The phrase "attempts to design" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when discussing efforts or endeavors to create or develop something, typically in a formal or academic context.
Example: "The research team makes several attempts to design a more efficient solar panel."
Alternatives: "endeavors to create" or "strives to develop".
For millennia, however, progress was retarded by attempts to design aircraft that emulated the beating of a bird's wings.
The trail-blazing Fairphone (pictured above) is showing rare ambition in its attempts to design a more resource-efficient and ethically sourced smartphone.
Whereas ESRO was successful in mounting a series of science missions, many in collaboration with NASA, ELDO failed in attempts to design and launch a European rocket.
Given how fascinating the idea is, then, it's no surprise that there have been plenty of attempts to design technological lie detectors, and no shortage of people willing to pay for the chance to use them.
All of these manifestations have been utilized in attempts to design microphones for the detection and measurement of sound, but only two (pressure and velocity effects) have proved to be of any practical value.
"We believe this verdict could lead to Samsung delaying near-term product launches as it attempts to design around Apple's patents," said Michael Walkley, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity.
Previous attempts to design vehicles that work like a minivan without looking like one — Mercedes R-Class and the defunct Chrysler Pacifica, we're talking to you — have typically gone down as oddball failures.
Not to mention the thousands of wonderful and bold attempts to design for love that have ended in failure.
We also describe the search for cryptic binding pockets and attempts to design allostery into proteins.
Everyone attempts to design the "ideal valve," but that does not currently exist.
Attempts to design and develop protective vaccines against them have also yielded disappointing results.
