The Ultimate ART of Mindmapping Guide

Find yours “Ultimate ART of Mindmapping”. Click HERE. 

• Struggling with mind mapping?
• Don’t know what to include?
• Don’t know how to continue?
• Don’t know when to end?
• Don’t know what to do?

 

Sample PDF snippets

What you will get:

Why struggle? Why spend countless hours on this? Be guided step by step on how you can make use of a mindmap efficiently to

• identify locations
• identify items/objects/products
• identify design needs & opportunities
• identify potential solutions

(Worked example options available too).

Let me know in the comments what else you like to learn and watch.

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The Design Brief (and deeper insights)

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There is no ONE way to approach a design journal. How do I start? Where do I start?

And the answer is, ANYWHERE & ANYHOW. 

But you must know what you are doing and how to do it. This requires a great deal of experience. Your teachers may be available to help. Otherwise, stick to starting from the beginning. Use the resources in this blog to help you along if you require further reading and insights.

It is perfectly possible to start your coursework with a design brief even before you have identified any design need. The N Level Normal (Technical) syllabus D&T coursework is such an example. This explains why the Design Brief post is here at this early stage of the coursework. In case you are wondering why.

This is also applicable to the N(A) and Express coursework.

While there is nothing wrong stating up front a design brief in the beginning of your journey, it is more important that you must know how to make progress. For example how to work back and forth to complete the information that you need, so the journal is complete.

Consultations & Bookings available if you need an help or boost. 

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A Design Brief is a concise statement stating what you intend to do. For D&T it is simply saying to yourself “I want to design and make a …”

This brief but powerful statement should also include primarily who the user(s) is and it’s location, what the solution is going to be, the intent of the solution, and the situation / problem the solution intends to solve. Without getting in too much details. While at the same time allowing a full spectrum of ideation possibilities.

Below is an example of a design brief:

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Design Brief

'Design and make a kitchen paper towel holder which will not take up too much space on the kitchen table and also will not hinder cleaning the kitchen top'.

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Take a step backwards, take a closer look and see what we can discover

In this case, you claim that the kitchen towel storage is taking up too much space.

If you set yourself a task to design a storage so that it 'does not take up too much space', what do you think that implies about the existing storage? - So, the size of the holder is really too big for the table? Really?

5 Whys

Use the 5 'Whys' and very soon you'll find out if the size of the storage is really the problem.

For example:

The kitchen holder is taking up too much space on the kitchen table.

Why the kitchen holder is taking up too much space on the kitchen table?

Because the table is currently cluttered with bottles of spices and for drying kitchen stuffs like pots and pans.

Why are those things on the table taking up space?

Because there are no other proper storage areas to cater for pots and pans. Can't put them on the floor to dry right? And where else can the spices go to? The whole kitchen is full of stuffs!

Why...

It does not need to go beyond the third 'why' to conclude that the size of the kitchen tower holder isn't the problem! Perhaps a new way of organizing stuffs in kitchen needs to be worked out. Or the solution could be as simple as working out redundant stuffs and getting them out of the way to make space!

Can you imagine if the solution ended with a brilliantly more compact kitchen tower holder? That doesn't solve anything. But a wasted effort to design something that isn't really doesn't meet the need of the problem.

Conclusion

As a rule of thumb, whenever you think you have identified design needs or design opportunities, they must automatically prompt you to research to support those claims. 

In case you jumped ahead, or inspirations struck, and you want to make a, say, an ERASER HOLDER because..., remember to take a step back, use the 5 'Whys' to make sure you nail the real need behind it.

So, at the end of the day... RESEARCH. Establish your claims. Prove and justify your claims. Refrain from simply writing some ambiguious design situation, need or brief that is not an outcome of good research.

Reminder

Researches should be well supported with photographs, images and purposeful annotations.

What can I do before I receive coursework project theme 2022?

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 Get your Ultimate Guide to Mindmapping from Theme to Design Needs & Opportunities 

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If you desire a good outcome for your coursework, firstly you should know that you are not alone. You teachers works with you. Next you'll have to

1. start early
2. start well
3. continue confidently
4. end early with a BANG!

