INFLUENCE OF DESIGN EVALUATIONS ON DECISION-MAKING AND FEEDBACK DURING CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

This paper aims to understand the following issues: how design flaws are diagnosed; how they influence feedback; and, how these matters could be improved in early design stages. A longitudinal, descriptive case study was carried out, following design alternatives generated over two and a half years, with the following results: evaluation methods are less than often carried out during conceptual design; failure modes motivating design decisions were repeated over time; and, feedback on robustness and reliability issues is generic when not absent.

Recommendations were given to capture designers’ preference and insight while they are designing to address robustness and reliability in early stages, and to use this knowledge in order to support these attributes by proposing countermeasures.