Conceptual Design

Maximizing reader insights into the understanding of the theory, models and methods of designing, and the fundamental reasoning in design, this book addresses the design activity in industrial settings, its actors and teams, and creates new understanding of the design activity and the reasoning about functions, properties, and dispositions. Providing the reader with a mindset of design that seeks to empower students, researchers, and practitioners with a strong foundation for bringing together, and applying their understanding of design, this text features a strong focus on how designers create new concepts to be developed into products, how they lead to new business, and how they satisfy human needs.§§Presenting a multi-faceted approach this book supplies the reader with a comprehensive worldview in the form of a proposed model of designing which will empower the readers activities as student, researcher, teacher or practitioner and draw the reader into the core role of conceptualization for society, for industry's development, for users and buyers of products, and for citizens in relation to public systems. This book contains original contributions related to exploration, conceptualization and product synthesis.§§Exploring both the power and limitations of formal design process models, methods, and tools as seen in the light of human ingenuity and cognition, this book develops a unique insight called 'mind-set' which adds human understanding to the list of methods and tools with this insight used to underline the use of mind-set to give advice as heuristics throughout the book.§