Here you will find all the resources you need to produce an excellent, meaningful design journal. But if you need additional consultation to super-charge your progress. getting an expert help is also available as a value-added service available to you.

Back to "What can I do? I have not gotten my coursework theme yet."

There is nothing worst than wasting the first three weeks of Term 1 in anticipation for the design theme. You can always START your design journal. From as soon as... NOW.

There are at least three things you can do in advance. 

1) Start thinking about which Target User(s) you wish to engage in your proposed design. So when you begin your exploration into identifying design NEEDS when you get your design theme, zoom immediately into the issues and needs for your target user(s). No beating around the bush. Also

2) start thinking about which Target Location you wish to explore regarding needs & design opportunities for your proposed design. You cannot be looking everywhere on earth for a design need. This is wasting too much time. Just like you zoomed in to the group of target user(s) decide and zoom into ONE location, e.g. PlayGround or HOME, or more specific the KITCHEN, etc. Be very focused. 

There is no need to worry about not covering enough ground to search for design needs or opportunities. If you do it well the specific target user(s) and location you have decided in advance is more than enough. What you need for success is CUT THE BULLSHIT.

And last but not least,

3) Complete your first cut of the Planning and Monitoring Gantt Chart (and here for Part II of the post). Complete your preparation phase with Planned Schedule worked out and recorded. 

Want to work 90% faster? Supercharge your starting point with ready-to-use templates (full customisation options available).

If you need more help, you can always count on expert consultation.

Hope you have a GREAT NEW YEAR 2022. 

Two Common Blunders with regards to 'Identified Problems'

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TWO MOST COMMON BLUNDERS OF (THE SO CALLED) IDENTIFIED PROBLEM

1) The most frequent blunder when a student identifies a 'problem' situation and then follows through it without finding out if that was worth pursuing. Why so?

For most of the time, if the student were to do some research, he/she will likely find out that there are already existing product(s) or solution(s) in the market for that 'identified problem'. 

When a (right) product (the solution) is not there on-location to resolve the scenario it does not mean GO MAKE. It should prompt you to do some research for any existing solution.

These students, instead of finding out the probable existence of a solution to alleviate the problem, he/she ends up making something that is not really needed to be made. A product that is not authentic in solving a problem. Most of such attempts to make a product rarely value-adds anything.

Take a look at the following examples and learn how you can go about it:

• Books are messy? Ask Why. GO GET the right shelve!
• Shoes are messy? Ask why. GO GET a shoe rack! Cheap ones, designer ones, expensive ones. Anything. One that is of the RIGHT SIZE. RIGHT MATERIAL, etc.
• Cannot find your pencils? GO GET a good storage system, or get your memory upgraded! LEARN to be NEATER.

The following sketch shows a typical common identified problem as design opportunity. If it is simplistically tackled , the project is busted:

Before you go say go make an 'innovative' (or whatever) bookshelf, have you thought about 

1) Why there is overcrowding in the first place? More about the Five Whys later. 

2) Is the shelve the right size for the additional books that you just bought? If not why.

3) Is the problem with you who is messy by nature and therefore the mess? 

The solutions for the respective questions we just generated could be

1) Minimize overcrowding by getting a new shelve for other genres of books. No space for a new shelf, then perhaps you should consider not getting anymore. Donate your books and keep those you really need! etc.

2) Maybe it is time to upsize your shelve. IKEA has lots of them.

3) Buckle up your own attitude and learn to be neater when you store those books.

The problem is not the lack of space, not the lack of bookshelves, not the lack of bigger book shelves, not the issue of too many books, the problem is the USER. Solve the heart and mind problem and you solve the physical problem.

That being said, if it culminates to a Design Challenge to design or redesign or to revolutionalise the 'functionality' and 'use-experience' of a traditional bookshelf, taking in consideration to work towards 'novelty' or 'cleverness' of a new idea , it is another matter altogether. And very legitimate for a potentially good project.

