how to write a design report

Undergraduate Writing Guide: Design Report 1

How to Write a Design Report Table of Contents I. Before you Begin ...........................................................................................1 II. Design Report Organization...........................................................................2 III. Format and Style ............................................................................................4 IV. Design Report Outline....................................................................................5 Volume I ....................................................................................................7

1. Title Page........................................................................................7 2. Executive Summary........................................................................7 3. Problem Definition .........................................................................8 4. Design Description .........................................................................8 5. Evaluation .......................................................................................9 6. References.....................................................................................10

Volume II.................................................................................................11 1. Problem Definition Support Documents ......................................11 2. Design Description Support Documents ......................................13 3. Evaluation Support Documents ....................................................14

I. Before you Begin You need to understand what you are doing before you can write a good report. Definition: A design report documents the solution to a unique problem. Purpose: to communicate the solution to a problem. Audience: anyone who has to implement your design, understand your design, or reference it to solve their own unique problem. Typically, this is the project client. While the client may be familiar with the project, the report is still written as thought the client is new to the project.


II. Design Report Organization A friend comes to you with a problem. “I haven’t been sleeping at night,” he says. You decide to help out. Upon further study you find that he hasn’t slept on a box spring for three months, has a persistent backache and has been on a 90-ounces-of-coffee-a-day diet since his last heat transfer midterm. Committed to your friend’s well-being, you take the appropriate action. You find a box-spring on craigslist for free. You suggest the use of caffeine-free tea after 6 pm and recommend that he play Bach softly as he falls asleep to drown out the sound of late-night buses. Your friend thanks you for the best night’s sleep he’s had in a while. Word spreads and it isn’t long before someone comes to you and says, “A friend of mine is having trouble sleeping at night.” What do you tell them? Do you say, “Easy, get a box spring and play Bach!?” If you did that, they would be confused. This is how you would answer.

“My friend Tim was having problems sleeping at night. He had three problems. He had an unsupportive mattress, he was drinking WAY too much coffee, and there are noisy buses passing outside his window every night. I got him a new mattress, got him hooked on caffeine-free tea, and had him play music to block out the background noise.”

If you stopped there, you would most certainly be asked one more question, “did it work?” Therefore, you would continue.

“After we made those changes, Tim slept great for almost three weeks. He told me everything was back to normal, and what’s better, he’s become a huge classical music fan. The only drawback was getting the mattress for free off of craigslist. Next time I’d pay a little money for one that was less dirty.”

This problem is not an engineering design problem, but the way in which it is documented is identical. The documentation has three main parts: problem definition, design description, and evaluation. All three are required to communicate your solution.

Figure 1: Design Solution Report Structure


A Problem Definition In this part you describe the problem you are about to solve. You provide sufficient detail so someone can both understand why the problem is significant and how it has been solved in the past. Your problem is further detailed by providing design requirements which the solution must meet. B Design Description In this part you describe your solution to the problem. You describe what your solution is and how it works. C Evaluation In this part you describe how you have verified that your solution works. You do this by evaluating it against the design requirements you outlined in the problem definition. It is not enough to simply provide a solution to a problem; you have to know it works. Evaluation could be through experimental testing of a prototype, through analysis or by computer simulation Lastly, this part describes the main strengths and weaknesses of the design and describes recommendations for future work. D Design Requirements The design requirements are a central element to the design report and must be concrete, measurable criteria which can be tested. They should be based on a user need. For example, “supports 80 lbs” and “has an emissivity greater than 0.8” are concrete testable requirements. “Looks nice, ” “comfortable, ” and “low cost are user needs and not design requirements. Refine them to measurable criteria, like “aesthetically rated above average on a 5 point Likert scale” or “can be held for 5 minutes without fatiguing the average user’s hand,” Or “parts cost less than $20 in lots of 100.” One last thing to consider when setting design requirements is that they must be tested by you. If you do not (or can not) test them, even approximately, then they do not belong in the report. For example, do not use the design requirement, “can withstand a half-mile drop test,” unless you are going to either make an analytical model or empirically test out of a C-130. F Design Reports versus Lab Reports A lab report describes an experiment and its conclusions. It has four main parts: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. The major difference between design and lab reports is that design reports do not include the method. When performing an experiment, the method which you use to obtain an answer is necessary to validate the results. For example, when testing the emissivity of a material, the difference between using a thermopile and using an energy balance will affect the results. The absence of a methods section in a design report will be disconcerting when writing your report. You might have spent up to half the semester considering different concepts before choosing one, but ultimately you won’t write about that process. The audience only cares what you came up with. If you find you are writing more than a paragraph about your concept selection process, you’re writing too much.


