Persuasive essay

When we look around, we constantly see amongst us building, structures

and road construction sites that are all projects that engineers have spent
time using their knowledge and problem solving skills combined with
technology to build them. However, not only engineers have an impact on
these big projects, designers have also as much as of an impact, because
they take all the scientific and practical information from engineers to
design and construct the final outcome. We can see that most of these
important projects requires the collaboration of designers and engineers.
There is no doubt that when these two different field work together on a
project, the results are usually great but as far as the collaboration goes,
there are many assumptions that designers work with ease when
collaborating with engineers, when in fact there can be a transparent
barrier where their communication can be a one-way communication.

There are many reasons for this broken piece of the puzzle, that really
depend on either the project or the designers and engineers themselves.
For instance, there could be some lack of scientific information to
designers and some lack of designing process to engineers. Also, the way
tasked are assigned could be misleading and unclear. This problem is
definitely something that both engineers and designers are trying to
figure out, since they are polar opposite, in order to improve the whole
collaboration in general, because when both parties are extremely clear
with everything it result in higher quality outcome.

From my interview with a designer in my primary research, I learnt that

the design community always find themselves working on project with
other fields like business or engineers. I was more interested in learning
about engineers because design and engineering are completely polar
opposite. It is expected that designers find work with some other more
creative fields easier, because of the similar topics and nature of work.
However, when it come to engineers and designers the topic is more
technical and serious, depending on how important the projects, there
are more factors involved than just the look of the final results, like its
weight, the material, the longevity, its resistance and many more.

As the project is gets more intense and big, the communication gap
becomes greater and more it results in more stress and tension between
both sides, therefore its important for both designers and engineers to
comprise, have patience and understand each other to make the whole
process easy. For example, there could be some lack of scientific
information to designers and some lack of designing process to engineers.
when engineers approach designers to design a particular model or
component according to their need, its important for the designers
themselves to learn basic or key concept and ideas either about the
science behind the project itself or how to connect the different parts of
the project to make the design work. (Zhuo, 2013). This approach can help
prevent and eliminate any excess productions that could have been a
waste of resources and made simply, by thinking that each part of the
components may need a certain feature when in fact not all of them
do.

Moreover, the way that engineers approach designers could also be a

contributing factor in the friction between them. The communication
between engineers and designers are often filled with misunderstanding
and can create a gap which can limit the capability of both sides. Having
engineers and designers work as a team rather than assign tasks is better
because it can allow the engineers to be creative and the designer to be
technical. (Champ, 2015). Interaction is extremely crucial whereas maybe
using emails to give instruction could result in a one-way communication
which will reduce the chance of the better end result and could even make
designers feel less involved in the project, making them potentially
putting less effort.

Furthermore, because of the engineering nature of work deals with real

life surroundings, its likely for things to get changed quite often and so
both designers and engineers need to be aware about these changes.
When engineers work on a project they constantly develop the project
from the coding to building the prototype to the final outcome. Also, the
same goes with designers as their initial design usually gets changed and
redesigned. Therefore, for such collaboration to operate, its curial for both
sides to match their changes and should both decide and agree on what
parts are fixed and what are part are exploratory, before hand. (Zhuo,
2013). This method is extremely beneficial because it allows designers to
understand engineers more by knowing what the engineers what the to
stay the same and what to change. This will set the project into
perspective and therefore make it clear and less frustrating to both
designers and engineers.

Lets put all these researchers solution methods into actual practice. Lets
say that for instance that designers and engineers come together to
construct a bridge on the sea(beach).
First its important to identify what are the major components of the
project and its constrains:
Stands (piers) should be very sturdy and doesnt rust easily
Deck material should be able to float and made out of durable wood
Stands should be secured into the riverbed

These major components are first identified by the engineers themselves

were they collect all the information from the data to the measurements,
discuss them until they are read for the actual construction of the
prototype first since these projects are usually expensive. Here is where
the designers get approached and schedule perhaps a meeting for them
to discuss the project. In the meeting the engineers should describe and
inform the designers, every aspect of the project especially the area
where the designers are involved like the materials for each component or
the weight. Also, it important for both of them to agree and establish what
features/component of the project is staying the same and what is likely to
change. After that the designers can put their touch on the exterior look of
the bridge and can also look at materials with the approval of engineers. If
the prototype was successful and construction of the actual bridge
started, designers should regularly visit to see how the project is
developing and in case any sudden changes happen.

This is an example of how in a collaboration, designers and engineers

should communicate and interact with each other. This can make
collaboration much more easy and enjoyable and with eventually result in
a greater outcome.

While the existing studies have established that these suggestions

methods may be a solution to the defect between engineers and
designers, there is still a blur on where the source of origin, of this
problem occurs and yet needed to be identified. Some people, like Zuho
argue that by learning some ideas about each other profession is the
solution, while other, like champ argue working together in a team is the
solution. I do argue that there something defective in the way engineers
and designers approach their collaborative work together. This can create
some misconception and misinterpretation between them and thus a
transparent barrier is created. Ive came up with the conclusion that
maybe the problem and misconception is somewhere deeper and may not
be in the hands off both engineers and designers. Well first, we have
established that engineers are very technical, mathematical and scientific
whereas Designers usually focus about the beauty or the creative and
artistic aspect of design when working on a particular on project. This
being known, its obvious that no matter what approach designer and
engineers take, there will still be some difficulties.

Therefore, I suggest that the solution method could start way in the
begging, in the undergraduate studies where communication courses
based in real life situation and strategies is being taught. An example in a
course, in engineering universities could be that they could learn what
aspect of their project that need designers consultation and maybe what
guidelines should engineers give these designers. The same process goes
in a designing universities where they could learn about technical design
and using computer technology (CAD and CAM) when construing a
prototype.

Moreover, universities can implement a collaboration program where one

university can collaborate with another university on a project or research.
This no only could be beneficial for engineers and designers but for all of
the different profession. These undergraduate students could gain a lot of
experience and knowledge from the other students, and students will
overall have their eyes open to what other professions do.

Truly, this could be adapted to every profession especially the ones where
their required to work with others of the opposite site of the spectrum.
Know for those who have already finished their undergraduate studies and
are currently working, its not too late to fix the problem. Communication
courses and conferences should be mandatory to employees attend every
once in while to keep up with the update of strategies and skills.