A Deeper Analysis of the Bookshelf Example:

DESIGN SITUATION

A design situation for the graphic example may look something like the following:

"I have many books. And the books are very messy. I cannot find my books and sometimes my books get lost. The book shelf is too small for all my books.

DESIGN BRIEF

It will also typically end up with the following Design Brief:

"Design and make a bookself to store all my books".

Let's Analyse the 'Problem'

The is nothing really wrong to write the the situation or the brief like so. What is really wrong lies in the fact that this finding is the attitude of being too 'simplistic' - one that does not engage a thorough thinking-through process to determine if the proposed design situation is really a need area that requires another product to solve.

What Next? A Solution to Move On...

Use questions to help you look at the same problem in new perspectives:

I will ask "Is the book shelf designed to store more books than it is designed for?" If not, then if you choose to pile your books and overload the bookself with books, of course it will be overcrowded and untidy (assuming if you had not bothered to tidy them up)!!!

Use the '5 Whys'...

The '5 Whys' should lead you to where the root problem may be... and more often than not, you may end up discovering that the real problem lies on the individual who is just too lazy to tidy things up and therefore ended up with mess and untidiness. If that is the case will designing and making another book storage solve the problem?

An example of asking the 'Five Whys'

Very very long ago I had a student who came to me and wanted to design and make an egg tray. Very cute proposal isn't it?

I asked what the egg tray is for... and he told me that the egg tray will be used to store eggs in the fridge. How brilliant of me....

If you are his teacher, what would you do?

Do you go ahead and design an egg tray??

So, I started probing further by beginning with a first why, I asked,

Teacher: "Why do you need to design and make an egg tray for the fridge?

Student: "There is no space to put eggs in the fridge".

Teacher: "Why there is no space in the fridge to put eggs?"

Student: "My sister filled up the egg tray with her sweets".

Teacher: (*With amazement*) "Why did your sister fill up the egg tray with her sweets???"

Student: (*pause*) "Because there is not space in the fridge to put her sweets".

Teacher: (*WIth more amazement*) "Why isn't there space in the fridge to put her sweets???"

Student: "The fridge is full of stuffs. Crowded with food and fruits and everything else".

Teacher: (*Curious*) "Why are there so many food and fruits and everything else?"

Student: "My mum buys many food items that had been in the fridge for a very long time..."

I do not need to continue much further to conclude that if I allowed the student to design and make a WONDERFUL and INNOVATIVE egg holder, it would not help solve the problem, not even a bit.

Finally I'll bring back one of the point I mentioned above: 'That being said, if it culminates to a Design Challenge to design or redesign or to revolutionalise the 'functionality' and 'use-experience' of a traditional bookshelf, taking in consideration to work towards 'novelty' or 'cleverness' of a new idea , it is another matter altogether. And very legitimate for a potentially good project.'.

2) Not Considering "Why didn't the GREAT company, the REAL Designers think of that (my problem)?"

If you think you just found a great problem to solve or a great solution to a problem (when you do idea generation), always stop and take the step to understand why they are not made and/or selling in the market from the perspective of business or product design business in the first place.

Could it be that the designers / companies overlook this problem or did not find the solution that you found? Or there might be reasons why they did not (want to) go ahead with the solution - for some economical or practical reasons. Products that generate profit for the company is all that matters in business. Many things can be made, but many would end up too costly from research, to prototyping to manufacturing that yield little returns. In some cases negative returns. Think about these things. Your teacher may be able to help you with this second concept.

Get this step done, and you'll most likely be working on a real good deal.

Conclusion

Are you convinced that it is important to identify a GOOD and GENUINE design opportunity to work on? It requires some effort. But that will save you from spending the next few months designing something that is meaningless and does not improve the situation.

Understanding Design Outcomes - Simplified

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It is important to know what your proposed solution will eventually lead you to.

1. Is it towards solving a problem? Or
2. an improvement? Or
3. a challenge to create an alternative solution?

To be sure in advance means you can be focused in your idea generation and development stage of your design attempt. You will then also be very sure what to look out for for research. You know what you are designing for.

In other words, you must have the end in mind and work towards it.

