May04

Sketches in Product Requirements Documents

David McCormick

 

Defining product requirements is a critical part of the product development process.  One study, by Ashok Gupta published an article in California Management Review claimed that 71% of all problems that are encountered in the product development process are the result of a failure to identify requirements.

The difficulty in doing this arises from the multi disciplinary nature of product development.  Each discipline (Marketing, Engineering, Manufacturing) has its own specialized language used to discuss their unique product requirement objectives.  This hinders a collective agreement on requirements.

Best practices aim to solve this problem.  There are a host of techniques for product requirements gathering, and specification writing, for example, VOC, Voice of the Customer.  But, the results of the techniques are still subject to interpretation and the biases of the individual reader.  One additional step helps to clarify the results; it very useful to verify relevant findings by including sketches of the physical attributes identified in the VOC study in the requirements document.  The sketches make very clear what the attributes are in a universal neutral visual language.   Marketing and Engineering see the sketched images and interpret them the same way. 

The product requirements document allows people within a company to understand what a product should do and how it should work.  Sketches are a very effective addition to that document and the product development process.

 

 


Bookmark and Share
Apr27

Analysis and Sketching as Input

David McCormick

4SMNP9FEPRVE

http://www.engineersedge.com/technology_news/posts/886.html

The trackback posted here describes another application for leveraging the attributes of sketching.  The previous SketchEngine blog referred to using software for interpreting sketched geometry as part of an engineering system.  From a mechanical engineering standpoint this means plugging in sketched forms of mechanical components and plugging them into a dynamic system. The result is a model of the system reacting to given inputs such as applied forces and gravity. 

Similarly the above link describes a system that plugs sketched components into FEA software.  Sketching greatly speeds up the analysis for computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer analysis.

Both systems described in the last two blogs take advantage of being able to change and analyze designs in quick iterations thanks to the speed of sketching.

Bookmark and Share
Apr26

Sketching as input device

David McCormick
Software that reads sketches and turns them into symbols allows computers to interpret them as quantitative input. A drawing comprised of these symbols can be modeled as a system. The system may be mechanical, electrical or chemical.

A five year old Youtube video www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZNTgglPbUA shows a MIT professor demonstrating a crude input device for sketching symbols that represent known mechanical elements of dynamic systems.  (i.e.  grounded surfaces, springs, weights, wheels)  Those sketched systems can then be set into motion and the components react as a dynamic system.  While it looks really fun to play with, it would be rarely useful in real design.   

Last February that same institution announced new software had been developed using a standard tablet computer with a stylus for sketching.  In terms of what the designer actually sketches it doesn’t appear to be much different from the 3-year-old YouTube demonstration.  Both have to equate the sketch to a fairly limited “vocabulary” of symbols specific to the branch of science utilized in the design.  That is, chemical molecule symbols, electronic components, or potentially like the above mentioned mechanical system elements.

Both are essentially like handwriting recognition software only they recognize engineering symbols instead of letters/words

The reason they’re not terribly useful is that these sketches are flat 2D diagrams of symbols.  There is no third dimension.  Not very real world.

While it is apparent technology is plunging ahead in a campaign to eliminate the mouse and keyboard, there is a long way to go until the complexity of 3D design can be accommodated.

How big of a step is it to get this functionality into three dimensions?

Bookmark and Share
Apr05

iPad tried

David McCormick

Will the iPad succeed in promoting more sketching to communicate ideas?  Is this the tool us sketcher's have been waiting for? 

I recently sketched on one.  The ergonomics of using it as a sketch pad were kind of like visiting relatives over the holiday, nice for a while but annoying after a bit.  

First impression is the display.  It is beautiful.  And having the device in hand is much nicer than trying to manipulate the pc pen tablet.    

Now for actually sketching.  I was using a Pogo stylus to draw on the screen and having not used one before was disappointed by the friction of the foam tip against the display glass.  Even with a pressure stylus on a pen tablet pc I've  been bothered by the lack of "tooth" in glass displays versus paper but this takes the discrepancy to a new level of compromise.

There is at least one firm that manufacturers a display that can accommodate either capacitive touch or pressure stylus.  Hopefully iPad rev 2 will use this techology so we can at least get the pressure sensitive feature back in sketching.  

