Five steps of engineering design – building a phone stand
Design & TechnologyEngineering Drawing & DesignAges 13–14
Use it with your class: students open it from a link or a QR code, with no account needed.
Next in Engineering Drawing & Design
Walk through all five steps of the engineering design process for a simple product: defining the problem and criteria, proposing and selecting a solution, building a prototype, testing the solution, and preparing technical documentation. At the testing step, the student clicks Test Load to place an object on the prototype: the simulation checks the tipping condition based on the centre of mass relative to the base length, and calculates the bending stress σ = M/W at the support leg to compare with the material's allowable stress. If it fails, the student clicks Improve to lengthen the base and try again — reflecting how design is an iterative process. A second scenario, a global challenge to supply clean water to a village, has students set quantitative criteria and constraints (litres per person per day, budget, energy, maintenance), solve pumping, treatment and storage as sub-problems with a test-and-refine log, then evaluate the whole system against the specification and compare options in a weighted decision matrix.
Lesson: The basic steps of engineering design: defining the problem, proposing solutions, building a prototype, testing, and documentation
What it shows
Engineering design is iterative: define the problem and measurable criteria, propose and select a solution, build and test a prototype, then document it. In the phone-stand scenario the test checks two physical criteria: the load's centre of mass must lie over the base, and the bending stress σ = M/W (W = b·t²/6) in the support leg must stay below the material's allowable stress. The Scenario parameter also offers a global challenge, clean water for a village: students set quantitative criteria and constraints, solve pumping, treatment and storage as sub-problems, log every test-and-refine cycle, and judge the whole system against the specification and in a weighted decision matrix.
How to use
Use Next step and Previous step to walk through the five stages. In the phone-stand scenario, set the product, mass, Prototype material and tilt angle, press Test load, and press Improve when the prototype tips or breaks. Set Scenario to the village water challenge to switch: in step 1 set the population, litres per person, lift height and limits; in steps 2–4 choose and size the pump, treatment and tank and press Test and record; in step 5 change the weights and compare the options.
Parameters you can change
- Product to design Phone stand, Mini desktop bookshelf, Pen holder with stand
- Mass of the object placed on it 100–1000 g
- Prototype material 3 mm-thick cardboard, 5 mm-thick thin plywood, 4 mm-thick 3D-printed PLA plastic, 2 mm-thick aluminium sheet
- Tilt angle of the object from the table surface 20–80 °
- Scenario Five steps: phone stand, Global challenge: clean water for a village
- Village population (water scenario) 100–2000 people
Questions to explore
- How does increasing the tilt angle change the position of the centre of mass and the risk of tipping?
- Which prototype materials survive a 1000 g load, and which fail by breaking rather than tipping?
- Why does lengthening the base prevent tipping but not stop the support leg from breaking?
