| A | B |
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| Assessment | An evaluation technique for technology that requires analyzing benefits and risks, understanding the trade-offs, and then determining the best action to take in order to ensure that the desired positive outcomes outweigh the negative consequences. |
| Brainstorming | A spontaneous group discussion to produce ideas. |
| Client | A person using the services of a professional person or organization. |
| Constraint | 1. A limit to a design process. Constraints may be such things as appearance, funding, space, materials, and human capabilities. 2. A limitation or restriction. |
| Design | 1. An iterative decision-making process that produces plans by which resources are converted into products or systems that meet human needs and wants or solve problems. 2. A plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of something before it is built or made. 3. A decorative pattern. |
| Design Brief | A written plan that identifies a problem to be solved, its criteria, and its constraints. The design brief is used to encourage thinking of all aspects of a problem before attempting a solution. |
| Design Process | A systematic problem-solving strategy, with criteria and constraints, used to develop many possible solutions to solve a problem or satisfy human needs and wants and to winnow (narrow) down the possible solutions to one final choice. |
| Designer | A person who designs any of a variety of things. This usually implies the task of creating drawings or in some ways uses visual cues to organize his or her work. |
| Engineer | A person who is trained in and uses technological and scientific knowledge to solve practical problems. |
| Engineer’s Notebook | Also referred to as an Engineer’s Logbook, a Design Notebook, or Designer’s Notebook 1. A record of design ideas generated in the course of an engineer’s employment that others may not claim as their own. 2. An archival record of new ideas and engineering research achievements. |
| Evolution | A gradual development. |
| Innovation | An improvement of an existing technological product, system, or method of doing something. |
| Invention | A new product, system, or process that has never existed before, created by study and experimentation. |
| Iterative | Describing a procedure or process that repeatedly executes a series of operations until some condition is satisfied. An iterative procedure may be implemented by a loop in a routine. |
| Problem Identification | The recognition of an unwelcome or harmful matter needing to be dealt with. |
| Process | 1. Human activities used to create, invent, design, transform, produce, control, maintain, and use products or systems; 2. A systematic sequence of actions that combines resources to produce an output. |
| Product | A tangible artifact produced by means of either human or mechanical work, or by biological or chemical process. |
| Research | The systematic study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions. |
| Sequential | Forming or following a logical order or sequence. |
| Solution | 1. A method or process for solving a problem. 2. The answer to or disposition of a problem. |
| Standard | Something considered by an authority or by general consent as a basis of comparison. |
| Target Consumer | A person or group for which product or service design efforts are intended. |
| Time Line Chart | A one-axis chart used to display past and/or future events, activities, requirements, etc., in the order they occurred or are expected to occur for the purposes of analysis and communication. |
