4.0 Design Ideation
4.1 Idea Generation
A jamboard was used to generate and document a list of ~100 ideas to be sorted, recombined, and ranked by Team 305. Three categories were created to help organize the random idea generation phase; Functionality, Hardware/Product Design, and Safety. See Figure 4A for a Jamboard image before sorting, ranking, and idea recombination. See the following link for the original Jamboard Here.
4.2 Sort, Rank, and Group Design Concepts
The most important design concepts and features were separated from the original list and placed into separate Jamboard pages. They were then ranked by the group from 1 to 5 - 5 being the most important and/or desirable in a final concept. These steps prepared Team 305 for idea recombination in the next stage of Design Ideation.
4.3 Design concept Ideation
Once the most desirable features were chosen, ideas were combined and placed into three categories - one category per concept. The following “Concept Bins” (see Figures 4E-G) were used to guide the concept sketches found in the last part of this document (see Figures 4H-J).
4.4 Concept Sketches
Upon completion of idea bin sorting, three product concept sketches were drawn. The concept sketches were designed using the ideas in the respective concept jamboard bin, creating three unique weather stations that each serve their own unique purpose in monitoring greenhouse conditions. Each of these concepts blends the project assignment provided with the chosen application of Team 305. The three concept sketches are shown below (see Figures 4H-J).
The final design concept was settled on by assessing our group capabilities, addressing the availability of components, and deciding which design satisfies the product requirements best. Choosing the light/temperature sensor design with the moving rail also provided the greatest challenge and maximized potential for the group to learn.