Adapted from Source: http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/assignments/DesignNotebook.html
Background
You are required to keep an up-to-date design notebook throughout the term… this is an essential design practice that documents the history of your work.
Your design notebook contributes to a significant portion of the individual component of your final grade.
Notebooks are required in professional practice as they are important legal documents. A notebook is your working design document, and it is populated as you work. Notebooks should not be after-the-fact make-work. At the same time, your notebook should also be something that you are proud of… something that you could show to a potential employer.
A few example pages from the notebooks of the previous 2.009 students from MIT are as below. You can click on the images to see the full-sized pages.
Overall Schedule
| Week | Physical Notebook | Online Submission |
|---|---|---|
| 06 | – Bring your Notebook to the Lab/Workshop (Instructors review on-site) | – Trail Submission (before Saturday noon on Week 06) – Trail Peer Review |
| 08 | – Bring your Notebook to the Lab/Workshop (Instructors marking on-site) – 1st Reflection (on your Notebook) | – 1st Submission (before attending the class) – 1st Peer Review |
| 10 | – Bring your Notebook to the Lab/Workshop (Instructors marking on-site) – 2nd Reflection (on your Notebook) | – 2nd Submission (before attending the class) – 2nd Peer Review |
| 12 | – Bring your Notebook to the Lab/Workshop (Instructors marking on-site) – 3rd Reflection (on your Notebook) | – 3rd Submission (before attending the class) – 3rd Peer Review |
| 14 | – Bring your Notebook to the Lab/Workshop (Instructors marking on-site) – 4th Reflection (on your Notebook) | – 4th Submission (before attending the class) – 4th Peer Review |
Physical notebooks
We have already prepared a Notebook for each student for this course. It will be given to you during our first lab session on Week 02, by the Teaching Assistants. Please be sure to write the date on each page when you make entries and use indelible ink. Design notebooks are legal documents.
Use your design notebook to document all of your work and contributions towards your team’s project. The notebook will also be used for a required reflection entry after each project milestone. Do not use the notebook for lecture notes. Notebooks are working documents, but they must provide a comprehensible trail for your product development effort. Illegible notebooks will receive a poor grade.
Bi-weekly Notebook Review during Lab/Workshop
Be sure to bring your up-to-date design notebook to the lab in the above listed times. Your instructor will collect your notebook near the beginning of the lab, review it, initial new pages, provide some feedback, and return it back to you during the same lab. Please don’t forget to include your reflection!
At the end of the term, your lab instructor will keep your notebook for final grading. You will be able to pick up your notebook after the course grading is completed.
Online notebooks
In addition to a physical notebook, you will submit two digital images from your notebook bi-weekly on Week 08, 10, 12, and 14. These submissions are used to make an on-line ‘highlight’ notebook, accessible through the team pages.
Team members can review them during peer reviews, and the process of selecting your highlights is a form of reflection that contributes to the learning experience. You may want to make special two-week summary pages in your notebook for the online submission.
Bi-weekly digital highlights online
Each time your notebook is reviewed in the lab, you must also submit digital images of the two pages from the current review period through this link. This will be used to build an online record of your key contributions that can be accessed by classmates during peer reviews.
Please do not make sloppy submissions! The scans must be legible, right side up, and appropriately cropped. Unintelligible images will be considered incomplete. If you have any difficulties feel free to contact the course instructor.