Design Briefs
9. Self evaluation: Provide a way for students to evaluate themselves.
10. Assessment: Provide a scheme that you will use to assess the students and their designs.
Creativity and Ingenuity, Design, and Problem-Solving 149
a simple challenge can prompt students to think creatively and successfully act on their imagination. It is also a good example of the structure of design briefs. Opinions differ on the creation of design briefs. In most cases, design briefs will be prepared prior to the beginning of the design challenge (by the teacher or other professionals). In some cases, the design briefs will be prepared by students, or groups of students working together on a common design problem. Here, teachers
Table 5. Fasten(at)ing technology: Paper clips
Context
In the family of fasteners, a paper clip is what you might call a simple, elegant solution to the problem of squeezing or clenching paper. Paper clips are easy to reproduce, easy to use, hold papers together without causing damage or crimping, and have many other uses besides clenching. This is only partially true. Paper clips do cause damage. Some get rusty and stain the paper. Some are too inflexible and leave a permanent crease or crimp in the paper. Your challenge is to improve fastening technologies by designing the perfect paper clip.
Problem
Design and construct a fastener for paper.
Design constraints
1. The fastener must be designed so it is reproducible.
2. The fastener or clench must be made of one or two single, continuous pieces of material. 3. The fastener must hold two and more sheets of paper together.
4. The fastener must be portable and reusable. 5. The fastener must not damage the paper. 6. The fastener can be made from any material.
7. The design must be scalable (e.g., from paper clip to money clip)
Design considerations
• Pay close attention to the elegant function of the fastener: does it effectively clench? • Consider a wide range of possible fastener designs.
• Review the range of paper clip designs presented, but do not duplicate these. • Is the fastener reproducible and scalable?
Construction Sequence
1. Brainstorm ideas for the fastener’s operation and appearance.
2. Sketch four or five designs and choose appropriate features, forms and materials.
3. May use 2D computer aided design (CAD) or 3D modeling techniques to lay out mechanisms and parts. 4. Locate recycled materials or new materials.
5. Test the materials for the properties. 6. Bend and finish the final prototype fastener. 7. Test the fastener.
Management Issues
• End of day 1: Approval of fastener ideas.
• End of day 2: Fastener prototype and sketches explained, presented and submitted.
Related studies
• Physics • Sociology
• Business • Psychology
• Social Studies • Engineering
Honest self (group) evaluation
1. We stayed within the design constraints and deadlines. ______ out of 5 marks 2. Our fastener is unique in its design. ______ out of 5 marks 3. Our fastener has makes effective use of materials. ______ out of 5 marks 4. Most of the excess materials can be reused or recycled. ______ out of 5 marks 5. Our use of materials was creative, economic, and efficient. ______ out of 5 marks 6. Our fastener successfully satisfies all the design brief
requirements (i.e., holds two and more sheets of paper
together; is portable, reproducible, reusable, scalable). ______ out of 5 marks 7. The demonstration of our fastener was creative and
entertaining. ______ out of 5 marks
Total out of 35
Assessment
Group’s self assessment ________ Total/ 35
Design principles
Features and form ________ out of 10
Originality ________ out of 10
Economics and ecology ________ out of 10
Craft and quality ________ out of 10
Clenchability ________ out of 15
Deadlines, safety, and participation ________ out of 10
Total out of 100
Creativity and Ingenuity, Design, and Problem-Solving 151
and students refine the problem together and the students prepare their design briefs. Either way, it is important to provide a format for the students to follow.
Projection and Reflective Practice
In this chapter, we reviewed the current state of research into creativity, design and problem-solving. We explained how creativity, design, and problem-solving were connected. We emphasized that at the core of creative practice are dispositions. Among the most primary of these dispositions is designerly thinking, or the will to see knowledge as designed. Educators adopted a number of techniques to develop dispositions toward creative problem-solving and the most important of these is the design brief. These techniques are what some analysts of career preparation and hu- man resource development call “soft skills.” In the next chapter, we will expand on our theoretical framework for the practice of creativity, design and problem-solving. Before moving to the next chapter, complete the design brief challenge for paper clips or generate an original design brief.
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