Investigation of Design Tools as Complexity Management Techniques

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Palmer ◽  
Beshoy Morkos ◽  
Joshua D. Summers
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
Complexity Management ◽  
Management Techniques

Design tools which appear to manage complexity through their inherent behavior do not appear to have been developed specifically for complexity management. This research explores how complexity is managed within the design process through: the generation of complexity within the design process (sources), the techniques which were used to manage complexity (approaches), and the examination of design tools with respect to complexity. Mappings are developed between the sources, the approaches, and the tools with respect to phases of design. The mappings are propagated through these distinct, yet adjacent domains in order to study how the tools might be able to be used to manage complexity sources found in different stages of the design process. As expected, the highest value for each design tool is found in the stage of design in which the tool is traditionally been used. However, there are secondary ratings which suggest that design tools can be used in other stages of the design process to manage specific aspects of complexity.

scholarly journals The Responsible Fashion System: A Re-Conceptualization Of The Role Of Fashion Design

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anika Kozlowski
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Fashion Design ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
Sustainable Fashion ◽  
System Sustainability ◽  
Fashion Designers

Sustainable fashion has developed as a response to the growing prominence and awareness of the negative environmental and social impacts of fashion apparel throughout its life cycle. Responses to these wide-scale impacts have focused on piecemeal strategies that lack a cohesive perspective. The notion of design thinking and a holistic viewpoint are increasingly being seen as valued strategies for developing a sustainable fashion system. Fashion designers generally lack the tools to enable change and are caught within a system that cannot fulfill the potential of design-driven solutions for sustainability. Transformations to the design process, business practices, consumer behaviours and supply-chain sustainability are needed. This dissertation presents a series of manuscripts investigating a re-conceptualization of fashion design for system sustainability. Concepts put forth in the first manuscript, Theorizing the Fashion System provide context for a design focus. This study reviews existing theories of fashion production and consumption, for the purpose of establishing a theoretical framework to support subsequent research and tool design. The second manuscript Tools for Sustainable Fashion Design: An Analysis of their Fitness for Purpose examines existing design tools developed specifically for sustainable fashion designers. This research led to the creation and proposal of two conceptual frameworks: an innovation framework and five-dimensional model of sustainable fashion. Using the frameworks to analyze the tools and sustainable strategies within the tools resulted in the identification of three tool archetypes: 1) Universal, 2) Participatory and 3) Assessment. The third manuscript investigates and analyzes current design practices of sustainable fashion micro and small enterprises (MSE) and available sustainable design tools. The fourth manuscript, The reDesign Canvas: Fashion Design as a Tool for Sustainability, is a qualitative in-depth case study with a small fashion start-up. Utilizing observations in the field, interviews and design sessions, this study was able to identify leverage points within the design process to integrate sustainable strategies. The data collected informed the development of a sustainable fashion design tool, the reDesign Canvas. This framework was tested and refined with the case study. This work aims to contribute a reconceptualization of the fashion design process to provide designers with the tools necessary to achieve a sustainable fashion system.

scholarly journals Creation of a Framework of Design Tool Characteristics to Support Evaluation and Selection of Visualisation Tools

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1115-1124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenwen Zhang ◽  
Charlie Ranscombe ◽  
David Radcliffe ◽  
Simon Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
Tool Development ◽  
Design Practice ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Comprehensive Framework ◽  
Support Evaluation ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractIn Industrial Design, new design visualisation tools are emerging offering significant benefits to the designers. However, studies show alongside some benefits, new tools can also inhibit designers' creativity or cause time inefficiency if used in the wrong context. Thus, understanding which tools to use and when during the design process is increasingly necessary to ensure the best use of resources in design practice. Existing research on understanding the performance of design tools and the resulting frameworks for comparing tools are either specific to certain tools or highly generalised making evaluation across different design tools challenging. As such, this paper reports the creation of a more comprehensive framework of design tool characteristics to facilitate a better understanding of design tools and their uses. Demonstration of application of the framework is also given in the form of a case study on the use of Digital Sketching and its comparable tools with four practising designers. In conclusion, we show how the Design Tool Characteristics (DTCs) framework is an effective way to understand design tools, with further implications for design tool development.

scholarly journals The Responsible Fashion System: A Re-Conceptualization Of The Role Of Fashion Design

