There’s a reason kids love Lego. When I was a kid, nothing was more valuable to me than my big blue bucket of the multi-colored bricks. Even when my parents encouraged my interest in engineering with more complex Fischer Technics, nothing replaced the joy of quickly snapping pieces together in increasingly complex shapes. Wouldn’t it be
-> Continue reading How to Design Assemblies to Be Self-Locating and Self-Fixturing

No one becomes an engineer for the cubicle view. Whether inspired by inventors like Edison or falling into engineering because of math talent, we don’t dream of paperwork and taupe upholstery. Looking for more? Engineers at these great companies are changing the world and creating inspiring new technology. These are jobs we’re jealous of—jobs that
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“Perfection is achieved not when there Is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery Your day isn’t going well when your boss quotes French novelists. In this case, my design was rejected under the accusation that it wasn’t “elegant”. What the heck was that supposed
-> Continue reading Keep the Assembly Line Happy: 10 Design for Assembly Rules to Live By

Aesthetic design is in the eye of the beholder, but functional prototypes have a different standard—testing—and for most of us, exam day has never been something to which we look forward. However, test day doesn’t have to fill you with the fear you felt going into high school Calculus exams: By setting clear design expectations
-> Continue reading Practical Guide to Prototype Testing

A new engineer, I was getting used to the “excitement” of cubicle life when something (finally) happened. We’d stiffened part of our flow meters a month prior, and one of our customers started complaining about breakage. The graybeards upstairs were defending the change, while my engineering partner was struggling to explain why the minor tweak
-> Continue reading Holy FBD, Batman! Using Engineering Analysis to Improve Your Designs

All right, all right! I’ll confess: I’m part of the last generation to enter college without a cell phone—part of the last generation to graduate before iPhones were even on the market (Gasp! The horror!). My parents gave me my sister’s old phone as a sophomore, and I remember not wanting it, only begrudgingly accepting
-> Continue reading Hackable: Design for Disassembly in Electronics

We’re insulated from the cost of our garbage in America. As kids, we were trained to carefully place trash in the cans lining our streets. I’ll never forget the shock of seeing that same trash scattered along the streets in urban West Africa, but it did get me thinking: They can see their waste. What
-> Continue reading Sustainable Packaging Design: Keeping Your Electronics, and the Planet, Safe

Remember National Geographic from 30 years ago? I spent hours poring through images of life at the extremes: expeditions in glacial caves, Amazon insects, Saharan dust storms, and underwater coral. But now, for my young nephew’s generation, pictures are too static, largely due to one innovation: GoPro. A drop-proof, waterproof camera that everyone and their
-> Continue reading Nothing Gets In: Waterproof Enclosure Design 101 (and IP68)

A robot climbing stairs was barely possible 30 years ago, but now, Honda’s ASIMO robot can not only walk up the stairs of an auditorium stage, it can play the violin. Honda uses ASIMO to showcase innovations in programming, electronics, sensing, and mechanics. And with its case off, ASIMO reveals craftsmanship in every detail, including
-> Continue reading How to Design Wire Guides That Are Both Functional and Beautiful

You’ve worked for months to get your prototype functioning. It’s time to take that ugly (but functional!) works-like prototype and create a real consumer product. Right now, you may be focused on the general shape, smoothing out the curves and accommodating the awkward PCB shape (darn those electrical engineers!), but soon you’ll feel the need
-> Continue reading Right on the Button: Using Button Design as a Showcase for Excellence