The new age of the design process section.

Things are moving forward on the LM website! 

 

New portfolios updated everyday, plenty of checkups, new competitions every month, a lively build story, (the RF is already at build entry 71!) and growing exchanges within the forum.

 

Everything works... except "design process".

 

This section has never really found its way within the community and the website, I guess for the following reasons:

- First, there is no schedule, no deadline and no real real stake in the current version of design process (DP). This is the main difference with the build section, which requires us to move forward step by step according to a specific validation process.

- Then, design process is supposed to be a collaborative effort on a long time period, whereas check-up is just based on immediate feedback. This creates a kind of contradiction for the original designer who manages his DP, between the roles of creator of the project / designer / contributor on one side and the roles of judge / leader / manager / motivator on the other side.  Simply put, it is more difficult to manage your project in Design Process because the time table is unpredictable and unmanageable.

- People are often more motivated by working on their own designs than contributing to others' designs; this fact effects every aspect of Local Motors collaborative process.

- A project based only on the design (style) aspect without objective parameters (cost, customer's expectations, feasibility,...) often ends on a battle of subjective tastes and point of views.  Potential progress is limited without specified objectives.

From these statements, we've decided to focus and develop the new design process approach on 3 specific kinds of projects:

 

1 - Educational / training projects:

They are based on one thematic and have for goal to develop skills, and techniques from an individual point of view, but also to promote a good relationship and knowledge exchange within the community

2 - "Pre-vehicle build" projects:

The selected projects are analyzed with the community to track possible prohibitory issues or necessary improvements (cost, customer's expectations, feasibility,...). This is a required step before any Build story.

3 - Group projects:

Group projects are very welcome as long as they are based on a clear orientation and schedule. Since style is something quite subjective, it will be important to integrate one or several complementary aspects (innovative concept, engineering approach,...)

Design process is neither a boring checkup, nor a poor build story. It is a Laboratory, YOUR laboratory and it has all the makings to be one of the most exciting features in our community.

My main satisfaction today concerns the history of the first Educational Design Process, which one has started as a checkup known as "The Local Motors SketchWall Challenge":

It has been created by a Community member (thanks Nyko - Idesigncars, and most recently MBW), for the Community and finally managed by a growing group of Community members. You should be proud of yourselves!

Thank you, Congratulations.

PS: Since Ex-Ta-C has been here for a while and represents a lot of work, it really deserves some extra time in the design process section. Don't hesitate to contribute!