Design Opportunities to THE Design Opportunity

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Designed Solution Outcomes and Origins

All designed product solution outcomes come from either one or a combination four of the following origins...

1) a problem is identified and there is a need to resolve it,

2) there is a need for making things better and hence an opportunity for improvement,

3) there may be a challenge to design for an alternative solution, and

4) an inspiration by nature or objects that inspires the challenge to design something.

When you have a design situation (or an identified need or opportunity), you must be very certain about the origin of your intention to design and the end objectives of your solution.

Is this design attempt to solve a problem? To improve something? A challenge to design an alternative solution? Or a combination of the four origins? Unless you are clear in the beginning, you will never realize your intention because you never knew in the first place what the product must achieve to do at the end.

So you must be able to articulate clearly your intention and the outcomes of your proposal, both verbally and in writing (i.e. on record in your design journal).

Identifying a Good Design Opportunity

A good design opportunity is one that is real and studied. You'll have to be able to justify what you claimed through research and conclude your findings with facts that the issues you mentioned are indeed real and is socially recognizable. There is no other way.

Putting Research on Record Support your researches with photographs and images taken in a real context rather than conveniently browsing through the intenet and simply printing and putting down the source (URL). Finally do not forget to annotate and record what you are doing on your supporting photographs or images.

Conclusion + Moving forward... The objective of this section is for you to ultimately be able to select the ONE design opportunity which you will work on for the next few months.

A problem statement (see image below) beginning with "In what ways..." will enable you to think broadly, and as you change some of the key words within your statement, you will be able to gain new perspectives on the design opportunities.

A well drafted problem statement will lead you to further research where you will really dig deep into your design opportunity... looking out for existing examples, comparing them, etc. 

 The better your research at this stage, the better prepared you will be when you arrive at drafting your Design Brief and subsequently your Design Consideration and Limitations.

How to identify REAL 'problems'? Revisit a classic post

Save you hours of confusion frustration and useless works.

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If you are short of time and didn't want to read a load of junk below simply click here: Two Common Blunders with regards to 'Identified Problems' to read this classic post.

Just as situations happen all the time and everywhere, and as long as there are more than one person in a space, there will always be conflicts or problems. This is human nature. We are probably the only intelligence on the planet that has caused most, if not all the problems we have in this world. Isn't it?

Most problems we encounter are self-created or self-imposed. There is a difference between lifestyle and basic needs deprivation. Many times we feel miserable or short-changed because we don't have this and that. My friend has a better phone. My colleague drives a nicer car. That family eats in a fancy restaurant. The cat has a better life than me. But we failed to recognise that we are all probably living in the most prosperous times in human history. A hundred years ago or more people probably have less than you have right now. No elevator, no escalator, no TV, no internet, no phones, no cars, and no fancy gadgets of all sorts. But were they any less happy or joyful? No. But you are miserable and sad because you did not have some of these things. Are you any less a human being than our ancestors? No. 

Unless you are really starving or live in a life threatening situations that is a different story. That requires compassion. Giving you a 100" TV with unlimited  5G internet data for all the movies in the world will not help.

So, some of the problems you may have identified from you little mindmap attempt, if you think hard enough and pay close enough attention to each one of them, they really aren't anything at all. Some passing whining about things that did not go your way or as you expected. Isn't it? Oh my desk is messy. I cannot find my pencil. The books are falling down. I cannot pick up tennis balls quickly. I need somewhere to hold my Gucci Bag. The dustbin is too far. Students are bored doing homework. I have nothing to do. The table is wet. The toys are all over the place.

All those problems listed above, yes to a certain extend brings us some inconveniences and some little irritations. But if you know how to handle yourself and your emotions, the solutions are just very simple and need no gadgets or new products. You can walk further and take that as an activity. You can stretch your arm. You can think of something else. You can take a slightly longer time. You can put things elsewhere. Buy less stuffs. Seriously what is the big deal here? Nothing. Maybe you don't have the right things for the right job. Maybe you are just lazy.

