Example Reflection – Mind Mapping

Challenge & Selection

In Engineering being able to transfer the ideas one has in their heads to concepts and later

to reality is one of the most important tools. The challenge to create a novel and useful product as  an engineering presents the necessity to transform ideas into reality. During the whole  engineering design process, the product experiences constant change and new ideas may come up  which will need to be considered for the design. The mind mapping tool is perfect for this type of  challenges, the tool can be used in any part of the design and many mind maps can be used in  order to illustrate different important aspects, one might consider the product design, another the  manufacturing and a third one might illustrate the distribution and sale of the product for  example. As we observed in the idea generation section of the course mind mapping is very  versatile and can be adjusted to the needs of the user in that situation, it allows us to look for  patterns in our thinking and be able to group those thoughts or ideas together.

Application

Due to the capabilities of mind maps to adapt to different parts of the problem I am going

to begin by creating a mind map of the design process, in this case I am going to use a hot air  balloon as the object that I am going to consider. In the center of my mind map I put the central  idea, in this case it was “Hot Air Balloon”, once the central idea was selected I started to list  important considerations that will be necessary for the design.

Once the list of important characteristics and ideas was completed, I started to look for

patterns in the words and grouped them as I believe they tackled similar design problems of the  hot air balloon. The ideas I grouped to create the next level of the mind map were dimensions,  materials, lift method and performance measurements. In the mind map under dimensions I  included different important specifications such as maximum Envelope and/or Skirt size,  recommended basket size, size relation between different components. Under the Materials part I  created sub divisions, since materials will be different for each part of the design, which were the  Envelope, which can be manufactured with nylon among other materials, the Skirt which is mainly  created out of stainless steel, and finally the basket which is manufactured out of plastic or wood  among other options.  The third main idea I developed was the lift method which I only found  there were two possibilities, the increase of the temperature outside the balloon, or using lighter  gases such as helium inside the balloon. Finally the fourth considerations was the performance  measurements, in here I though about how the balloon will perform and how we will be able to  measure those characteristics, some of them were maximum high reached, speed of ascent,  stability of flight and finally one of the most important how much weight it was able to raise.

While creating the Mind map with the different characteristics it was important for me to

consider examples which showed the idea. For the examples I used a combination of drawings and  pictures that allowed be to have a more visual representation of the idea that was being  presented. When relying on those visual supports I was able to come back to that idea and be able  to expand it further more easily and in some later ideas I started by developing the visual aid first  and later completing the idea, they complement each other to give the most amount of  information together.

Insight & approach

While completing this exercise I was able to not only obtain a better understanding on

how mind maps help with organizing information, but also some practices that might help to  improve the way the information is transmitted. I found that relying only on written information  created complete information but in some cases it was not able to be retained for long periods of  time, on the other hand relying only on visual information meant that the information could be  misrepresented and a different idea taken from the picture or drawing. When using written  information and complement it with visual aids I found that the information was transmitted  significantly more effectively, the user focused more on the visual aid to understand the basic of  the idea but later confirmed their understanding with the written text to guide them towards the  complete idea that was being presented. With the mind map I also found very useful the way that  paths can be split up as many times as necessary, finding the main ideas and move outwards from  that information provided me with the necessary patterns to create subdivision which provided  extra information inside of them.

Mind mapping is a very effective brainstorming technique that allows us to present

information in a simpler format. There are similar alternatives to mind mapping which take the  form of different trees and diagrams but there are other alternatives that not necessarily have to  resemble a mind map. For this challenge I believe that Visualization could be an appropriate  alternative which will allow us to unlock the creativity of the design.  If the challenge is  approached with visualization the final design will probably be more radical and follow a more  conceptual approach, the visualization phase can also help us develop at a later stage a mind map  that relies on the information obtained in the visualization exercise.

After the activity I believe that mind map is an excellent tool to use throughout different

points of the design process. Creating an initial mind map with the ideas that we have before  starting will allow us to understand the areas which might need more attention. One of the most  important characteristics that I found in mind mapping is how easily can it be changed and  modified when more information is obtained so it contains the best information possible, this will  help me in the future to create mind maps without fear of writing wrong ideas or information that  might not be useful in the future since in any case that information can be edited, removed or  expanded at a later stage.

