Design

This free course looks at the process of design, from assessing the complexity of design as an activity to exposing the difficulty in making general conclusions about how designers work. You will be able to identify innovation in a wide variety of designed objects and evaluate the impact of this innovation.

• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1 Design and designing
• 1 Design and designing
• 1.1 Design
• 1.2 Problems and solutions
• 1.3 What is good design and good designing?
• 1.4 Designing as model-making and model-using
• 1.5 Design and needs
• 1.6 Designing as heuristic problem-solving
• 1.7 Design as finding a good problem – solution pair
• 1.8 Design, creativity, invention and innovation
• 1.9 Design is …
• 2 Design and innovation 1: the plastic kettle
• 2 Design and innovation 1: the plastic kettle
• 2.1 Issues of supply and demand
• 2.2 Who dares wins?
• 2.3 The significance of 'need'
• 3 Models of the design process
• 3 Models of the design process
• 3.1 Reprise on models
• 3.2 Building a simple model of design
• 3.3 Other models of design
• 3.3.1 March's model: philosophical
• 3.3.2 BS 7000 model: practical
• 3.4 Conclusion: are models useful for practising designers?
• 4 Conceptual design
• 4 Conceptual design
• 4.1 Establishing the design space
• 4.2 Conceptual design in sailing boat hulls
• 4.3 Conceptual design for human powered flight: a comparison of two design spaces
• 4.4 Conclusion: the importance of concept
• 5 Concept to prototype
• 5 Concept to prototype
• 5.1 A process of focusing
• 5.2 Down to the detail
• 5.3 Design and innovation 2: the 'Res-Q-Rail' stretcher
• 6 Design and innovation 3: the Brompton folding bicycle
• 6 Design and innovation 3: the Brompton folding bicycle
• 6.1 Reprise: concept to prototype to production
• 6.2 Bicycle origami
• 6.3 Prototyping and improving
• 6.4 The second prototype (P2)
• 6.5 The structural heart of the machine
• 6.6 The first production run
• 6.6.1 The factory opens
• 6.6.2 Batch production
• 6.6.3 Mass production
• 6.6.4 Testing
• 7 Conclusions
• 7 Conclusions
• 7.1 The context of design and innovation
• 7.2 Innovation
• 7.3 Uncertainty
• 7.4 Style
• 7.5 Examples of context: televisions, aircraft and soap powder
• 7.6 End note
• Conclusion
• References
• Acknowledgements