Design Optimization, Simplification

Note these are optimization models with multiple objective goals, a very classic case.  We used this to look at various design contexts, like package design.    Visualization of results was used, even back then.

MIT Researchers Develop Tool to Simplify Product Design

Engineering.com  By Phillip Keane

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed a visualization tool for computer-aided design (CAD) that facilitates interactive, real-time exploration of design options that are best suited for sometimes competing performance goals. The InstantCAD tool combines multi-objective optimization methods with a CAD solution. MIT's Adriana Schulz says, "We're directly editing the performance space and providing real-time feedback on the designs that give you the best performance. A product may have 100 design parameters...but we really only care about how it behaves in the physical world." InstantCAD enables engineers to identify and convert the entire "Pareto front"—a set of designs optimized for all given performance objectives—into an interactive map. Clicking on the map displays optimized designs and variations in the immediate locale of that section of the front.