The engineering design cycle- part I

[xixiou]

For what it's worth.......I constantly work with people that mean well but have no clue about design. Over the years certain phrases I have heard such as "something like" or "hooks onto somehow" have conditioned me to want to punch them in the face. That is not cool so I don't. People in my line of work sympathize. I run from sales.

[kridnix]

I think this depends on your definition of "teach". If by teach you mean "stand up and tell" then I agree. However in a broader sense you can guide novices over the common mistakes and get them more quickly to recognize when/where they are stalled. Formal procedures don't teach design, but they are (admittedly imperfect) representations of a process that are used as an aid to understanding and to create a shared language.

[DEBROXDEBROX]

You cannot teach someone how to design -- you can only show them. Any formal procedure to help design is contrived, ineffective, and useless. This sort of teaching is akin to teaching someone how to be smart or teaching someone how to solve problems [i.e. that ridiculously annoying chapter in many textbooks that starts with "state the problem"] -- they cannot and never will be done.