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Future-Ready · Future-Ready Skills
Engineering: The Design Process
Engineers don't just guess the answer — they follow a smart, repeatable loop: ask, imagine, plan, prototype, test, and improve.
🔁The Design Process Loop
1❓ Ask
What is the problem? Who is it for?
2💡 Imagine
Brainstorm lots of possible ideas.
3📐 Plan
Draw a blueprint and pick the best idea.
4🔨 Create
Build a rough prototype to try.
5🧪 Test
See what works and what breaks.
6⬆️ Improve
Fix it, then loop again — iterate!
⚖️Constraints vs. Criteria
🚧CONSTRAINTS
⏰The limits you must work inside.
💰Examples: budget, deadline, the materials allowed.
📏"You only have 20 straws and 1 hour."
🎯CRITERIA
✅What success must look like.
📋The checklist your design has to pass.
🌉"The bridge must hold 10 coins."
🤝 Make smart trade-offs
You usually can't have everything at once. A trade-off means giving up a little of one thing (like speed) to get more of another (like strength).
🧪Failure = Feedback
A broken prototype isn't failure — it tells you exactly what to fix. Great engineers test early, test often, and keep iterating.
🔑Key Terms
🛠️Engineering Using science, math & creativity to design things that solve real problems.
🧱Prototype A first rough version you build so you can test it before the real thing.
🚧Constraint A limit you must work inside — budget, deadline, or materials.
🎯Criteria The list of things your design must do to count as a success.
🤝Trade-off Giving up some of one thing to get more of another.
🔁Iterate Repeat the loop, improving each time based on what you learned.
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Remember: the design process is a repeating loop, not a one-shot guess — when a prototype breaks, that's not failure, it's data. Try, test, improve!