Overview

Design is the heart of the engineering process its most characteristic activity. If you and I are going to understand engineering, we'll have to understand design.

Think back to the five-step engineering process conceive, experiment, design, build, test. Design is right in the middle of it. Sooner or later, if you're really going to get something done, you will have to come down to earth and do it. Design is that point. Up to then you've conceived and experimented. You have lots of new ideas some look pretty good, and some don't. But now it's time to make up your mind, to decide exactly what you're going to do. That's design.

If you like definitions we could use that one. Design is deciding exactly what you are going to do.

In the more or less formal engineering design process there's another aspect that needs heavy stress documentation. That's tied to the word "exactly." If you haven't gotten your decision down on paper in the form of accurate and complete drawings then it's fair for the boss to say, "He hasn't really decided yet. He hasn't finished the design." Hence in engineering you will habitually think of design as deciding and getting your decision down on paper.

The following steps build and test are the proof of your design pudding. Building is usually the most expensive part of engineering. Can your design be built economically and with the facilities your production organization has? And when it is tested, will the thing really work? Will the bridge or...