How to Write Your Design Challenge Blog Posts

RE: How to Write Your Design Challenge Blog Posts

dougw — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 01:21:58 GMT

Good topic - excellent method of fleshing out a report.

I never heard of it described as a snowflake before, although it is appropriate. I have heard it called a tree structure, where each branch grows into several new branches, etc. I like to think of it as a directory structure, where each subdirectory gets even more subdirectories.

Another way to approach it is to start with a template document or even a complete example document which just gets edited to make the content describe the new project. This method often saves a lot of work and writer's block at the same time.

Another way to approach documenting the journey through a project is simply resolve to make some progress in the design or build aspects of the project every week and then the blog is simply a matter of describing what you did each week. It probably helps to have a loose plan of what needs to be accomplished each week. If you go to the trouble of making a more detailed plan, it will likely need to be altered frequently as late deliveries, component failures and unexpected results are probably going to occur. So all that planning and alteration will take valuable time away from working on project progress. If you are still inclined to make detailed plans, they can always be used as blog material.

The snowflake method as described above does need those 15 blog titles to get started. Here are some general suggestions, just in case it seems tough to think of 15 blog titles:

The proposal - what did you propose to accomplish, what are the risks
The unboxing - what kit was supplied with the challenge and how does it apply to the theme
Preliminary design - block diagrams, sketches, expand proposal to select components, describe hardware and software tools
Order parts - describe parts being ordered and how they are expected to fit in the project
Detailed electronic design - schematic & wiring diagrams, simulations
Detailed mechanical design - drawings, animations
Detailed software design - flow charts, code, tool chain usage
User interface design - controls, procedures, ergonomics
Electronic build - pictures, issues, solutions, tips, methods
Mechanical build - pictures, issues, solutions, tips, methods
Software coding - code snipets, algorithms, issues, solutions, tips, methods
Electronics power up and test - test plan, pictures, video, measurements
Mechanical assembly and finishing - pictures, video
Software testing - test plan, test results, pictures, video
System verification and testing - test results data, summaries, how well did the final system meet objectives, pictures, lessons learned, future plans

There are lots of other possibilities, especially if the project has more than one subsystem, but this is just to illustrate that it isn't hard to come up with 15 chapters.

RE: How to Write Your Design Challenge Blog Posts

luiszayas — Sun, 20 Mar 2016 21:52:11 GMT

This is extremely helpful. Thank you!

RE: How to Write Your Design Challenge Blog Posts

mcb1 — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 07:39:53 GMT

Nice write-up Spanner.

There should be no excuses for missing blogs.

I did the outline for my Forget Me Not challenge and as things changed during the challenge the list got slightly re-arranged.

I found it helped to make sure I didn't get side-tracked onto things that were not necessary just then.

The important part is to have a plan.

You can modify the plan as circumstances change, and it's still a plan.

Mark

RE: How to Write Your Design Challenge Blog Posts

DAB — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 19:13:29 GMT

I use a variant of the systems development process for planning my writing.

Assess the requirements/goals of the article.

Define a structure for information flow.

Establish an outline.

Write the summary first. This approach is really great for getting you to focus your thoughts about the final message you want to have. It also gives you a nice marketing tool if you want to shop the article around.

Now it is just a matter of working through the outline and filling in the blanks.

DAB

RE: How to Write Your Design Challenge Blog Posts

clem57 — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 15:11:10 GMT

The snowflake method seems to be the best for me. I will give it a go because it is a lot like programming.

Thanks for the insight,

Clem