Bookmark and Share
Mar30

What to do with an Apple iPad

David McCormick

New software is making inroads bridging the gap between sketched representations of structures and their computer aided design simulations.  Fitting this into the engineering development process, one could say this makes sketching a more intuitive input to creating simulation models or this greatly extends the usefulness of sketches, tablet pcs and Apple's iPad.

The software interprets the sketches into symbols or geometric models that can be turned into manufacturing documentation or computer simulations for analysis.

Why bother dealing with sketches anyway?  Why not just input directly with a mouse or keyboard?  Because, when an engineer draws the image of the design forming in his or her mind, the pen makes a mark and the eye interprets the mark as part of a form. The vague notion of a form starts to solidify rapidly as more lines are drawn. The eye sees the image take form on the tablet. As ideas become objects on the display, opportunities and obstacles become apparent. Adjustments are made. Sketches are erased or abandoned, and through this iterative process there is a rapid convergence to a rough design concept.

This process is free of constraints that might hinder a creative mind. Menu-driven CAD conventions can be distracting when developing a nascent idea. Sketching encourages divergent thinking by putting an engineer's mind in a less restricted mode. Designs sometimes break away from preconceived ideas and explore new territory.

This new software represents an important link between the analytical and creative aspects of engineering.  Someday soon I’ll be sketching on an iPad and someday later using software to make the leap from sketch to geometric model.

Bookmark and Share
Sep21

Researching the Benefits of a Sketch

David McCormick

You convey engineering ideas by showing sketches.  All stages of the design process may require a quick sketch to define or communicate an idea.  So, does sketching result in better design solutions?  Researchers have been investigating this for several years now in some of the best engineering schools in the world and the answer is yes it does improve designs.

The research looks into several areas of the effect of sketching.  For example, is it a function of the number of sketches drawn or the frequency at which sketching occurs in the design process? Is it the quality of the sketch that impacts the design solution results?  Are 2d or 3d representations more effective?  Does a sketch with perspective contribute to a better solution than one without? 

Some results of this recent research are emerging and providing insight into the benefits of incorporating sketching into the design process.  Research was been done in a “design project” setting in engineering schools where groups of students all work on the same design assignment.  A panel of instructors and professional practitioners grade the student’s design solutions.  The research investigators then examine the students sketching efforts in the project and correlate that to their design project grades.

The studies show that the variety of designs illustrated in student’s sketches was an effective measure of how well designers explore the “design solution space”.  Sketching helped to produce more potential design solutions.

And sketches were not just used in the concept development stage.  One German study has shown that the level of detail in the sketches correlates directly to the stage of the design.  In other words, as the details become the focus of the project, sketches are used to work out the particulars.  Also, in these later design stages the sketches are more often 3D (showing perspective) indicating a deeper understanding of the design.

When do you sketch, early or throughout the entire design process? Do the sketches show increased detail as the project progresses?  There are big benefits for doing quick sketches throughout the process.  A few minutes sketching an idea saves hours, if not days, of work.

Bookmark and Share
Jul23

Sketch to get to know your product, device or assembly

David McCormick

As a design engineer, you may be assigned the redesign of an existing product or assembly.  Or, maybe your employer has purchased an existing product or line of products that will be your responsibility to maintain in production.  How do you rapidly get a deep understanding of this assembly, its design and nuances?

Try this:

1.Sketch the product or assembly.  First, either by looking at a CAD model, print or the real object, sketch an exploded view of it.  Pay attention to the part relationships.

2. Depending on the complexity of the assembly this will be the difficult part. . Sketch the assembly from memory.   Even if this is a product or assembly that you’ve worked with for years, you’ll be amazed how much you learn from sketching it.

Why is this important? 

After you successfully sketched the assembly, your knowledge of it is far more complete; you have a mental model of it. You can visualize it without referring to drawings or CAD models.

To be able to sketch the assembly you have to understand the design:

  • How one part relates to the rest of the assembly, which feature engages another part or sub-assembly
  • What any particular feature on the part does to contribute to the function of the assembly
  • Why individual parts can or can not be combined to simplify an assembly
  • When parts are assembled and in what sequence
  • How all the parts work together to function as a product or assembly


Bookmark and Share

1

SketchEngine

SketchEngine is dedicated to improving engineer's abilities to create and communicate their ideas. Sketching has been closely linked with promoting engineering design thinking and creativity. Learning sketching skills results in better design solutions getting to market sooner.

recent posts

archive