Think outward. Be more aware to being more inclusive to the people around you. What generally are people struggling with? Most people aren't even aware of problems around them and they go about doing the same thing again and again. What are those things you see are causing some of the problems you have observed? How can we make people's life better? What really are essential for a meaningful and joyful life? What aspect of our products can be made to enhance that and value-add? 

Pay attention to details. Ask 'why' to get to the root cause of any problems you initially find. You will be surprised you'll find something else that is bothering everybody.

Ok that being said, if that is too profound for you, you can really design and make just about anything. Just make sure that the situation and the problem you have identified is worth your 20 weeks of fun and toil. It must be a situation that is meaningful to you at least, and one that somehow most of your friends (and your teacher) agree that is something nice and neat to work on, and is something within your capacity and capability to transform it to reality.

Cheers. All the best.

Pictorial Theme Definition to Design Specifications

*Updated in January 2022*

What you'll see in this post are visual examples on 

1. Theme Definition (Optional to read but NOT NEEDED from 2021 D&T Syllabus)
2. Mindmap on the Theme (exploring the theme)
3. Theme Board (Optional to read but do this ONLY IF needed)
4. Tips on how to use a mind map to identify Design Needs/Situations
5. Identifying and drafting Design Needs/Situations 
6. Selecting Design Need / Situation for coursework
7. Design Brief
8. Design Considerations
9. Design Specifications
10. (a) Pictorial Idea Generation and Development (Using SCAMPER) (Click here)
11. (b) Pictorial Idea Generation and Development (Using Attribute Listing / Morphological Method) (Click here).

Use them as a reference and a guide to start or to improve your journal. Make informed choices on your own on what your takeaways should be after looking at the materials in here. Do not copy. 

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Theme Definition 

!!! Do this ONLY if absolutely necessary !!!

For example if you need to understand terms in more detail in order to progress.

Define the theme using either online or physical dictionaries. Use a variety of sources for richer scope of definition.

Including synonyms and antonyms helps. Antonyms give the opposite meanings of the defined word - which is exactly what you need for exploring design opportunities. 

Add photos and images to substantiate some keywords - images also serve to spice up the page - makes understanding the definitions faster at a glance.

Mindmap on the Theme (exploring the theme)

Every stage in the design journal is build up from the previous section. If you understood them theme perfectly, you will have little problem mapping out the theme.

End the mindmap with identified products / objects followed by a brief description of the problems or issues associated with them. 

These 'comments' at the end becomes your identified design need and situations. Which you simply extract and write them formally in your Design Needs and Situations section.

Theme Board 

(Do this ONLY IF needed)

A theme board is a collage of images/products/activities to illustrate what the theme means. There is no need for annotations or descriptions in a theme board. 

Remember that you got to know and understand the theme first before doing this. Use the keywords you discovered about the theme and find related images for the theme board.

You can use the completed theme board to help you in your mind map later (see below). Use the same theme board to help you identify potential problems or issues.

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Tips on how to use a mind map to identify Design Needs/Situations

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Identifying and drafting Design Needs/Situations

Identifying and drafting your Design Needs and Situation section should not be difficult because all the information you need are already in your mind map (see above tips on how to use a mind map to identify design opportunities).

Pick and choose the information you need and rephrase them in a paragraph or two stating clearly the context and the problems / issues. Finish off with a 'wish list' - that will pave your way to writing a design brief (see below).

Selecting Design Need / Situation for coursework + Design Brief

You may use a modified Plus, Minus and Interesting (PMI) method to help select a Design Situation to work on later. You can use any other decision making techniques to do this.

Here the Design Need and Situation is repeated. Fine tune your paragraph if needed.

A design brief is quickly drafted by rephrasing the 'wish list' at the end of the Design Need and Situation paragraph.

Design Considerations

The design Consideration and Limitations (or constraints) is where you list out general points on what should be considered during the Ideaiton stage. Begin a mind map surfacing very general areas like e.g. functionalities - then move on to describe what do you expect in terms of functions.

