This is week 3 of the course I am taking on design. Week 3 focused on turning user needs into design concepts.
Design concepts are a visual representation of a solution. There are four elements to a good concept:
1. The concept addresses user needs
2. The concept is responsive to cost
3. The concept has some bit of Wow! factor
a. WOW! may achieve intellectual property protection
b. WOW! gives the user something to talk about besides functionality
4. Good concepts embody good aesthetics and elegance
There are two steps to creating concepts:
1. Generate alternatives
2. Select from among those alternatives
A good method to generate alternatives is to decompose the original design problem into sub-problems, then solve each sub-problem. Mixing solutions from each sub-problem can result in many design concepts.
Three methods to divide a problem are :
1. By Key vs. Latent needs
2. By sequence of user actions
3. By function
Within the decomposition by function, is it important to note that functions are related to each other by a flow of materials, energy or signal. Flow of materials is easy to understand but flow of energy or signal is a bit harder. The flow of energy is generally, in a physical object, how energy is transmitted along the object, from the energy source (a human or engine) to the material. Signal means the flow of information, such as when to shut off the energy and stop the process.
How is this related to process design? The concept of flow of signal is analogous to my “feedback” and “feed-forward” mechanisms in the Process Innovation Canvas. Breaking a process down into smaller steps, needs, value created and functions (outputs), may help me to generate more and better process alternatives.
