<aside> 🚩 Leveraging attributes of a single embodiment can lead to entirely new design concepts.
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The creativity method of design by attribute is best used to modify an existing design concept.
The purpose of this method is to take advantage of an attribute of an embodiment to provide additional supporting functions that improve an intervention’s performance.
Virtually any attribute of any component, embodiment, subsystem, or subassembly of a product can be considered using this method. The most typically used attributes are:
size: If something is big, try to make it small.
location: If something is up high, positioning it lower will lower the intervention’s centre of gravity, which can improve stability.
shape: If something is square or flat, can it be used as a base for something else? If it's round, can it be rotated for some useful purpose? If something is box-shaped, are there benefits to making it spherical?
weight: Is something heavy? Can this be used to stabilize the product? How should the weight be distributed to achieve this?
density: Low density materials make things light. What are the advantages of using high-density (or low-density) materials?
surface finish: Roughly finished things tend to have high coefficients of friction. They also tend to reduce glare. Is that useful?
conduction: Is electric conduction an advantage or a disadvantage? Can something that is conductive be used safely as a ground?
For example, the dollies used to deliver beverages to passengers on European trains used to have a large coffee maker built into them. The tank for hot water was near the top of the dolly. This made the dolly unstable, difficult to steer, difficult to see around, and therefore dangerous.
By observing that the water tank is large and heavy (when full, at least), we can immediately suggest an improved design, wherein the tank is placed low in the dolly. In this case, the attributes involved are the size and weight of the water tank.
By placing the tank lower, the centre of gravity of the dolly is lowered. This makes the dolly more stable and easy to steer and less likely to tip over. Also, by eliminating the large-sized tank from the upper part of the dolly, the top of the dolly can be made narrower, and so improve visibility so that the dolly operator can see what's in front of the dolly. This leads to all kinds of new design opportunities.
One may argue a water tank at the bottom of the dolly actually raises the centre of gravity when the tank is empty. And that would be a valid concern, until one considers (a) the weight of the water tank relative to the weight of other items that might reasonably be on the dolly, (b) how the centre of gravity of the dolly moves during a cycle of usage of the dolly.
It turns out that there are many situations in which locating the water tank at the bottom of the dolly provides a net benefit in terms of manoeuvrability, stability, and visibility over a whole cycle of usage. This leads to some simple algebraic relations that permit one to determine quite precisely whether a bottom-located water tank is the best solution for a given case.