Design Considerations & Constraints - Design

Specifications - Ideation & Refinement

This post was first published on 15 February 2011. Edited 10 March 2013.

Whiteboard Demo (2011)

Class Demo (2011)

Pre-Design Considerations Must Knows

Before you start drafting your design considerations, you must know the outcomes of your
design opportunity. Some design opportunities are inclined to an improvement of certain
functions or safety. Some is targeted at a specific target audience. Some aims to solve a bugging
problem that seems to have no viable solutions at the present. Some are proposed to create
fun while using.

Knowing precisely what you want out of your design proposal helps a lot in drafting a good set of
design considerations. Because that will mean you will be very spot on in identifying the areas of
considerations. Otherwise yours will simplistically be stating the obvious universal areas like, products
should be safe for users and must look good, must be colorful, etc.
 Design Considerations
The design considerations phase is where you make a list of factors that need to be
considered in broad terms. You do not need to go into the details (i.e. the specifics) at this stage.

The type and number of factors you have is unique for each project. That means everyone will have
their own set of design considerations specific to their design brief. A good set of design
considerations accurately addresses the unique areas of concerns of your proposal as written in
your design brief.

The design considerations and constraints will sound like, "If I want to (insert your design brief
here), what are the areas I must consider and what are the areas of constraints (or
limitations)".

I suggest you include a healthy list of

1. functional requirements, and

2. requirements relating to how you want your users to interact with the product.

Those will come in VERY handy when you start your Idea Generation phase.

Design Constraints (or Limitations)

Design constraints (of limitations) are the extensions of design considerations.

In every design attempt, there will be limitations or constraints or some form of hindrance. Some
projects may be constrained by physical space or budget. Some limited by the choice of materials or
colors. And most with a time constraint.

Drafting your Design Considerations & Constraints

To draft your Design Considerations and Constraints, you may begin with asking the following
question out loud in your head:

'To (insert your design brief here), what must I consider? I must consider ....'

'To (insert your design brief here), what are are some of the constraints? The constraints are....'

! Research for Design Specifications !

Every factors that appeared in your design opportunities and constraints should prompt and lead
you to an area of research. They must be researched to gather relevant data and/or informationabout
them to be written as Design Specifications.

It is also at this stage where various critical dimensions (product dimensions) andanthropometry
data are gathered.
 Some examples of researches:

Critical Dimension: If you are designing a ketchup bottle holder, then you will be researching on
various brands of ketchup and take measurements off the bottle. You might also be interested in
average diameter across all selling brands in Singapore.

Areas: If you are designing a piece of furniture to be placed in a room, then a possible limitation data
would be the maximum area the piece of furniture should take. That specified area will determine the
maximum floor area that newly designed furniture should occupy.

Anthropometric Data: If you are designing a chair for a child, then you might need the average
bodily dimensions of a child of a certain age group. Which specific dimensions you need depends on
what you will be designing. Do not take measurements for the sake of taking them.

Weights: If you are designing objects to be handled by the elderly who have weak arms, then the
product should have a limit to its overall weight. Research might be in the form of experimentations on
how comfortable in terms of weight the elderly can carry. Or from any reliable research medical data,
etc.

Functionality, usability, costs, time, etc. are other factors that can be researched for drafting the
Design Specifications whenever possible.

Remember to include images, photographs and annotations for all your research.

The Design Specifications

This is probably one of the most important phase in your design journey apart from finding a
realdesign need.

The link: The design specifications are specific instructions for the purpose of Idea Generation . In
other words, the list of design specifications specifies and details all the functional and the
aesthetical requirements of your product. i.e. that your product MUST do.

A good set of design specifications sets the path for Idea Generation. Ideas can be generated to
satisfy one specification point at a time and eventually synthesized to include all the specification
requirements.

You might be interested to note that the number of points for your list of design
specifications happens to be same number of points from your list of design considerations and
constraints.

So you never have to ask your teacher 'how many design specifications must I write?".

An example showing how a Specification point is created:

A typical thought process for design specifications will be,

"I want to (insert your design brief here). One of my (1) consideration is the internal diameter of the
ketchup bottle mouth. I did my (2) research on that and got an average of 25mm from five different
brands of ketchup available in FairPrice and Shop & Save supermarkets."

Now my (3) design specification is, 'The product must be able to be inserted into a bottle mouth that
is not bigger than 25mm in diameter".

Idea Generation & Refinement

A super brief guide on Idea Generation:

Step 1:
Focus on one specification point at a time.

Step 2:
Generate ideas that satisfy the functions first.

Step 3:
Always check the usability of your ideas with the target audiences. Keep on refining the
functionalities until it works.

Step 4:
Refine the aesthetics (styling).

Step 5:
In no particular order, constantly consider product functionality and usability, refine material choices,
number of parts, jointing methods, overall size, suitability of color choices and combinations, type of
finishing, suitability and practicality of user-solution-environment use.

Step 6:
Always summarize your ideas by re-drawing your solutions in context showing the user using the
product and the product used in its environmental context.