1.1 Where and when do engineers design? Flashcards
Where might engineers work?
for a large company that processes and distributes various food products could be asked to design a container for a new juice product
for a design-and-construction company, designing part of a highway bridge embedded in a larger transportation project
for an automobile company that is developing new instrumentation clusters for its cars
for a school system that wants to design specialized facilities to better serve students with orthopedic disabilities
What “Roles” are played as the design unfolds?
- Client: a person or group or company that wants a design conceived
- User: who will employ or operate whatever is being designed.
- Designer: whose job is to solve the client’s problem in a way that meets the user’s needs.
What are two types of clients?
- Internal:
(e. g., a person at the food company in charge of the new juice product) - External:
(e. g., the government agency that contracts for the new highway system)
How does the Designer relate to the two types of clients?
The two types of clients are internal and external. The Designer may relate differently to internal and external clients.
Who is the Client?
The Client is a person or group or company that wants a design conceived.
What is the role of the User?
The role of the user is to employ or operate whatever is being designed.
What is the role of the Designer?
The role of the designer is to:
- Solve the client’s problem in a way that meets the user’s needs.
- Understand what both the client and users want and need.
- Design something that can be built and that satisfies everybody.
Who typically motivates and presents the starting point for design?
The Client typically motivates and presents the starting point for design.
What is the Designer’s first task and why?
A designer’s first task is to question the client to clarify what the client really wants and translate it into a form that is useful to her as an engineer. This is the designer’s first task because it is typically the client who motivates and presents the starting point for design.
Does the User have a stake in the design Process? Why or why not?
Yes. The User has a stake in the design process because designs have to meet the user’s needs.
To whom does the designer have obligations?
Designers also have obligations not only to:
- Clients
- Users
- their profession
- the public
Obligations to the profession and the public are laid out in codes of ethics of engineering societies.
What is the role of the Client?
The role of the client is to speak to the designer on behalf of the intended users.
Name an example of product/structure of which the public has a stake in the design.
A new interstate highway
Is the public implicit in the user?
No. The notion of the public may seem to be implicit in the user, this is not always the case.
Why is it important to explicitly identify who is affected by a design?
Explicitly identifying who is affected by a design is important, because it may raise ethical issues in design projects
What is one thing that both the designer and the client must understand?
Both the designer and the client must understand what the users want and what the public demands in a design.
In what kinds of environments do engineering designers work?
- small and large companies
- start-up ventures
- government
- not-for-profit organizations
- engineering services firms
What three parties are involved in a design effort? How are these parties involved?
Client: who has objectives that must be realized
Users (of the design): who have their own wishes
Designer: who must design something that can be built and that satisfies everybody.
On what two stages of design does the nature of the designer’s work partly depend?
The nature of the work of designers depends, in part, on whether they are doing conceptual design or detailed design.
What is conceptual design?
Conceptual design is the stage at which basic questions of form and content for a design are established (e.g. the nature of the goals of the designed item).
What is detailed design?
Detailed design is a stage in the design process after conceptual design (and after preliminary or embodiment design), when specific details particular to the design are resolved.
