TEN Points Common Mistakes in Design Journal (2012)

for Part A - The Design Journal

1.     P&M lacked realistic timed stages and evidence of on-going evaluation and monitoring of time.

2.     Lack of 'feel' on the theme. Presentation of what the theme is and the identified problem is unclear.

3.     Majority of researched facts, data, images and annotations are meaningless, i.e. they do not have any 'follow-up' and do not lead to further investigations or decisions being made after they are being 'researched'. Much of the research contents did not have any impact or any influence on Ideation & Development (I&D) to meet the Needs (or Problems) identified.

4.     Decisions and important points may be present but not obvious. They do not stand out.  They are difficult to spot within the pages that are full of writings.  

5.     Contents presented in I&D do not have clear (sub-) headings to represent the I&D being attempted. That makes understanding the intention difficult.

6.     Most I&D attempts throughout shows ONLY the product but hardly shows the corresponding props or the users or the environment being integrated-in to 'test' or 'evaluate' if the solution meets the List of Specification (LoS).

7.     Most (if not all) I&D are attempted as if the LoS never existed. Most I&D are not 'evaluated' against the LoS. Many (if not most) also lose touch with the Needs (or Problems) highlighted in the Design Need (or Situation) and Brief as I&D progresses.

8.     Idea Generation lacked comprehensive exploration and on-going evaluations to surface the most desirable concept for development. Most attempted as if the LoS never existed (see Point 7).

9.     Weak Development. Lacked evidence to show how material, jointing, color and finishing choices, jointing methods, final dimensions, production methods and sequences, etc. are explored, evaluated and decided.

10.   Overall lack of flow of information from section to section. It is as if reading a book compiled with random chapters from various books. Note: The lack of (sub-) headings may also have contributed to this. See Point 5).

The journal should not contain information only you can understand. It’s about how the marker can understand without a question being asked. To do this you must anticipate vague contents and make them idiot proof.

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