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Unit 2 of 6 · about 20 min

The Design Process

Six steps, in order — and why they go around in a circle
📖 Read🔤 Words to know🛠 Mini activity✅ Check

A process you can trust

When a problem is new and a little scary, it helps to have steps to follow. Designers use the design process: a set of six steps that turns a need into a solution that has been tested. Teams of engineers use it to design cars. You will use it to design things out of cardboard and craft sticks. The steps are the same.

1Identifythe need2Gatherinformation3Developalternatives4Selectthe best5Implementthe solution6Evaluatethe solutiona loop,not a line
The design process. Six steps that designers move through again and again: identify the need, gather information, develop alternative solutions, select the best one, implement it, evaluate it. The ring matters as much as the steps: an evaluation that finds a weakness sends you back around.

The six steps

1. Identify the need. Notice the problem and write the design brief (Unit 1).

2. Gather information. Find out what is already known. Talk to the user. Talk to people who have solved something similar. Look in books, stores, museums, and online. Measure the real things involved.

3. Develop alternative solutions. Come up with many possible answers, not one. Sketch them. Brainstorm with a team.

4. Select the best solution. Compare the alternatives against the criteria and constraints. List what is good and bad about each one. Pick the strongest.

5. Implement the solution. Build it: a model, a prototype, or the real thing.

6. Evaluate the solution. Test it against the criteria. Does it do what the brief said? What would make it better?

Why it is a loop

The figure is a ring, not a straight line, on purpose. Step 6 almost never says "perfect, stop." It says "the base is too narrow" or "it works but it is ugly." That sends you back: to step 5 to rebuild, or to step 3 to try a different idea. Going around again is called iteration, and good designers expect to iterate several times. The first version is a question. The test is the answer.

Try 1falls overtoo narrow at the baseTry 2wobbleswiden the baseTry 3stands!add a cross-braceEach test tells you the next change to make. That is iteration.
Iteration. Three tries at a cardboard tower. The first fell over, the second wobbled, the third stood. Nobody designed the third one first. Each test pointed to the next change, and that is exactly how the loop is supposed to work.

Skipping steps costs more than it saves

Students who skip step 2 build things that already exist, or that the user cannot use. Students who skip step 3 fall in love with their first idea and never find the better one sitting right behind it. Students who skip step 6 hand in something that was never tested. Each step is short. Skipping one is what makes a project long.

Scientists use a similar loop called the scientific method: ask a question, research, hypothesize, experiment, analyze, conclude. Designers aim for a solution; scientists aim for an explanation. The habit of testing is the same.

🔤 Words to know

Design process
The six steps designers follow to take a need to a tested solution.
Identify the need
Step 1 — notice the problem and write it down as a design brief.
Gather information
Step 2 — learn what is already known: ask people, measure, research.
Alternative solutions
Several different possible answers to the same problem, made before choosing one.
Select the best solution
Step 4 — compare the alternatives against the criteria and constraints and pick one.
Implement
Step 5 — build the chosen solution as a model, a prototype, or the real thing.
Evaluate
Step 6 — test the solution against the criteria and decide what to improve.
Iteration
Going around the loop again — rebuilding or rethinking after a test — until the criteria are met.
Prototype
A working model that looks and acts like the finished product, built to be tested.

🛠 Mini activity: Walk the loop

Put the six steps in order, then recognize them in a real project: a team designing a phone stand for the class 3D printer.

  1. 1
    Tap the six steps of the design process in order.
    💡 You cannot gather information about a need you have not identified, and you cannot evaluate what you have not built.
    Tap the cards in the order they happen — first one first.
    1. 2
      The phone-stand team did these things. Sort each one into the step it belongs to.
    2. 3
      The stand tipped over in the test. What should the team do next? Choose every good move.
    3. 4
      Here is a paper-airplane design story out of order. Tap the events in the order they happened.

    ✅ Check: The Design Process

    🔒
    Finish the lesson first
    • Mini activity: every step needs its ✓.
    The five-question check unlocks here as soon as the last one lands.
    ↑ Back to the activity
    ← Unit 1: Problems Worth SolvingUnit 3: Invention or Innovation? →