Process and Design Technology Notes

Perspectives in Technology: Process and Design Technology

Introduction to Process Design

  • Technological Design Process – Steps and Explanation
  • Technological Resources
  • Topic and Structure of Lesson

Module Objectives

  • Define Design and Process
  • Define Process Design
  • Understand the Process Design Technology

Key Terms

  • Process
  • Design
  • Technological resources
  • Conceptual design
  • Detailed design

Definition: Process

  • A series of actions that produce something or that lead to a particular result. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
  • A process is an instance of a program running in a computer, also known as a task.
  • Example: The steps taken to develop a website.

Definition: Process Technology

  • Machines, equipment, and devices that create and/or deliver products and services.
  • It has a significant effect on quality, speed, dependability, flexibility, and cost.
  • Processes make work more efficient.
  • Technology helps people do their tasks and also helps automate the processes.
  • Businesses can achieve organizational efficiency by balancing and optimizing the relationships between people, processes, and technology.
  • Example: Hotel reservation system.

Definition: Design

  • A plan or something created.
  • To make preliminary sketches of; sketch a pattern or outline.
  • Generally, the process of visualizing and planning the creation of objects, interactive systems, buildings, vehicles and many more.
  • Example: Food ordering system with payment gateway and tracking system.

Definition: Design Technology

  • Skills and abilities to engage positively with the design, development, application, and implementation of non-computer or computer-based technologies.
  • Can be applied to the problems encountered in construction, operation, and maintenance of a product.

Conceptual Design

  • Customer requirements are determined and converted into design goals.
  • Designers choose an underlying technology based on these.
  • Collect data and information.
    • Clients are to be highly involved.
    • Conduct research.
  • Examples: Conceptual design takes the clients imaginary space and creates a beautiful structure based on the information provided to the architect. It is an essential part of the architectural process in which the homeowner should share their personal needs and wants.

Detailed Design

  • In detailed design, the conceptual design is reduced to logic elements that take in, convert, and put out logical values.
    • Create the design
    • Create a prototype
    • Evaluate the design
    • Identify any non conformances
    • Rework the design
    • Modification according to the identified problems
    • Develop the design
    • Actual design is decided and implemented
    • Prepare to communicate the design and gain acceptance to the design
  • Examples: Detail design drawings provide a detailed description of the geometric form of a part of an object such as a building, bridge, tunnel, machine, plant, and so on. They tend to be large-scale drawings that show in detail parts that may be included in less detail on general arrangement drawings.

Definition :Process Design

  • Activity of determining the workflow, equipment needs, and implementation requirements for a process.
  • Uses several tools including flowcharting, process simulation software, and scale models.
  • Example: Developing Voice Verification System.
    • For voice recognition to work, you must have a computer with a sound card and either a microphone or a headset. Other devices like smartphones have all of the necessary hardware built into the device.
    • Any program that requires machine learning will require a team of expert developers including voice recognition software. If you have such developers then they will be able to build a voice recognition technology for you.
    • ELECHOUSE Voice Recognition Module is a compact and easy-control speaking recognition board. This product is a speaker-dependent voice recognition module. It supports up to 80 voice commands in all.

Technological Design Process

  • The process in which new technologies are developed.
  • Technological design is like scientific investigation.
  • Both processes rely on evidence and reason and follow a logical sequence of steps to solve problems or answer questions.
  • Example: Weather forecasting

Technological Design Process – 6 Steps

  1. Identify the Needs
  2. Define the Problem
  3. Design a Solution
  4. Build a Prototype
  5. Troubleshooting, Debugging, and Redesigning
  6. Communicating the Solution

Identify the Needs

  • Identify the needs and target audience
  • Break a large problem into smaller, easier to understand pieces
  • Relating the project
  • Example: Student attendance system: APU students, create subcategories and narrow down the process

Define the Problem

  • State the root of the problem
  • Break a large problem into smaller, easier to understand pieces
    *Example: Wrong coding, formatting.

Research

  • Process of searching out new facts
  • Gather related data, record important info
  • Researching examples will help you to decide what is best
  • Example: Google scholar, latest 5 years…

Design the Solution

  • Brainstorming
  • Sketching
  • Storyboarding

Build a Prototype / Model

  • After developing a design you can begin building the technology.
  • Models help to understand the elements needed to create a cohesive story
  • Modeling or construction part of the process
  • May contain the most technological problems.
  • Technical planning of a prototype of a 2D or 3D model
  • Experimentation is REQUIRED

Troubleshooting, Debugging, and Redesigning

  • Once your model is complete, it is important to begin testing to ensure functionality.
  • Test your final design with your users
  • This gives you the opportunity to make important changes
  • Feedback and interaction with the solution, will redesign the solution to make it better
  • Repeat process of testing, determining issues, fixing issues, & then retesting multiple times until the solution is as successful as possible.

Communicating the Solution

  • Take the feedback from the testing into consideration
  • Apply the new data to the final design to complete the Technological Design Process

Technological Resources

  • Information, tools or devices that motivate people and give assistance with questions and problems.
  • Examples:
    • Interactive white boards
    • Digital cameras
    • Scanners

People

  • People create technology and people consume its products and services.
  • People use what they know, try to learn more, and develop technologies.
  • Many people provide the labor on which technology depends.
  • Many workers are needed to provide the products and services we use every day.
  • People are also the consumers of technology – we eat the hamburgers, drive the cars, watch the TV, and travel the roads and airways

Information

  • Technology requires information
  • People need to know what to do and how to do it. (e.g., learning programming on YouTube)
  • Information begins as data, raw facts and figures.
  • Data is then collected, recorded, classified, calculated, stored, and retrieved.
  • It becomes information. Data processing is the act of turning data into information

Materials

  • Natural resources are materials that are found in nature (air, water, land, timber, minerals, plants, and animals).
  • Natural resources that will be used to make finished products are called raw materials.
  • Countries that are rich in natural resources have lots of raw materials.

Raw Materials

  • Renewable Raw Materials: those that can be grown and therefore can be replaced (wood, rubber, plants, animals).
  • Nonrenewable Raw Materials: cannot be grown or replaced (oil, gas, coal, and minerals).

Synthetic Materials

  • People have long used technology to make substitutes for some resources.
  • These are called synthetic materials.
  • Many everyday materials are synthetics.
  • Plastics like acrylic, nylon, and Teflon are made from chemicals.
  • Synthetics are not as costly as natural materials.
  • Synthetics can be used in place of scarce materials, helping to save our natural resources.

Tools and Machines

  • People have been using tools for more than a million years.
  • Tools include hand tools and machines.
  • Tools extend human capabilities.
  • Some of them let us do jobs faster and better.
  • Others let us do jobs we couldn’t do at all without them.

Energy

  • Energy is used to make products, to move goods and people, and to heat and cool, and light the places where people work and live.
  • Some energy resources are in great supply.
  • Others are in limited supply and can get used up.

Capital

  • To build homes or factories, to make toasters or cars, to move people or goods, capital is needed.
  • Any form of wealth is capital.
  • Cash, stock, buildings, machinery, and land are all capital.
  • A company needs capital to operate.
  • To raise capital, a company may sell stock.
  • Each share of stock has a certain value.
  • When people buy the stock, this money goes to operate or expand the business.

Time

  • Early man measured time by the rising and setting of the sun and the change of seasons.
  • It was much later that clocks were used to measure time periods less than a day.
  • When most people lived by farming, time was measured in days.
  • In the industrial era, time became more important.
  • In today’s information age, things are done in fractions of seconds.

Technology Life Cycle

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