The design has been in existence for a long time now. Design refers to the process used in collecting procedures as well as habits that would help an individual or teams come up with intended products (Baldwin & Roberts, 2006). Designing in this respect is the process of decision making that converts abstract concepts into hardware realities. In other words, designing starts from abstracts but end up in realities. The various steps involved in converting abstracts into hardware realities include problem definition, external search, internal search, evaluation and selection, detail design, prototyping, and documentation (Hands, 2009). Product definition, which is the starting point of designing, begins with the desire to meet some specific customer needs. For instance, an individual may perceive the idea of climbing a hill being a problem. Another individual may perceive the idea of having womenswear and menswear differently being a great problem. In these problems, designers look at ways of solving them and meeting specific needs. In the first example, a designer may want to come up with equipment that would make climbing hills to be faster. In the second example, a designer may want to come up with clothing that can be used universally irrespective of the gender (Best, 2010). All these aspects are considered as essential steps towards the process of designing. Without the identification and definition of problem or need, the designing process becomes irrelevant. In other words, the designing process only starts with the realisation that there is a problem to be solved or need to be met.
With a need or problem in mind, designing creates an opportunity for one to conduct an extensive search on ways of solving the problem or meeting the need. Searches done are either internally or externally (Hands, 2009). In some cases, searchers are both internally and externally. Searchers are done to gather more information and data for purposes of finding out ways of solving identified problems or fulfilling the existing needs. While external search is about researching, internal search entails brainstorming on the way forward in as far as a problem or need is concerned. Once the searches are done, the designing process gives the vista for designers to conduct an evaluation, which is then followed by selection (Baldwin & Roberts, 2006). Evaluation, in this case, is to help the designers weigh the various ways identified for solving a problem or meeting a need. Weighing of the alternatives is to help identify one that is most viable. Upon evaluation, the design process allows designers to select the most preferred alternative for solving identified problem or meeting noted needs. Successful evaluation and selection stage gives way to detail designing (Best, 2010). In this stage, a significant amount of engineering is done highlighting the details of the proposed products. The details are developed such that they can be able to solve existing problems or meet the needs. Once the detail design has been done, the designing process then develops prototypes. Prototyping entails coming up with replicas of the products for testing.
References
Baldwin, J. and Roberts, L. (2006). Visual communication. Lausanne: AVA.
Best, K. (2010). The fundamentals of design management. London: AVA Publishing.
Hands, D. (2009). Vision and values in design management. London: AVA Publishing.
Picture. (2017). [online]Available at https://artlandia.com/wonderland/glossary/(28/11/2017 02:47)
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