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anika Kozlowski
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Fashion Design ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
Sustainable Fashion ◽  
System Sustainability ◽  
Fashion Designers

Sustainable fashion has developed as a response to the growing prominence and awareness of the negative environmental and social impacts of fashion apparel throughout its life cycle. Responses to these wide-scale impacts have focused on piecemeal strategies that lack a cohesive perspective. The notion of design thinking and a holistic viewpoint are increasingly being seen as valued strategies for developing a sustainable fashion system. Fashion designers generally lack the tools to enable change and are caught within a system that cannot fulfill the potential of design-driven solutions for sustainability. Transformations to the design process, business practices, consumer behaviours and supply-chain sustainability are needed. This dissertation presents a series of manuscripts investigating a re-conceptualization of fashion design for system sustainability. Concepts put forth in the first manuscript, Theorizing the Fashion System provide context for a design focus. This study reviews existing theories of fashion production and consumption, for the purpose of establishing a theoretical framework to support subsequent research and tool design. The second manuscript Tools for Sustainable Fashion Design: An Analysis of their Fitness for Purpose examines existing design tools developed specifically for sustainable fashion designers. This research led to the creation and proposal of two conceptual frameworks: an innovation framework and five-dimensional model of sustainable fashion. Using the frameworks to analyze the tools and sustainable strategies within the tools resulted in the identification of three tool archetypes: 1) Universal, 2) Participatory and 3) Assessment. The third manuscript investigates and analyzes current design practices of sustainable fashion micro and small enterprises (MSE) and available sustainable design tools. The fourth manuscript, The reDesign Canvas: Fashion Design as a Tool for Sustainability, is a qualitative in-depth case study with a small fashion start-up. Utilizing observations in the field, interviews and design sessions, this study was able to identify leverage points within the design process to integrate sustainable strategies. The data collected informed the development of a sustainable fashion design tool, the reDesign Canvas. This framework was tested and refined with the case study. This work aims to contribute a reconceptualization of the fashion design process to provide designers with the tools necessary to achieve a sustainable fashion system.

scholarly journals An Appraisal and Classification of the Transdisciplinarity of Existing Design Tools

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Goudswaard ◽  
Ben Hicks ◽  
Linda Newnes
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
Current Design ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Engineering Projects ◽  
Early Phases

Transdisciplinary (TD) working offers the potential to bring together potentially disparate elements of engineering projects permitting them to concomitantly be addressed on empirical, pragmatic, normative and purposive levels. Whilst the importance and potential benefits of working in this manner are widely accepted, a key inhibitor to the adoption and embedding of TD working in practice is the variety and diversity of design tools employed and their relative levels of ability to support TD working. To explore what can be thought of as the enabling or inhibiting roles of design tools, this paper appraises common design tools and classifies them according to the level of transdisciplinary working that they permit. This is achieved by considering the capturable level of design rationale for each design tool as per Jantsch and contextualising each within the design process. The discussion considers how these findings are reflected in practice and how chains of particular tools could be employed to support TD working across the different phases of the design process. In total 41 tools are appraised with 6 acting as enablers of interdisciplinary working but none identified as truly TD. Most notably, a much greater proportion of TD enabling design tools are available to support the early phases of design. Further work might consider how education can be used to ensure effective use of current design tools and how knowledge transfer can and should be, applied to enable use of TD tool chains in industry.

A Compilation of Design for Environment Principles and Guidelines

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra Telenko ◽  
Carolyn C. Seepersad ◽  
Michael E. Webber
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Life Cycle Analysis ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Design For Environment ◽  
Concurrent Design ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
Embodiment Design ◽  
Environmental Footprints

Public policy is becoming increasingly stringent with respect to the environmental impacts of modern products. To respond to this tightened scrutiny, product designers must innovate to lower the environmental footprints of their concepts. Design for Environment (DfE) is a field of product design methodology that includes tools, methods and principles to help designers reduce environmental impact. The most powerful and well-known tool within DfE is Life-Cycle Analysis (LCA); however, LCA requires a fully specified design and thus is a retrospective design tool, only applicable as the end of the design process. Because the decisions with the greatest environmental impact are made during earlier design stages, it is important to develop concurrent design tools that can implement DfE principles at conceptual and embodiment design stages, thereby achieving more substantial environmental improvements. The goal of this work is to compile a set of DfE principles that are useful during the design process; explain select principles through examples; and provide an example of applying DfE principles concurrently during the design process.

