Initial inquiry:

• What is a maker community?

• What are my personal interests in product design?

• What types of products exist already?

Possible sources:

• Thingyverse

• Instructables

B1: Specification

Generating ideas should be free and creative but it is useful to create boundaries and guidelines for those ideas to develop. 

On the side of your design ideas page create a list of success  criteria and guidelines. As you sketch different ideas, edit and revise this list. 

No need to retype this list in your Design document if they are legible on your design drawing.

Eg; 

"Size Xmm - Ymm"

"Material - PLA/ABS"

"3D printed"

"single part construction"

B2: Design Ideas

There are numerous ways to develop ideas for products. Some are free and open while other approaches are more structured. Here we will use free drawing but scripted using addition and subtraction. 

Initial idea

+ Size

-  Size

+ Function

+ Aesthetic

+ Material

These design ideas will be done on a single sheet along with your design specification.

Annotations for drawings or models should be brief (not more than 10 words each).

B3: Chosen Design

Once you have arrived at your final design you must check that it satisfies all the criteria you set out earlier. If you have created a good Design specification, you can use this as a checklist to determine if this final idea will solve the design problem and meet the needs of the client. 

Circle your chosen design on the ideas page and annotate it digitally in your Design document. 

Use these annotations to explain why it is the best idea. 

Justify or prove that this is the case by highlighting areas of your design specification that this design satisfies.

B4: Final design 

Since the final product for this unit is a digital download, the file and the digital product count as a design drawing. 

All of the work you will do in C2, C3, and C4 contributes to this criteria strand.

No new work is needed... yay!

C1: Production planning

plan

(Verb)

- decide on and arrange in advance.

Plan your classes until the deadline and allow some extra time for unforeseen changes. 

When planning you should indicate what task you are working on for each class, how long you think the task will take, and what equipment and resources you need to complete the task.

Your plan should be detailed enough for someone else to create your product using only your plan and your design drawings.  

C2: Skills development

Your assessment grade for the product is mostly based on your ability to show your process and develop skills. Here you are focussing on demonstrating how you have learned new skills and developed existing skills to create your product. 

Since you are familiar with programs like OnShape you should focus on showing advanced skills rather than simple sketches and Extrusions if possible. 

Show your skills with images or videos of you demonstrating your skills. As with drawings and models in section B, Annotations of images should be brief (not more than 10 words each)

C3: Manufacturing process

Showing process is important in many areas of education and in life. In Mathematics you are required to show how you solved an equation rather than just producing the answer. This is useful because it allows you to be rewarded for your effort even if the final product is not complete or not as good as expected. 

You should document your process using photos and video and use annotation sparingly to further explain your work. 

This section can be combined with C2 to avoid repetition of information. 

Submitting work for manufacture 

You can request that your design be manufactured with help from our TA and RA team. 

Please complete this form outlining the materials requested, the size of your product, and all other requested details. 

Once you have submitted the form you need to follow up with 

Ms. Thao or Mr. Dung in B6G04 (MS Design studio) 

to confirm the timeline for your build and check for any issues. 

Jobs that are not followed up, may not be manufactured. 

C4: Changes

It is unusual for everything to go to plan as you create a design. Your ideas will evolve as you create parts and problems will arise that are outside of your control. For example, a delay with the 3D printer may force you to make parts by hand. These parts may turn out better than the original.  

This is part of the normal process and should be documented as such. Using images or text show and explain what changes were made. Justify the reasons for these changes. Common reasons are time, skill level, or issues with resources.