Good and bad design to be an engineer

[Jin Sen Zhang]

What are the characteristics of a good design and a bad design? How can we be a good design engineer? How many design projects do we need to complete in a year to be a good design engineer?

 

[FredGarvin]

Oh my. Those are incredibly vague questions. Those are opinions and they can not possibly cover every engineer's own situation.

 

[Artman]

I will use mechanical design as my reference, but most of these apply to any design.

A good design addresses all code requirements.

A good design meets as many as possible of the client's requirements.

A good design balances first cost (installation cost) and operating cost (efficiency) as per the client's desires.

A good design is possible to install.

A good design is easy to maintain.

The best designs are often the least complicated solution that meets all the requirements.

 

[brewnog]

A good designer will address all relevant issues when overcoming a problem at minimum cost.

Any compromise on his ability to address the issues, overcome the problem, or create extra cost shows a compromise of his engineering ability.


The number of projects an engineer attempts bears absolutely no relation on his competence. A design engineer may take many months to design a bridge abutment, many weeks to design a crankshaft, or a few hours to design a small bracket, but none of these are necessarily done well/poorly, and none of these are indicative of his competence.

 

[Jin Sen Zhang]

how to be a good designer

Is it possible for a student who is not good at art to become a good engineering designer? How can we train ourselves to be a good designer?

 

[brewnog]

Please don't double post.