III. Format and Style A Voice The report can be written in either passive (“a concept was selected”) or active (“we selected a concept”) voice. Pick whichever sounds more natural and be consistent. B Tense Use past tense to describe what you did or found out. For example, “We built and tested a prototype.” Use present tense to describe things that were known before your project. For example, “Squirrels are warm-blooded.” C Self Supporting Your report should provide enough information to be understood. It shouldn’t reference outside sources for information that is essential to understanding. D Technical Writing The basis for technical writing is to communicate information as clearly and effectively as possible. You should not use language that is excessive or complex. This is typically done by writing at an 8th grade level. This does not mean you have dumb down your engineering. Define terminology that might be confusing and avoid wordiness. Don’t be dramatic; drama is used in creative writing to elicit an emotional response. Technical writing is centered on the use of logic. E Headings and Sub-Headings Divide your information up into small, manageable chunks. Use headings to categorize the information so people can easily find it. You should have at least one heading on each page. Number the headings to show the organizational structure. F One Idea per Paragraph Only include one idea in each paragraph and put it in the first sentence. It’s OK if the resulting paragraph is short. People would rather read several small blocks of text than one big one. G Margins, Spacing, and Numbering Use 1” margins, 12pt font, single spacing. Either indent at the beginning of a paragraph or add a blank line between a paragraph, not both. Number all pages and provide headers and footers sufficient to orient the reader to their location within the report. H Report Length The executive summary should be a page, with approximately 30% of that space occupied by a figure. Volume I of the report should be between 20 and 25 pages, with no more than about 25% of that space occupied with figures and tables. There is no limit to Volume II. The purpose of the length requirement is to keep your writing focused and concise.


IV. Design Report Outline There are three major levels of detail in the design report, starting from simplest in the executive summary, and advancing to the most complex through Volume I and Volume II

Figure 2: Comparative Sizes of Report Sections

Volume I This 20 – 25 page document describes the project clearly and concisely. It contains the problem definition, design description, and evaluation Volume II This large second volume documents the design in excruciating detail. It contains elements of Problem Definition, Design Description, and Evaluation. Volume II contains all of the supporting information for your project.


Ordering the Sections The overall structure of the report will look as follows.

Figure 3: Major Section order of Volumes


Volume I Volume I has three main parts: problem definition, design description, and evaluation as shown in the following figure.

Figure 4: Design Report Structure

In addition Volume 1 has a title page, an executive summary and a list of references. 1 Title Page The title page has the project title, team members, advisor name, client name, the date, and one graphic that best shows the design solution. 2 Executive Summary The executive summary distills your entire report onto a single page that is about 70% text and 30% graphic. The executive summary contains a succinct synopsis of the problem definition, the design description and the evaluation. .


