to define the problem in an engineering project.

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How to define the problem in an engineering project.

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The Engineering Design Process: Define the Problem

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Define the problem in the engineering design process

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ED Defining the Problem - Worksheet electronic

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Brainstorming is the most frequently practiced form of ideation. We recommend that you use it along with Brainwriting, Brainwalking, and Braindumping. Here, you'll learn the best practices from the very best experts from d-school and IDEO as well of the father of the Brainstorming technique, Alex Osborn.
Brainstorming is a great way to generate a lot of ideas that you would not be able to generate by just sitting down with a pen and paper. The intention of brainstorming is to leverage the collective thinking of the group, by engaging with each other, listening, and building on other ideas. Conducting a brainstorm also creates a distinct segment of time when you intentionally turn up the generative part of your brain and turn down the evaluative part. You can use brainstorming throughout any design or work process, of course, to generate ideas for design solutions, but also any time you are trying to generate ideas, such as planning where to do empathy work, or thinking about product and services related to your project.

Learn the Best Practices from the Experts Themselves

Here, you'll learn the best practices from the very best experts from d-school and IDEO as well of the father of the Brainstorming technique, Alex Osborn. IDEO is a hugely successful international design and consulting firm, which uses the Design Thinking methodology to advance innovative design in products, services, environments, and digital experiences. The d.school celebrates Design Thinking, and it's one of the most - if not the most - celebrated and recognised sources on Design Thinking and ideation techniques. d.school is a design school based in Stanford University in cooperation with the German Hasso Plattner Institute of the University of Potsdam.

Brainstorming (or just 'brainstorm', for short) has remained the cornerstone of the creative industry for decades and has evolved over the years as experience and learning developed from its variety of applications. Brainstorming essentially relies on a group of people coming together with their prior knowledge and research in order to gather ideas for solving the stated problem. It evokes images of exploration, experimental thinking, and wild ideas. However, all too often it takes the form of controlled sessions where dominant figures assert themselves over others and creativity ends up getting stifled. Or, in other cases, the facilitator does not succeed in helping the team steer towards the goal by keeping the user, the user's need and the team's insights about them in a problem statement - also called Point of View - at the front of the team's minds.

In the following, we'll let you in on some amazing brainstorm rules which will help keep you from falling into these traps, and instead facilitate innovative and effective brainstorming sessions.

Best Practice Rules for Effective Brainstorming
Author/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Idea generation, or Ideation, is an art form, which is dependent on appointing an experienced facilitator and having an experienced team. However, we're all here to learn, and here is how you can start learning to become a successful facilitator of brainstorming sessions. Brainstorming is about setting a safe, creative space for people to feel like they can say anything and be wild-and know that they will not be judged for doing so-so that new ideas can be born. The following are some rules, principles, and suggestions so you can make brainstorming sessions much more user-oriented, effective, innovative - and fun.

1. Set a time limit

d-school emphasises that the facilitator has to be intentional about setting aside a period when your team will be in "brainstorm mode". In this time frame, it's the sole goal to come up with as many ideas as possible, and during this period judgements of those ideas are prohibited. Typically, a Brainstorm will take around 15-60 minutes. It can be shorter or longer, depending on the difficulty of the problem and the motivation and experience of the group.
Best practice tip:

"Invest energy into a short period of time, such as 15 or 30 minutes of high engagement. Get in front of a whiteboard or around a table, but take an active posture of standing or sitting upright. Get close together."
- dschool, Bootcamp Bootleg

2. Start with a problem statement, Point of View, How Might We questions, a plan or a goal - and stay focused on the topic

Alex Osborn, the father of the Brainstorming technique, emphasises that brainstorming sessions should always address a specific question or problem statement (also called a Point of View) as sessions addressing multiple questions are inefficient. Begin with a good problem statement or question. Design Thinkers and other ideation specialists have further developed this approach into the art of framing problem statements via methods. Specifically, these are " How Might We " questions.
You can read and download the full guides below about how you can define your problem statement by using the Design Thinking method called Point Of View and how you can start ideating by asking "How Might We" questions:
Best practice tip:

"Write down clearly what you are brainstorming. Using a 'How Might We' (HMW) question is a great way to frame a brainstorm (e.g. HMW give each shopper a personal checkout experience?)."
- dschool, Bootcamp Bootleg

3. Defer judgement or criticism, including non-verbal

The facilitator should always set a positive, unthreatening tone and tell participants to reserve criticism for a later critical stage in the ideation process. A Brainstorming session is not the time and the place to evaluate ideas, and you should avoid executional details. It's crucial that participants are feeling confident by being in a safe environment so they have no fear of being judged by others when they put forward wild ideas. You should create equal opportunities for all participants. The best ideas often come from practitioners, students, and people who dare to think differently - and not necessarily only from the highly skilled and experienced managers.

