But design concepts that can be engineered are special. We are not trying just to design something that looks new. We are trying to find a balance between all the different factors that influence a product. The product must appeal to its intended users at a variety of levels: function, usability, cost, reliability, shape & colour, etc. This is why it is so important to study the design problem so carefully. Without really understanding the problem, there is little hope of generating concepts that can be turned into realisable products that satisfy all its requirements.
Generic brainstorming is a great way to stimulate the develop of ideas and concepts.
It's important to be able to "think outside the box" – to come up with different (not necessarily better or worse) solutions. If you can do that often enough, then eventually you shall have a really great idea. With practise and experience, you can improve the odds that the different ideas you have will be good ones. To practise thinking outside the box, try some Thinking exercises.
A great case study in concept design is the JANO bicycle. In that description, you can see how the designer struggled with four major elements: market, engineering, aesthetics, and usability.
In order to develop a concept, the following stages are used:
- Concept ideation
- Concept generation
- Concept evaluation
- Clear concept winner
- Concept modification
- Concept validation
A Remark About Iteration
Iteration in designing is when you have to repeat some steps over (and over) to get it right.
It has been shown (e.g. [IKE00]) that many, fast, short iterations early in the design process can cut total development time by as much as 50%.
So you don't want to go through the whole process once then have to start over. You want to iterate over your concept development quickly and often to most likely cut the time you need to spend fixing and redesigning things later.
This is also supported by one of IDEO's "rules" of design: fail often to succeed sooner.
