Engineering Design Process

Design Requirement Examples

The design requirements for your project will differ from those of anyone else, because yours will apply to your specific problem statement and the product, system, or experience that you are designing. In the table are a few examples of design requirements. Your requirements will be more specific and directly related to meeting the needs of your project's users.

If you are designing a baseball bat, your design requirements might be that the bat needs to be:

Less than 1.5 pounds.
Made out of a material approved by the league.
Able to hit a baseball without breaking.

If you are designing a better form of transportation for students to get to school, your design requirements might be that the transportation needs to be:

Free for students.
Quick: less than one hour round-trip.
Safe.

If you are designing a website for teachers to post homework assignments online, your design requirements might be that the website needs to:

Allow teachers to upload documents.
Provide a login for teachers.
Be accessible from schools and teachers' homes.

To help you consider possibilities, here are several tables listing different types of design requirements. It would be rare if all the ones important to you were here; it would be equally rare (but still possible) that none of yours are here. Most students will pick only three to five. Remember that all of your requirements should be needed and feasible.

Types of Design Requirement for General Products
A cost target is almost always a design requirement Cost to purchase Cost to use Cost to repair	Aesthetics (how it looks) Style (art deco, Victorian, modern, medieval) Color Fit and finish (Is it built with care and attention to detail?)
Geometry Size, overall dimensions Curvature	Capacity (how many and how big are the things it can work with)
Physical characteristics Weight Density Melting, boiling point Color Transparency Reflectance Surface texture (polished, rough) Elasticity Hardness Ductility (ability to be drawn into a wire) Magnetic properties Electrical properties (resistance, impedance, etc.) Impact resistance Bending strength Viscosity (the thickness and stickiness of a fluid)	Performance characteristics Accuracy Strength Reproducibility, repeatability (Does it always do the same thing given the same input?) Speed Acceleration Deceleration, braking Rolling resistance Friction Adhesion Absorbency Permeability (Do things leak through it?) Resolution Flammability (ability to set on fire) Insulation value
Inputs Energy consumption Fuel consumption Labor	Outputs Product produced Power Pollution Undesirable side effects ___________
Manufacturing considerations Difficulty of making Equipment or manufacturing techniques required to build the invention (You don't want to build something from metal if all you have is a woodworking shop.) Number of component parts Labor requirements Means of shipping or delivery	Environmental requirements Operating temperature range Storage temperature range Water resistance Resistance to corrosion Compatibility with ___________ Ability to withstand radiation (called radiation hardness)
User requirements Ease of use Ease of learning Operator training	Regulatory & licensing considerations Meets government rules Meets league rules (a sporting product) Does it require paying a patent or license fee?
How does it hold up? Service requirements Ease of repair Reliability Lifespan Disposability	Acoustic characteristics Pitch Sound transmission Resonance

Types of Design Requirements for Software Programs
Software products & programs Functionality or feature set Capacity (how many and how big are the things it can work with) Type of user interface (command line, standard Windows or Mac look & feel, totally unique) Customizability Speed, responsiveness Ability to communicate with other programs (data import / export) Type of error handling (none (not recommended!), error number, messages with help) Programming language written in Portability (ability to move to another operating system) Ability to modify to work in other spoken languages (often called localization)	The computer environment the program requires Operating system CPU speed Memory size Display size and number of colors supported Single user or network environment Peripherals required (scanners, printers, disk drives) Other software required (language interpreters, browsers, etc.)

Types of Design Requirements for Software Programs

Software products & programs

Functionality or feature set
Capacity (how many and how big are the things it can work with)
Type of user interface (command line, standard Windows or Mac look & feel, totally unique)
Customizability
Speed, responsiveness
Ability to communicate with other programs (data import / export)
Type of error handling (none (not recommended!), error number, messages with help)
Programming language written in
Portability (ability to move to another operating system)
Ability to modify to work in other spoken languages (often called localization)

The computer environment the program requires

Operating system
CPU speed
Memory size
Display size and number of colors supported
Single user or network environment
Peripherals required (scanners, printers, disk drives)
Other software required (language interpreters, browsers, etc.)

Every product area has some of its own requirements; these are just a few types:


Clothing Comfort, wearability Fabric How to clean (dry clean or throw it in the wash) Iron or permanent press	Aircraft and Rockets Lift Drag Thrust
Food Products Taste Nutrition value Perishability (how and how long can it be stored)	Genetically Engineered Bacteria Gene to be added or deleted Means of controlling gene expression

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