"Have playful rules: Critiquing or debating ideas can quickly sap the energy of a session. Many IDEO conference rooms have brainstorming rules stenciled in 6-inch-high letters on the walls; for example, 'Go for quantity,' 'Encourage wild ideas,' 'Defer judgment,' or 'One conversation at a time.'"
- IDEO, The IDEO Difference

Best practice tip: The facilitator should suspend judgement. This way, participants will feel free to generate unusual ideas. As a facilitator, you will find that it can even be a great idea to prohibit the word "no". You'll be surprised to see how effective this tool is and how it helps open up minds and creates a collaborative, curious, and friendly ideation environment. And you'll find that it's pretty fun too when team members have to initially say "yes" to even the weirdest ideas. Giving out half-thought-out ideas or strange suggestions is normally not socially accepted, is socially frowned on and leads to people holding back in normal situations. Brainstorming deliberately gives permission to be "stupid" and "child-like".

"Creative spaces don't judge. They let the ideas flow, so that people can build on each other and foster great ideas. You never know where a good idea is going to come from, the key is make everyone feel like they can say the idea on their mind and allow others to build on it."
- OpenIDEO, 7 Tips on Better Brainstorming

4. Encourage weird, wacky, and wild ideas

These new ways of thinking might give you better solutions.

"It is easier to tone down a wild idea than to think up a new one."
- Alex Osborn, the father of the Brainstorming technique

"Wild ideas can often give rise to creative leaps. In thinking about ideas that are wacky or out there we tend to think about what we really want without the constraints of technology or materials. We can then take those magical possibilities and perhaps invent new technologies to deliver them."
- OpenIDEO, 7 Tips on Better Brainstorming

5.Aim for quantity

Aim for as many new ideas as possible. The assumption is that the greater the number of ideas you generate, the bigger your chance is of producing a radical and effective solution. Brainstorming celebrates the maxim "quantity breeds quality".

6.Build on each others' ideas

As suggested by the slogan "1+1=3", Brainstorming stimulates the building of ideas by a process of association. Embrace the most out-of-the-box notions and build, build, build. Be positive and build on the ideas of others. Brainstorming works well when participants use each other's ideas to trigger their own thinking. Our minds are highly associative. One thought easily triggers another. When we use the thoughts of others, then these will stop us getting trapped by our own thinking structures.

Best practice tip: Try to say and encourage others to say "and" instead of "but". It takes practice, but this little trick works surprisingly well.

7. Be visual

Best practice tip: At IDEO, they encourage you to use coloured markers to write on Post-its and put them on the wall-or sketch your idea. Nothing gets an idea across faster than drawing it. It doesn't matter how terrible of a sketcher you are! It's all about the idea behind your sketch. And d.school has two great ideas for you:

"There are at least two ways to capture the ideas of a brainstorming:
1. Scribe: the scribe legibly and visually captures on the board ideas that team members call out. It is very important to capture every idea, regardless of your own feelings about each idea.
2. All-in: Each person will write down each of his or her ideas as they come, and verbally share it with the group. It is great to do this with post-it notes, so you can write your idea and then stick it on the board."
- dschool, Bootcamp Bootleg

8. One conversation at a time

Listen to each other and elaborate on each other's ideas. Don't get obsessed with your own ideas. You're here to ideate together.
You can download and print our template with the 8 rules for effective Brainstorming and use it as your and your team's guide:
Should you Forget Brainstorming?

Brainstorm, as great as it can be, has some obvious weaknesses, most of them human factors. Whenever a group of people gets together to work collectively on anything, we inevitably find some members dominating over others. Introverts take a back seat and prefer working away in a quieter self-reflective manner, while extroverts, especially egoistical ones, put a stake in the ground and try to own the show. Research published in the Administrative Science Quarterly in 1958, Does Group Participation When Using Brainstorming Facilitate or Inhibit Creative Thinking?, seeks to understand whether individual brainstorming or group brainstorming sessions produce better results. A storm of debate ensued in 2010 when News Week posted an article referencing this research and making a call to " Forget Brainstorming "with others rebuffing this claim and affirming " Don't Forget: Brainstorming Works". Though the results of the study were based on limited parameters, they do indicate that if group-brainstorming conditions are not properly met, they can fail more easily.

We agree that poorly facilitated face-to-face brainstorms do stifle creativity. We agree that, even when brainstorming is done right, people could sometimes still generate ideas faster when they work alone. However, if you want creativity, it's a major mistake to keep your team members in solitary confinement where they can't "waste time" listening to and building on the ideas of others.

