Puzzle Design Challenge

Have you ever looked at a product that has been well-designed? Do you find
yourself asking questions such as, How did the designer think of that idea? or
What is involved in the creation of that product? The more you study and learn
about design and how designers create items, you begin to learn certain skills and
knowledge that you can only acquire through experience. Design challenges
provide opportunities to apply skills and knowledge in unique and creative ways.
Taking an idea you have and transferring it from a concept to a sketch, to working
drawings, to models, and then to a working prototype is exciting and fun. It also
entails several steps. When you are a one-person design and build team, the task
of effective communication is rather simple. However, what happens when you
must communicate your ideas to others, or when the responsibility for building a
teams solution falls on someone elses shoulders? This increases the level of
responsibility significantly and requires the development of a complete set of
design documentation in order to communicate effectively.

Define the
Problem:

What problem are you solving? Answer on next page

A local office furniture manufacturing company throws away

tens of thousands of scrap hardwood cubes that results
from its furniture construction processes. The material is
expensive, and scrap represents a sizeable loss of profit.
List the criteria and constraints.
The puzzle must be fabricated from 27 hardwood cubes.
The puzzle system must contain exactly five puzzle parts.
Each individual puzzle part must consist of at least four, but no more
than six hardwood cubes that are permanently attached to each other.
No two puzzle parts can be the same.
The five puzzle parts must assemble to form a 2 cube.
Some puzzle parts should interlock.
The puzzle should require should require high school students and
average of _____ minutes/seconds to solve.

Is the Problem
valid or
justifiable?

Generate
Concepts:

Explain why or why not you believe this is a real problem.

This is a real problem because the company is losing profit
by simply throwing out thousands of wooden cubes.
Can you justify it?
If the company is losing profit because of the wooden cubes,
then theres a problem if they are losing money because of
this.
Who says it is a problem?
The furniture company says its a problem.
Why do they claim it to be a problem?
They are losing profit because they are throwing away the
cubes.
What is the problem?
The company is throwing away tens of thousands of wooden
cubes that result from their furniture construction process.
When does this problem happen?
Whenever a piece of furniture is made.
Where does this problem happen?
The place that the furniture is being manufactured.
How does the person vision a possible solution?
They vision the solution by using the design process to come
up with a solution to using the wooden cubes.
How many different puzzle part combinations are there?
Next page

Based on
your data,
create
different
puzzles

Decision Matrix
Puzzle 2 on next
page

Puzzle
1

5
Part
parts 1
1
2

Part
2
2

Part
3
1

Part
4
2

Part
5
1

Total
9

10

Every parts score is based off of how many directions it

sticks out. Score of 1 = 2 directions and score 2 = 3
directions. If the part had 5 parts I added a point.
Develop a
Solution:

The puzzle with more score is better because it shows the

complexity of the puzzle. The more complex the better
because it makes people think more to solve the puzzle.
Insert the Puzzle Part layout / Isometric Puzzle Cube

Justificatio
n of your
chosen
Puzzle
Cube
design
solution:
Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

Block 4

Block 5

Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

Block 4

Block 5

Dylans had correct annotations and showed the correct

views of his parts. Joe Bernstein

Construct and
Test:

Testing the
Solution:
Trail 10 on
next page

Bin
0:00
2:00
4:00
6:00
8:00
10:00
More

Frequency
3
0
2
0
2
3
0

Mean:
Median:
Mode:
Range:
STDEV:

5:47
6:00
10:00
9:31
:9.84

Frequency
4
3
2
1
0

A written summary of your puzzle test results and a

discussion of the validity of your design. Does your design
meet the design criteria? Does your design provide an
appropriate degree of challenge to a person who is three
years of age or older (as stated in the design statement)?
My results (based on the data below and above) met the
design criteria because each puzzle piece had 4-6 cubes
and there were 5 different puzzle pieces, and no 2 puzzle
pieces were the same. This puzzle did create an appropriate
degree of challenge because it took the average person 5
minutes and 47 seconds to complete the puzzle.
Trial
Time
1
8:04
2
0:29
3
1:28
4
3:56
5
3:37
6
8:41
7
10:00
8
1:36
9
10:00

10
10:00
A discussion of possible changes to your puzzle cube that
would improve the design.
To make more improvements to my cube, I could make it
more complicated by making more of the puzzle cubes face
in 3 directions instead of 2 (refer to decision matrix). Or I
could make it easier for little children to complete by making
more of the cubes face in 2 direction.
Evaluate the
Design:

Why is it important to
model an idea before
making a final
prototype?

Its important to make a model because with a model you will have an idea
if the design will be effective or not, for example in the puzzle design, I
created my puzzle with connecting cubes instead of the actual wooden
cubes so I knew if the pieces would lock together or not.

Which assembly
constraint(s) did you
use to constrain each
piece of the puzzle to
the assembly such that
it did not move?
Describe each
constraint used and
explain the degrees of
freedom that are
removed when each is
applied between two
parts. You may wish to
create a sketch to help
explain your
description

I envisioned the 3x3 puzzle cube and took pieces away from it to create all
of my puzzle pieces. If I had any problem while making the cube, I took a
piece off of one of the puzzle cubes and attached it to what made the puzzle
a 3x3 cube. For example, if a piece was sticking out of the 3x3, I took the
cube off and attached that cube to the empty space in the 3x3 puzzle and it
solved my problem.

Based on your
experiences during the
completion of the
Puzzle Design
Challenge, what is
meant when someone
says, I used a design
process to solve the
problem at hand?
Explain your answer
using examples from

When someone says they used the design process, the way I see it
is, they identified the problem, they brainstormed ideas for what their
design should be, they constructed their prototype and tested their
prototype, and finally they constructed their final design. At any given
time there was a major problem that couldnt be solved, they started
over the design process. For example, I went through the design
process and realized I have 6 different puzzle pieces, so I had to start
over the design process. My prototype was the connecting cubes and
my final design was the wooden cubes.

the work that you

completed.
What else could the
furniture company do
or make with the scrap
used to make your
puzzle cube?

They could use the wood to make different toys for children, they
could their furniture more durable, and they could donate them to
companies that build houses or something like that.