approach to simplified, artificial problems is said to alienate the student from the process of synthesising in real-life situations. If this is true, application of the knowledge of design processes should do much to prevent this loss of talent.

If innate design ability is insufficient to meet needs, we must ask ourselves whether we can train those who do not possess it. There are at least three schools of thought here. One is that designers are born and cannot be made. This is exemplified by Issigonis's remark, quoted in the Feilden report, that 'the craving to design exists from a very early age if it exists at all'. Another, based on the belief that design can be carried out by a logical process and does not depend on inspiration (just as some scientific discoveries and tech­nological inventions have come from systematic investigation), assumes that design can be taught. Yet another school takes the view that design is really a process of trying out innumerable alternatives until one is found that is satisfactory and that what is really needed in training a designer is the development of an ability to persevere in the face of unusual and prolonged adversity.

Some teaching difficulties

Several attempts have been made to teach electronics design but none, so far as is known, has been made from the comprehensive point of view of synthesising a large number of characteristics. For example, considerations of cost, ease of use and reliability are usually left out of students' design projects. Many of the difficulties attendant on these projects arise from problems of assessing the results. Others arise from the difficulty of finding the right kind of teacher. A teacher with no design experience may not be able to teach design, but it is open to question whether designers themselves make good teachers of design.

Clearly, it is important to see that students' design ability, innate or otherwise, is fostered in our educational establishments. The design link between research and production is becoming increasingly important. It is often suggested that our national character is unsuited to the design of general-purpose electronic equipment for large-scale production and that it would be better for us to look for special-purpose small quantity markets as more appropriate to our human re­sources. The truth of this is hard to discover. What can be said with certainty is that a better knowledge of design processes would enable us to determine our trading and training policies much more surely. Such knowledge would also benefit research projects requiring the design of a great deal of special equipment.

With a knowledge of design processes and procedures we can ask the following questions with much more hope than hitherto of obtaining a useful answer:

• Who make good designers of electronic equipment?

• What training can and should be given to an  electronics design engineer?

• Who make good electronics design teachers?

• Should training be given at a university, at a college of advance technology or in industry?

• Should a national body be set up to give confidential and impartial assessments of students' design projects?

• Are designers' needs being met?

In addition to seeking an understanding of the design process, so that improvements can be made in training techniques, it is intended to look into the possibility of helping the existing designers of electronic equipment. It is hoped that designers will tell us their needs and whether they arc being met. Are there, for example, any categories of information  that would be of assistance but are not at present forthcoming?

The information aspect of design is a very important part of the concept that design takes place by a series of decisions, each of which is considerably influenced by the information available at the time. This has particular relevance to electronics design, because of the exceptionally large number of directions from which to choose in any given design situation.

The role of technical journals

On the purely technical side, the Services have been responsible for much information on valves and components. Detailed information on semiconductor devices has come direct from device manufacturers. Analogous information on circuit performance, however, leaves much to be desired. Here, technical journals could do much to see that either the specific application of a circuit is described in detail, so that a designer can judge reliably whether it is relevant to his own situation, or that performance characteristics in practical conditions are given.

Other categories of information useful to the designer are related to the many characteristics of an equipment. A few of the topics that might repay consideration are:

studies of ergonomic principles and practice

the effect of choice of system or circuit on ease of use

environmental conditions likely to be met in practice and the means of catering for them

measurement of reliability and its effect on design

criteria for the choice of constructional form, taking into account any economic, technical and maintenance factors

manufacturing techniques of particular relevance to electronic equipment

techniques for controlling and predicting cost

methods of reducing size and weight

relationship of appearance to commercial performance.

A major difficulty in solving these problems is that there is no independent body that can look into them, especially those that are not purely technical. Many organisations have issued data sheets or guides to designers as a means of providing information of this sort, but they arc usually specific to a particular design and user environment. A more comprehensive effort on a national scale would possibly be of benefit to all electronics designers.

Some questions for the electronics designer

In considering, therefore, what can be done to help electronics design engineers, we might ask the following:

• ·    What types of information needed for electronics design are not at present satisfactorily covered?

• ·    Are any improvements needed in existing sources of information?

• ·    Is a national body needed to obtain and disseminate information required by electronics design engineers?

• ·    Is standardisation of electronics design information desirable and can it be achieved?

• ·    What is the best environment for a given type of design activity?

There seems little doubt that computers will ultimately be able to take over a good deal of the detailed work involved in the design of standard circuits and their layout and wiring, but will they be applicable to design in the broader sense of establishing relationships between all the relevant characteristics? We are back at our starting point, for attempts to apply computers in this way will underline the need to understand basic design processes.

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