Here's the problem: Most pieces of research on brainstorming are rigorous but irrelevant to the challenge of managing creative work. For starters, comparing whether creativity happens best in groups or alone is pretty silly when you look at how creative work is actually done. At creative companies like IDEO, people switch between both modes so seamlessly that it is hard to notice where individual work ends and group work starts.

Should Your Team Brainstorm as a Group or as Individuals?

Best practice: Switching between the two modes of individual and collective ideation sessions can be seamless-and highly productive. Alex Osborn's 1950s classic Applied Imagination gave advice that is still relevant: Creativity comes from a blend of individual and collective ideation.

Brainstorming (group sessions) has three siblings which you should get to know: Braindumping (individual sessions), Brainwriting (a mix of individual and group sessions) and Brainwalking (another mix of individual and group sessions).

It's often a good idea to do individual ideation sessions like braindumping, brainwriting and brainwalking before and after brainstorming group sessions.

Braindump - Individual Brainstorm
Author/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
One of the best ways to progress to more advanced levels of ideation is to start by getting everything that's currently clogging the neural pathways out in the open and freeing up some cognitive space for other synapses, connections, and mixtures to get through. David Allen, author of the world famous " Getting Things Done" methodology, swears by the braindump as a means to free up mental energy and allow freethinking. Holding onto your own thoughts, unfinished tasks, or unexplored ideas creates mental blockages and prevents freethinking. Furthermore, Braindump is an amazing technique to help quiet employees get a voice.

Best practice

If you were the facilitator, you'd brief ideation participants upfront on the problem statement, goals and important insights from previous research and findings.

Then ask all participants to write down their ideas as they come.

It's important that each participant does this individually - and silently.

Provide participants with sheets of paper, idea cards or traditional Post-it notes. Sticky notes are great, because they allow people to write their ideas down individually - one idea per note.

Give participants between 3 and 10 minutes to get ideas they have been thinking of off their chests.

After reaching the time limit of approximately 3-10 minutes, each participant will say a few words about his or her ideas and stick them on a board or wall. You should avoid initial discussions about notes when team members are presenting them. Ideas that come out of early braindump sessions should be shared verbally with the entire team in order to spark new streams of thinking or combinations of ideas.

While sticking the ideas up and presenting them, the group will also group duplicates together.

When all team members have presented their ideas, you can select the best ideas, which you can continue to build and elaborate on in other ideation sessions. There are various methods you can use such as " Post-it Voting", "Four Categories", " Bingo Selection", " Six Thinking Hats", and " Now Wow How Matrix ".

You can download and print the template where we've summarised how to create a successful Braindump session: Author/Copyright holder: Victor Roa. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY 2.0 Sticky notes are great for braindump sessions, because they allow people to write their ideas down individually - one idea per note. After reaching the time limit of approximately 3-10 minutes, each participant will say a few words about his or her ideas and stick them on a board or wall.
Brainwriting
Author/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Brainwriting is a technique where participants write ideas onto cards and then pass their idea cards on to the next person, moving those cards around the group in a circle as participants build on the ideas of others. Participants perform this technique in complete silence-and they are forced to build on, instead of criticise, other participants' ideas. The cycle can be repeated multiple times and can be applied to chunks of the problem being addressed, depending on the need. The beauty of brainwriting is that it levels the playing field immediately, and it removes many of the obstacles of group brainstorming. With traditional verbal brainstorming, the number of ideas which can be expressed at once is limited, and the time it takes to get through a number of ideas is much longer, which results in many participants forgetting or becoming confused while others shout out ideas. This is especially so for those who are shy or introverted or who may be at a disadvantage due to being less senior or unfamiliar with the specialisations being discussed.

Brainwriting is an excellent starting point for ideation sessions, and can serve as a means to maximise the initial braindump, or as a way to refocus if other ideation methods go haywire. Before the chaos of group ideation muddles people's thinking, help them get their initial thoughts out in the open with an introductory brainwriting session and use the results later to build on further with other techniques.

Best Practice

If you were the facilitator, you'd brief ideation participants upfront on the problem statement, goals and important user insights from previous research and findings.

Encourage participants to jot down ideas on their idea cards for 3-5 minutes before passing on their ideas when you make the call.

Ideally, participants pass on idea cards 3-10 times depending on the problem statement and goals.

This all happens silently and without any interference or communication.

Encourage participants to push themselves for more ideas at least a couple of times, in the few minutes they have, in order to maximize the output and variation.

You should stoke the session with encouragement and provide questions or statements which push participants to think outside of their comfort zones.

The cycle can be repeated multiple times and can be applied to chunks of the problem being addressed, depending on the need.

After ending the cycle, each participant will briefly verbally present the thoughts on the idea card he/she ends up with by the end of the cycle to the rest of the team-in order to spark new streams of thinking or combinations of ideas. If you were the facilitator, you would often be taking notes on a white board.

