Product Design

Design Assignment
Introduction

Your design assignment submitted to the

SQA.
It will be a max of 8 sides A3 paper
Contents of Design Assignment
 Design situation.
 Basic research information, such as
lifestyle board, some ergonomic/
anthropometric data, various important
sizes and dimensions.
 A choice of design briefs complete with
specification
Design Situation
This is the beginning of your assignment. It is used to set
the scene, giving assignment a sense of realism.
Action required
Read through and then reread, ID all words and phrases
that could influence the design.
Next formalise your thoughts, note down why these words
are important and how they might affect your design.
This will help your design being to general as well as
creating more areas of development, reasoning and
justifications.
Hints: although you only have a limited time to do this work in the class
this type of activity can be done at home, preparation for presenting
and developing your initial ideas.
Think, plan, research at home, use class time to present your ideas
Design Situation
Other hints and tips:
Look at the pictures this will help generate some ideas
about aesthetics and help guide the direction of the
aesthetics.
Look at the picture and a basic idea of a theme should be
clear.

Think, plan, research at home, use class time to present your ideas
Research
A large part of assignment depends on how you
incorporate the research information into your
assignment.
You will be supplied with visual information, mood/ lifestyle
board, expected to steer the aesthetic direction.
Decisions about aesthetics should be justified by
reference to these boards and/ or design situation.
Ergonomic and anthropometric data tables are given to
help in research, use these as reference when deciding
position, size and scale of your design.
Other research information will relate to more specific set
tasks i.e. manufacture, the environment, additional sizes,
limiting factors etc.
Research
Hints and tips:
Analyse the mood/lifestyle board, ID any prominent styles,
fashion, materials and colours.
It could be helpful to list words that come to mind when
looking at visual images and can be used to influence
ideas and trigger development decisions.
Note down/ highlight anthropometric data that is important
and how it will effect your design.
Try to ID other information that could impact on your design
in terms of function, aesthetics and manufacture.
If a logo is given this could be used to create a corporate
ID.
Choosing a Design Task
Read the four tasks carefully, what appears to be the
easiest does not always offer scope for investigation and
development, necessary to complete the assignment
successfully.
Good design briefs offer scope to investigate, explore and
develop ideas and solutions through consideration of
function, aesthetics environment and manufacture. All
will be influenced by the design situation, research
material and specifications supplied.
Don’t pick a task because the solution quickly comes to
mind. REMEMBER you are being assessed on your
application of the design process. Come up with a
solution to quickly removes the need to investigate, and
makes you reluctant to come up with ideas.
Choosing a Design Task
Hints and tips;
Make an informed choice: chose a task that has balance of
factors which you feel will give best potential for further
development.
Read each task and note down:
 Functions and features suggested by research material and
specification.
 Important or desirable aesthetic considerations suggested by
research material.
 How environment will affect function, aesthetics and manufacture of
product.
 Any constraints created by specification.
Choosing a Design Task
More hints and tips;
Choose a task that you feel has:
 Functional features that are going to be effected by the environment,
user group and target market, this will require further investigation
into areas such as ergonomics, durability and maintenance.
 Aesthetic direction that may influence product’s shape, size, choice
of material, etc, which will in turn create the need for more research
and investigation.
 Environmental considerations that will impact both the design’s
function and aesthetics
 Manufacturing issues that could affect research and specification
supplied.
What are you Expected to Produce
Once you have chosen your task, before starting your
assignment , it is worthwhile outlining what you are being
asked to produce, why you are being asked to produce it
and how it will be assessed.
Remember this is not an assessment of talent, this is an
assessment of your understanding, implementation and
skills of relating information on your design.
The design assessment is split into 3 sections
 Section 1: Initial ideas.
 Section 2: Development towards a design solution.
 Section 3:
 Use appropriate communication techniques to convey information
regarding the idea generation and development.
 Clearly justify the reasons for decisions taken throughout the folio.
 Effectively communicate the proposed solution
What you are Expected to Produce
(Marks)
Your folio will be marked holistically, meaning you gain
marks from initial ideas through to final solution.
Changes showing consideration will be awarded a mark
for development. If through development a new idea is
shown sending work in a different direction this will be
awarded marks in the initial ideas section. All graphic or
written communication are awarded marks throughout
the assignment as are reasons and justifications.
Although marks are awarded in sections your design
should flow and develop naturally throughout the folio.
Section 1 : Generating Initial Ideas
Useful Skills: Research, analysis, evaluation, lateral
thinking, quick freehand sketching, 3D drawings
Useful knowledge: Important design factors, Mood boards,
technology transfer, materials.
You are being assessed on ability to generate ideas
relating to design task. Simply generating a number
generic ideas may not gain high marks.
Section 1 : Generating Initial Ideas
Getting started:
Keep your ideas simple to begin with. Consider all areas in
your initial idea generation. Your analysis should create
lists of important factors/ features, use this information to
generate your ideas. Annotate your ideas to draw
attention to how you have researched your ideas
showing how they are relevant to the design task.
Collecting visual information to help generate different
ideas which encourages creativity