TEST & REDESIGN
The design process involves multiple loops and circles around your final solution. You will likely test your solution—find problems and make changes—test your new solution—find new problems and make changes—and so on, before settling on a final design.
At this point, you have created prototypes of your alternative solutions, tested those prototypes, and chosen your final design. So you're probably thinking that your project is finished! But in fact, you have yet to complete the final and most important phase of the engineering design process—test and redesign.
Test and redesign requires you to go out and test your final design with your users. Based on their feedback and their interaction with your solution, you will redesign your solution to make it better. Repeat this process of testing, determining issues, fixing the issues, and then retesting multiple times until your solution is as successful as possible. Keep in mind that minor changes this late in the design process could make or break your solution, so be sure to be thorough in your testing!
At this point, you have created prototypes of your alternative solutions, tested those prototypes, and chosen your final design. So you're probably thinking that your project is finished! But in fact, you have yet to complete the final and most important phase of the engineering design process—test and redesign.
Test and redesign requires you to go out and test your final design with your users. Based on their feedback and their interaction with your solution, you will redesign your solution to make it better. Repeat this process of testing, determining issues, fixing the issues, and then retesting multiple times until your solution is as successful as possible. Keep in mind that minor changes this late in the design process could make or break your solution, so be sure to be thorough in your testing!
Excerpted from ScienceBuddies.org