When all team members have presented their idea cards, you can select the best ideas which you can continue to build and elaborate on in other ideation sessions. There are various methods you can use such as "Post-it Voting", "Four Categories", "Bingo Selection"and "Now Wow How Matrix".

You can download and print the template where we've summarised how to create a successful Brainwriting session:
Brainwalking
Author/Copyright holder: Teo Yu Siang and Interaction Design Foundation. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Yes, you read it correctly-don't worry, though; it doesn't involve soles touching souls. Brainwalking is very similar to brainwriting with one small but highly impactful difference. Instead of passing idea cards or notes from one participant to another, participants have to get up from their seats and move to another spot around the brainstorming table or even to another table altogether. Bryan Mattimore came up with this technique; he's a specialist in the art of ideation and facilitation. Mattimore has many years and thousands of sessions of experience conducting ideation sessions. In his book Idea Stormers, he describes brainwalking as the: 'single best technique to use to begin an ideation session'.

Brainwalking gets people out of their seats, gets them moving, keeps energy levels up and mixes things up enough so that the group as a whole does not get stuck delving too long down the same one-way street, without a quick exit or U turn available. Brainwalking works best when it is easy to flip or to start from scratch.
You can download and print the template where we've described the best practice for creating a Brainwalking session:
As we can see, one ideation method leads to another, and another... and the methods themselves are areas open to creative interpretation and disruption.

Know Your History

Alex Osborn was an advertising executive who created the technique we know today as brainstorming. He invented the technique as a response to the stifling environment of executive meetings and with the goal of freeing up creative thinking in order to facilitate ideas to flow more easily. Alex Osborn presented the brainstorming technique in his book, How To Think Up. Alex Osborn authored several books on group creative thinking, including Your Creative Power, How to Organize a Squad to Create Ideas and Applied Imagination, and he was a pioneer in the field, laying the ground for what we call ideation today.

Alex Osborn developed a system that still applies to our modern ideation methods and includes such principles as deferring judgement or criticism and aiming for a larger quantity of ideas as opposed to a focus on quality. He also impresses the importance of an experienced facilitator and on combining group brainstorming with separate individual ideation sessions. As much as the modern understanding of brainstorming may conjure up ideas of randomised chaos with an untrained, poorly facilitated group just shouting out whatever comes to mind, the technique Osborn developed has many rules and principles, which need to be respected in order to achieve success.

"Creativity is more than mere imagination. It is imagination inseparably coupled with both intent and effort."
- Alex Osborn

The Take Away

Brainstorming is the most frequently practiced form of ideation. We recommend that you mix it with Brainwriting, Brainwalking and Braindumping and other ideation methods. Idea generation is an art form, which is dependent on appointing an experienced facilitator and having an experienced team. However, we're all here to learn, and here is how you can start learning to become a successful facilitator of ideation sessions. Ideation sessions are about setting a safe, creative space for people to feel like they can say anything, be wild, and not be judged - so that new relevant ideas can be born. The following are the rules, principles and suggestions to help you make brainstorming and other initial ideation sessions much more effective:

1. Set a time limit.

2. Start with a question, a plan or a goal - and stay focused on the topic.

3. Defer judgement or criticism, including non-verbal.

4. Encourage weird, wacky and wild ideas.

5. Aim for quantity.

6. Build on each others' ideas.

7. Allow one conversation at a time.

References & Where to Learn More

Hero Image: Author/Copyright holder: visualpun.ch. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-SA 2.0

IDEO, The IDEO Difference, by Catherine Fredman, 2002.

Alex Osborn, How To Think Up, 1942

Alex Osborn, Applied Imagination, 1953

d.school, Bootcamp Bootleg.

Donald W. Taylor, Paul C. Berry and Clifford H. Block, Does Group Participation When Using Brainstorming Facilitate or Inhibit Creative Thinking? In Administrative Science Quarterly Vol. 3, No. 1, Page 23-47, 1958.

Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. Forget Brainstorming, 7/12/2010.

Jonathan Vehar. Don't forget: Brainstorming works!, 2010.

David Allen, Five Simple Steps that Apply Order to Chaos.

Dave Gray. Brainwriting. Gamestorming A toolkit for innovators, rule-breakers and changemakers, 2010.

Bryan W. Mattimore, Idea Stormers: How to Lead and Inspire Creative Breakthroughs, 2012

Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, Change by Design, 2009

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Brainstorming is the most frequently practiced form of ideation. We recommend that you use it along with Brainwriting, Brainwalking, and Braindumping. Here, you'll learn the best practices from the very best experts from d-school and IDEO as well of the father of the Brainstorming technique, Alex Osborn.

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