Example sentences
zuì最jìn近zěn怎me么yàng样？
How have you been?
zhè这yàng样zěn怎me么yàng样？
How about this?
About this word
怎么 is "how" and 样 means shape or appearance, so 怎么样 is literally "how is it shaped", asking for a judgment rather than a method. Use it to ask for an opinion or to float a suggestion: 这个菜怎么样? (how is this dish), 我们走路去，怎么样? (how about walking). Note the split from 怎么: 你怎么去 asks by what means, while 这个菜怎么样 asks how it is. 这样 (like this) and 那样 (like that) use the same 样.
The story behind the character
怎
怎 is 乍 on top with 心 underneath. This is a young character. It is not in the Han dynasty dictionary, and it only turns up in everyday writing many centuries later. 心 is the mind, 乍 is there for the sound. 怎么 asks how, and 怎么样 asks what something is like.
么
么 is the small one. The traditional 麼 is 麻 (hemp) with 幺 underneath, and 幺 means tiny, a little thread. Xu Shen wrote 麼, 細也: fine, slight. These days it survives mostly as a suffix with no meaning of its own, the 么 in 什么, 怎么 and 那么.
样
样 is 木, wood, with 羊 giving the sound. That 羊 replaced a more complicated piece: the old character was 樣, and Xu Shen said 樣 was 栩實也, the fruit of the 栩 oak. An acorn. The meaning you use today, shape and appearance, came from borrowing the character for its sound alone. 怎么样 is built on an acorn.