3 Problem Definition This section provides the background and significance of the project, and a state-of-the-art technical review 3.1 Problem Scope This is a short paragraph describing what the problem is. Explicitly state the problem you have solved. 3.2 Technical Review This section describes why the problem is important. It is a long section providing background information of the problem. It contains a state-of-the-art technical review that brings the reader up to speed to the current state of the field which you are working in. Chances are that the reader is not an expert in the field, as you are. Even if the reader is an expert, he or she will appreciate a comprehensive review of the field. The review has two parts. The first part is a more detailed background to the field. For example, if you are developing a medical device, the background would be a tutorial on the medical condition being treated by the device. The second part of the review describes all of the prior art relevant to the problem, which means all of the existing technology and methods relevant to the problem. This can include commercial products, academic journal articles and theses, and patents. The technical review will have many citations to the source of the information with citations listed in the Reference section. Citations and references should follow IEEE or ASME style. 3.3 Design Requirements In this section, you outline three to five concrete, measureable design requirements which are driving your design. Only list requirements that can be tested. Additional requirements are listed in Volume II. For each requirement, indicate the source and why it is important. Use subheadings, a numbered list or a table. 4 Design Description This section describes your solution to the problem. It describes both what the solution is and how it works. 4.1 Summary of the Design In a few paragraphs, summarize your solution. Describe what it does and how it works. You may want to describe a scenario for its use. It should be apparent here how this is a solution to your problem. Include an overview line drawing, if appropriate, but no photographs 4.2 Detailed Description This section contains the detailed description of the design solution. This should be of the how stuff works or popular mechanics variety. Start by describing your solution and how it works at


a high level, but then do a functional decomposition of your solution. This is your design architecture. 4.2.1 Functional Block Diagram This is a figure which represents the different functions of your design and how they work together. This should show three to five functions of your solution in block diagram form. 4.2.2 Functional Description After you have created the Block Diagram above, describe each of these functions in their own section here. Try to describe how each of these functions works instead of just saying what that are. For example, if one of your functions of your solution is the gripping of a pencil, describe how the linkages work together to perform this task instead of describing the individual hardware pieces. Provide a sub-heading for each of these functions. 4.2.3 Overview Drawing For each of the functions you are describing, provide an annotated line drawing to describe how it works. Line drawings are better than photographs, which is why line drawings are used in patents. 4.3 Additional Uses In this section, write a short paragraph to describe the other uses that your solution has. These aren’t necessarily uses which you have designed for, but other applications which could benefit from the work you’ve done in your area. These don’t have to be fully developed solutions, but rather ideas which could be pursued in the future by others. This section also describes any feasible variations of the design. 5 Evaluation In this section, you verify the solution you have provided. You do this by looping back to the design requirements you established in the first section. 5.1 Evaluation Plan In this section, restate the three to five design requirements which you established in the first part. Then give an overview of the test plan for evaluating each requirement.. 5.2 Evaluation Results For each of the design requirements, describe how it was evaluated. The evaluation should be of a lab report format, meaning there is an introduction, methods, results, and discussion. Each of the design requirements will then have a small lab report to show its verification. In this section, only provide an abstract for each of these reports. The actual report should be in Volume II. Create a sub-heading for each of the design requirements. If you developed a prototype to satisfy a design requirement, this is the section to discuss it. The prototype will be the method section for an experimental report to test one or more design requirements.


Evaluation methods are not restricted to laboratory experiments They can be a computer simulation, hand analysis, or a user survey. They only need to use the experimental method to answer a research question. The four major parts of a lab report are introduction, methods, results, and discussion. In the introduction, state what you are testing and the theory behind it. In methods, describe how you tested these requirements. In the results section, show the results of the testing. In the discussion section, interpret the results and make a conclusion on the testing of the design requirement. The abstract for these small lab reports should include parts from each of the four I M R D sections. 5.3 Discussion 5.3.1 Strengths and Weaknesses Now that you have shown you design solution, how it works and why it works, describe its strengths and weaknesses. Be candid about this section. No one every produces exactly the results they desire and you always learn things as you progress. It is better that you discuss possible flaws with your design and have an opportunity to rebut them than to have the reader do that. 5.3.2 Next Steps In this section you discuss how your project will affect the future workings of your project company. Imagine you are the project advisor for the company. How will you use the results of this design? Project advisors are busy and probably won’t have the time to do any new design work. You’ll have to explicitly state the next steps to take so the advisor could delegate tasks to someone else. You are trying to add value to the sponsoring company, so a well thought out hand-off plan will be crucial to doing that. 6 References This section contains a list of the references cited in the report. . Use IEEE ASME format for these citations. Use RefWorks to manage your citations.


