Engineering Design: A Project-Based Introduction, Fourth Edition

CHAPTER 11

COMMUNICATING DESIGNS ORALLY AND IN WRITING

How do we let our client know about our solutions?

REPORTING IS an essential part of a design project: We have not completed our project if we have not communicated our work and findings to our client and to other stakeholders the client may designate. We communicate final design results in several ways, including oral presentations, final reports (that may include design drawings and/or fabrication specifications), and prototypes and models. In this chapter we first consider some common guidelines for all reporting modes, and then we look at oral presentations and at final technical reports.

The primary purpose of such communication is to inform our client about the design, including explanations of how and why this design was chosen over competing design alternatives. It is most important that we convey the results of the design process. The client is probably not interested in the history of the project or in the design team's internal workings, and so we should ensure that final reports and presentations are not narratives or chronologies of our work. Rather, our presentations and reports should be lucid descriptions of design outcomes, as well as the processes with which those outcomes were achieved.

11.1 GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION

There are some basic elements of effective communication that apply ...