The further you are from the core (centre of the mind map) the more specific you become. You'll reach a point at the far end where you need to research for data to be included. e.g. if it has to hold some pens, then research how many exactly do you need. 5 pens?

These quantifiable specific data / information you have at the end of the Design Considerations and Limitation mind map (again) automatically becomes a preview of your Design Specifications (see below).

Design Specifications

Remember you read in the previous sections that whatever comes after in your design journal stage, some, if not most of the information should come from the previous section. 

If you did your Design Considerations and Limitations as suggested above, making a list of Design Specifications is a breeze. All the information you need and want is already available and researched. 

Extract your quantifiable and researched data / information and then transform them into Design Specification points. Categories and order your Design Specifications beginning with Functional specifications. A typical design specification begins with 'The product must...'

Note that these points in turn becomes your guide for Ideation (see below).

Pictorial Idea Generation and Development (Using SCAMPER) 2016 (Click here)

Situation and Problem and the differences, and how to identify the best NEED to solve

Welcome to another new year of coursework in 2021. In this post we will look at what a situation and a problem is. And end with three simple questions you can ask yourself, so you may know if you have identified a design need that you can solve.  

A Situation:

A Situation is set of events that are happening (e.g. someone sweeping the floor in a windy condition), and the conditions (e.g. peacefulness, frustration, chaos, anxiety, etc.) that exist at a particular time and place, in which one finds oneself. Something is happening. What is it? Who is involved? What’s the atmosphere like?

Situations happen everywhere, all the time. A Situation is just... a Situation. Something involving someone took place. There is no good or bad Situation. Just Situation. When and how does a Situation become a Problem?

A Problem:

When one have yet to know how to handle a Situation, the situation becomes a Problem. When we have a Problem, unpleasantness / uncertainty is a natural consequence of that. People get anxious, irritated, or frustrated. 

It is very IMPORTANT to establish which is the real Problem? The Situation or the Person or the Product he is using (or should not be using), etc.? If you cannot get the Problem right, you aren’t solving any anything even with the best Solution. 

You can use the 5 Whys to help you get to the root cause of a problem.

When a root cause is found, we have an identified the NEED - the Solution to the Problem for the Situation.

A Need:

(Verb): refers to when someone requires something because it is essential or very important rather than just desirable, 

(Noun): a circumstance (in the Situation) in which something (e.g. a Solution to the Problem) is necessary.

THREE Questions you use to figure out if you have the BEST Design Project

Before you sprint all out with mindmaps after mindmaps with your newly found Theme you need to understand that there are so many unlimited situations you can identify. 

So where do I begin? How do I manage my work to be concise, precise and down-to-earth? 

You can answer the following THREE questions below to help you decide what is best:

1) Is the situation where I spend most of my time in? / Am I familiar with the situation?

    If no, consider choosing another situation. 

    If yes, move on to question 2.

2) Will I be able to realistically and conveniently test & evaluate my model(s), mock-up(s) or prototype? 
 

    If  no, consider choosing another situation. 

    If yes, move on to question 3.

3) Will I be able to gather researched information conveniently, truthfully and readily?

    If  no, consider choosing another situation. 

    If yes, go ahead. Or you can choose another one or two for consideration and comparison, and  

    finally find the best project for the best bang for your time.

If you do not choose a situation from which you spend most of your time in, or often enough, what chance do you have to be familiar with the situation? The exception is that you must be very good with your research to study an unfamiliar but equally promising situation and its concerns very well. Otherwise stick to what is closest to you according to your experience.

If you chose a situation where it will be very challenging for you to gather sufficient data, e.g. very difficult to get an appointment to observe / interview / talk to your target user(s), the place is too far or out-of-bounds or very limited accessibility, etc, again what is your chance of knowing your situation well enough to solve a problem?

Finally, if are not competent to complete the project within the deadline then you are not being realistic and not ready to take on the identified need - regardless if it is a good or bad one. You need to know your strengths and weaknesses. The graduation year is not a time for your to learn how to do things for most of the time. You ought to be applying what you have learnt and practiced instead.

Start well, maintain your momentum and end your coursework well.

All the best. mrdanielsos