En -david ullman the mechanical design process four

Preface

I have been a designer allmylife. I have designed bicycles, medical equipment,

furniture, and sculpture, both static and dynamic. Designing objects has come

easy for me. I have been fortunate in having whatever talents are necessary to

be a successful designer. However, after a number of years of teaching mechanical

design courses, I came to the realization that I didn’t know how to teach what

I knew so well. I could show students examples of good-quality design and poorquality

design. I could give them case histories of designers in action. I could

suggest design ideas. But I could not tell them what to do to solve a design problem.

Additionally, I realized from talking with other mechanical design teachers that

I was not alone.

This situation reminded me of an experience I had once had on ice skates.

As a novice skater I could stand up and go forward, lamely. A friend (a teacher

by trade) could easily skate forward and backward as well. He had been skating

since he was a young boy, and it was second nature to him. One day while we

were skating together, I asked him to teach me how to skate backward. He said

it was easy, told me to watch, and skated off backward. But when I tried to do

what he did, I immediately fell down. As he helped me up, I asked him to tell me

exactly what to do, not just show me. After a moment’s thought, he concluded

that he couldn’t actually describe the feat to me. I still can’t skate backward,

and I suppose he still can’t explain the skills involved in skating backward. The

frustration that I felt falling down as my friend skated with ease must have been

the same emotion felt by my design students when I failed to tell them exactly

what to do to solve a design problem.

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