Volume II Volume II is a compilation of support documents to the main report. It is structured similarly to Volume I, but less rigid. The information contained here should be referenced in the main report. Treat these supporting documents as appendices in that regard. These supporting documents won’t flow along the same way as the main report. The reader will come to this section when they seek additional information not found in volume I. This becomes a reference and only these mini-reports need to flow, not volume II as a whole. Volume II is organized into the three main sections, like Volume I.

Figure 5: Volume II Outline

1 Problem Definition Supporting Documents In this section, you describe additional information you have to define the problem. All of these documents might not be applicable, so choose those related to your project.


1.1 Annotated Bibliography An annotated bibliography is a state-of-the-art report on academic literature. Typically, this has two sections: summary and references. The summary section is first and summarizes the material that was researched. There is usually one paragraph spent describing the current state of the field. Then the remainder of the page is spent discussing how the research affects your design project. The references section is simply a big list of the references you researched, separated by a paragraph or two of discussion. The citation style is ASME or IEEE. Include a very brief summary of the article. This is mostly so you can find the article later from fragments you remember. Then your second paragraph discusses the implications this article has for your report. If it does not apply to your design, just state that. 1.2 Patent Search A patent search is a report of the patents related to your design. It is done to find if your design is patentable and to get product ideas for your design. Both products and processes are patentable. The patent search should have three main parts: objectives, search criteria, and findings. The objectives section should show why you are doing the patent search. Give a brief overview of your design and what parts of it might be patentable. The search criteria are the ways which you found the patents. Show the databases you searched, like Google or USPTO. Give class and sub-class numbers which you searched in. State the keywords you searched as well. The findings section should describe one or two main patents which relate to your project. Explain why your sponsor would want to know about these and how they relate to the design. Assess the level of threat these patents pose to your design’s patentability. After the major findings, you can discuss some smaller risk patents that might have features of interest to your sponsor. Attach the front page of any relevant patents as an appendix to this report. Do not attach patents in the appendix if you never discussed them. 1.3 User Need Research In this section, attach research you did into user needs for your design. This includes surveys, interviews, or focus groups. List user needs for your project here. Rank them by priority and provide their sources.


The object of this section is to show where your user needs came from and how you determined their priority. Sufficient detail should be provided here so it doesn’t appear that your user needs were simply picked out of thin air. Attach interview transcripts or survey data as an appendix to this section. 1.4 Concept Alternatives In this section, you discuss other concepts you considered to solve your design problem. This should not be a methodology of your concept selection process. It shows that your chosen concept was picked from a pool of closely qualified applicants. Provide a categorical approach to presenting different concepts here. Do not simply paste in fifty concept sketches and let it be sufficient. Group your concepts into a few main categories and provide an example or two from each category. Briefly describe how each concept would work. 1.5 Concept Selection This section shows how a concept was chosen from the pool of concepts above. You do this by creating a concept selection chart. List a handful of potential concepts and the criteria you used to evaluate them. Describe what the criteria were and how you evaluated them in the text. Do not simply paste in a concept selection chart. Introduce the idea and then discuss what you found. At the end of this section, discuss the validity in your chosen concept. Persuade the audience that you chose correctly and justifiably. 2 Design Description Supporting Documents Choose either the manufacturing plan or the implementation plan based on the type of project you have. Manufacturing is for a tangible product, whereas the implementation is for a process. 2.1 Manufacturing Plan (Product) This manufacturing plan details how someone can either make another or start producing the product you have designed. They should be of sufficient detail so you could hand them off to a machinist and get a finished product back. 2.11 Manufacturing Overview This overview describes the different steps which are involved in the production of your widget. Think of it like your response to the question, “How is your design made?” This is a high-level description of the manufacturing process. 2.1.2 Part Drawings Drawings of your product should appear in the manufacturing plan. They can be either CAD or hand drawn, but must not leave any part of the design undefined. 2.1.3 Bill of Materials Provide a bill of materials needed to construct your product. This would be everything the machinist would have to order, aside from tools, to make it.


