Functional analysis aims to decompose complex product main functions into manageable sub-functions. Novice and experienced designers have reported challenges with functional analysis such as high cognitive loads, and difficulties in identifying and expressing functions. Recently, interest in explicitly considering users during functional modeling has grown to enhance analysis completeness, but how this addresses commonly reported challenges is not clear. This research proposes and assesses a simple way to streamline user considerations for novice designers (i.e., embedding requirements into a user workflow explicitly) as a potential mitigation for some challenges in functional analysis at physical product early design stage. Analyses of the results indicate that workflow helps novice designers generate significantly more functions with correct syntax. In addition, the exploration space is prominently broader (especially at higher levels) when a workflow is presented as measured by the geometry of the generated tree diagrams. These results suggest that strategically incorporating user considerations in functional analysis, even in a simple way, has a positive effect in addressing commonly reported challenges of functional analysis. The better outcome from the functional analysis will likely be instrumental in later systematic conceptual design.
Engineering design in new product development is a constant battle between creativity and strict structure. As researchers look to optimize the process, each stage is placed under a microscope to put designers in the best position to develop better products for companies in a cost effective manner. One idea in improving product development is the concept of incorporating the Human-centered Design into functional analysis. However, critiques of these functional analysis methods cite an unnecessary amount of resources needed to invest in these steps, a restriction in creativity, and a high necessary level of effort from the design teams. The goal of this research will be to address these critiques by incorporating theories from cognitive research and Human-centered Design into the functional analysis process. This work will propose a new method aimed to improve the quality of the function model of the design space, increase the creativity freedom of the designers, and be accessible to engineering students and industry engineers alike.
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