An Interactive Morphological Matrix Computational Design Tool: A Hybrid of Two Methods

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cari R. Bryant ◽  
Matt Bohm ◽  
Robert B. Stone ◽  
Daniel A. McAdams
Keyword(s):  
Computational Design ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
Concept Generation ◽  
University Of Missouri ◽  
Generation Algorithm ◽  
Design Theories ◽  
The University ◽  
Matrix Generator

This paper builds on previous concept generation techniques explored at the University of Missouri - Rolla and presents an interactive concept generation tool aimed specifically at the early concept generation phase of the design process. Research into automated concept generation design theories led to the creation of two distinct design tools: an automated morphological search that presents a designer with a static matrix of solutions that solve the desired input functionality and a computational concept generation algorithm that presents a designer with a static list of compatible component chains that solve the desired input functionality. The merger of both the automated morphological matrix and concept generation algorithm yields an interactive concept generator that allows the user to select specific solution components while receiving instantaneous feedback on component compatibility. The research presented evaluates the conceptual results from the hybrid morphological matrix approach and compares interactively constructed solutions to those returned by the non-interactive automated morphological matrix generator using a dog food sample packet counter as a case study.

HyperGear: An Object Oriented Design Program for Single Stage Gear Box Design

1991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary A. Gabriele ◽  
Agustî Maria I. Serrano
Keyword(s):  
Computer Aided Design ◽  
Object Oriented ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Single Stage ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
Object Oriented Design ◽  
Computer Aided ◽  
Gear Box ◽  
Aided Design ◽  
Object Oriented Languages

Abstract The need for superior design tools has lead to the development of better and more complex computer aided design programs. Two of the more important new developments in application tools being investigation are Object Oriented Languages, and HyperMedia. Object Oriented Languages allow the development of CAD tools where the parts being designed and the design procedures specified are conceptualized as objects. This allows for the development of design aids that are non-procedural and more readily manipulated by the user trying to accomplish a design task. HyperMedia allows for the easy inclusion of many different types of data, such as design charts and graphs, into the tool that are normally difficult to include in design tools programmed with more conventional programming languages. This paper explores the development of a computer aided design tool for the design of a single stage gear box using the development HyperCard® environment and the HyperTalk® programming language. The resulting program provides a user friendly interface, the ability to handle several kinds of design information including graphic and textual, and a non-procedural design tool to help the user design simple, one stage gear boxes. Help facilities in the program make it suitable for undergraduate instruction in a machine elements design course.

An Advisory Conceptual Design Tool for Mechanical Transmission Systems

1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. P. Huang ◽  
F. W. Liou ◽  
J. J. Malyamakkil ◽  
W. F. Lu
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Expert System ◽  
Conceptual Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Mechanical Transmission ◽  
Transmission Systems ◽  
Knowledge Based System ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Packaging Machine

Abstract This paper presents an advisory conceptual design tool for mechanical transmission systems. Space consideration was taken into account during the design process. A prototype function tree was built in the form of knowledge-based system to transfer a designer’s idea into a set of mechanical components. An advisory expert system was also developed to help a designer in decision making. As an example, a packaging machine is designed using the developed system.

scholarly journals Establishing exhaustive metasurface robustness against fabrication uncertainties through deep learning

Nanophotonics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald P. Jenkins ◽  
Sawyer D. Campbell ◽  
Douglas H. Werner
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Functional Materials ◽  
Computational Electromagnetics ◽  
Inverse Design ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
Structural Error ◽  
Significant Performance ◽  
Engineered Materials ◽  
Exhaustive Study

Abstract Photonic engineered materials have benefitted in recent years from exciting developments in computational electromagnetics and inverse-design tools. However, a commonly encountered issue is that highly performant and structurally complex functional materials found through inverse-design can lose significant performance upon being fabricated. This work introduces a method using deep learning (DL) to exhaustively analyze how structural issues affect the robustness of metasurface supercells, and we show how systems can be designed to guarantee significantly better performance. Moreover, we show that an exhaustive study of structural error is required to make strong guarantees about the performance of engineered materials. The introduction of DL into the inverse-design process makes this problem tractable, enabling optimization runtimes to be measurable in days rather than months and allowing designers to establish exhaustive metasurface robustness guarantees.

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