The Mechanical Design Process

Abstract

I have been a designer all my life. I have designed bicycles, medical equipment, furniture, and sculpture, both static and dynamic. Designing objects has come easy for me. I have been fortunate in having whatever talents are necessary to be a successful designer. However, after a number of years of teaching mechanical design courses, I came to the realization that I didn’t know how to teach what I knew so well. I could show students examples of good-quality design and poorquality design. I could give them case histories of designers in action. I could suggest design ideas. But I could not tell them what to do to solve a design problem. Additionally, I realized from talking with other mechanical design teachers that I was not alone