Writing A Design Paper
The most important part of writing any paper is to write it clearly enough so that others can understand it. Part of making it clear is to make sure the document format is easy to read. We recommend that you use a high quality .doc or .pdf file format for submission to JoYD.
Your paper also needs to clearly describe the design process so that someone else your age could make a design like yours. You may want to include pictures to help the readers understand your design.
The design process generally includes a series of steps shown below. When you write your paper, we recommend that you think about each of these steps and include a discussion for the steps that you used during your design process.
- State the design goal.
- Explore: investigate similar designs or ideas. If you use someone else's idea, it is important to put in your paper a reference to the place where you found the idea.
- Brainstorm: consider possible design options.
- Plan: sketch the design, prepare the needed materials & tools and practice the skills you need for constructing your design.
- Prototype: make a model or a simple version of your design to make sure it will work.
- Build: make your design.
- Test: test your design to see how well it works.
- Analyze: figure out any problems with your design and fix them.
- Publish: write a design paper and submit it to JoYD!
If your design is a story or a work of art, you may make an outline, an early draft or a sketch of the design. Those would be your plans and prototypes! When you ask someone to review your story or assess your artwork, they are testing and analyzing your design.
The most important thing about designing is how much fun you can have when you can create something that does what you want it to do. We hope you enjoy your design process and look forward to seeing it published in JoYD!
If you have any questions or concerns regarding your paper, please feel free to contact us.