2.1.4 Manufacturing Procedure This is a step-by-step procedure required to manufacture the widget. You’ve seen these before with a piece of furniture. They are of the “tab A in slot B” variety. This should leave no ambiguity in the way your product is assembled. 2.2 Implementation Plan (Process) This plan details how the process you have designed is put to use. It should be sufficiently detailed so you can hand it off to a company and they can implement it. 2.2.1 Implementation Overview Describe here at high level the way your process design should be phased into operation. It is an answer that you would give to someone who asks, “how does your process get put into effect?” 2.2.2 Process Drawings Include in your implementation plans drawings which are needed to carry out the process. These might be block drawings, Gantt charts, or a work breakdown structure. 2.2.3 Component List Make a list of anything you’ll need, aside from tools and labor, to make put your design process into effect. 2.2.4 Implementation Procedure This section describes a step-by-step method for putting your process into effect. If it is a modification of an existing method, it should show how the old system would be removed while maintaining all the functionality. 3 Evaluation Supporting Documents 3.1 Evaluation Reports This section contains the research reports that validate the design criteria. Every design criteria listed in Volume I is explicitly evaluated. The evaluation reports from Volume I are simply the abstracts from these evaluation reports. For each report, have an introduction, method, results, and discussion section. If the same apparatus or method is used to evaluate different criteria, there is no need to re-describe your previous explanation. In the introduction, describe the design criteria being evaluated. In the method, describe the way that you tested the design criteria. The apparatus for this testing might be a prototype, computer simulation, physical experiment, or hand analysis. Include the procedure for your testing as well. In the results, describe the results of the testing you performed. This should show the analysis equations and a graph or other graphic result.


In the discussion, evaluate your results from this experiment. Interpret their quality and their implications. Describe strengths and weaknesses of your experiment. Describe how the results of this evaluation impact the design. 3.2 Cost Analysis In this section, you will describe the cost of your design. These are the costs a company would assume for either making your product or implementing your process. This cost would be separate from the cost of a prototype you may have made. Consider reasonable costs for materials and production labor. Contrast these costs with the sales potential. State the market your design would serve. If a one-off, state the cost savings of your design versus others. The idea is to give the sponsor company an impression of the value added to them by your design. 3.3 Environmental Impact Statement This section outlines the impact your design has on the environment. Every design impacts the environment in some way. Read the design for environment webpage for more info: http://www.me.umn.edu/dfe/. An environmental impact statement has four main parts: purpose and need, impact to environment, alternatives to design, and discussion. In the purpose and need, briefly describe the value added by your design. What good does your design provide for society? In the impact to environment section, describe how your design is going to change the environment by its existence. Think of the impact during the whole phase of product life: production, use, and end-life. Does it pollute? Is it user-serviceable? Is it disposable? In the alternatives to design section, give alternatives to your design that might be more environmentally friendly. Might you consider an end-of-life reclamation program? What about using biodegradable lubricants? In the Discussion section, weigh the alternatives with the additional cost. Show how you have considered the environment in your design. You might decide it would be better to compromise and propose future work to your design. This is an extension of your strengths and weaknesses analysis from Volume I. 3.4 Regulatory and Safety Considerations Describe the regulations which apply to the use or production of your product. List safety concerns which you have for the use or production of your product. Provide recommendations for each of the concerns you have listed. There are no ‘outlaw’ unregulated products.