Engineering design is a process. It involves tools and ways of thinking that people can use in almost any situation. Each part of the process reveals information about the problem and possible solutions.
Engineering design is iterative. Engineers are expected to repeat the process. Steps like defining, planning, modeling, and testing, can be completed in different sequences to find the best possible solution.
Engineering design is problem-solving. It always has a purpose that is specific and known. It may involve experiments to better understand the problem (or a possible solution), but the goal of engineering design is always to solve a problem.
Engineering design is finding the best solution. Evaluation is an important part of the process. Solutions have different strengths and weaknesses and have to stay within the physical limits of available time, cost, tools, and resources. Engineers have to choose the solution that provides the most desired features with the fewest negatives. That’s why engineering is often called “design under constraint”.
