In the season 4 premiere, Dr. Jill Fennell sits down with returning guest Dr. Amit S. Jariwala and new guest and fellow instructor Marty Jacobson to discuss the conventions of Design Communication. The episode covers how early-career engineers make communication decisions as they move from "student writing" into professional practice, design teams, and real constraints.
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Show Notes and Timestamps:
- 01:00 Welcome and Introductions to Guests - Amit Jariwala and Marty Jacobson
- 01:36 Communication Design Processes: Creating Specifications
- 03:27 What defines a strong input or specification
- 06:27 Role of the spec sheet in early design decisions and how you discuss them
- 09:02 Common misunderstandings students have about requirements
- 12:10 examples of good or bad Specs
- 15:47 Ensuring Measurable Specifications
- 20:05 How do students talk about design processes to different stakeholders?
- 20:57 How do students build trust that their designs are feasible and reliable?
- 22:27 Undercutting utility through qualitative language
- 25:55 Specific Qualitative Phrases
- 29:46 advice for students resisting to commit to numbers early in the process
- 33:43 Advice for students trying to balance flexibility and actionability
- 38:06 Wrapping up and last points of advice
A transcript of this episode is available here.
Episode edited by Lee Hibbard.
