find a design problem

In some ways this is the hardest part of the school based project. You need to find a project, first that you are interested in, second that shows your strengths off to the greatest ability, and third, that you can design and make in 20 weeks.

If you are very creative drawer but not very neat making choose;

product design

which involves designing a new product (anything from a cd player to a lab top computer) and making a model of it

If you are very accurate at making but not so creative choose;

architectural design,

interior design,

promotional design,

packaging design.

(designing and making a model of a school, or a sports centre)

(designing and making a model of a kitchen, or a living room)

(designing all the items to promote a film or a hair gel, including an item in 3d, example a sales display, full size or model)

(designing new style pizza box or milk carton)

If you are vey creative and very accurate choose from any option;

product design,

architectural design,

interior design,

promotional design,

packaging design.

Now you can spend some time thinking about the type of design problem you are going to pick and the subject. The examiner needs to know why you chose a particular design problem and you need to write this down in your folder work. But this will be only part of the preparation work you need to do before you start to research your design problem.

You also need to include in your folder writing on the 3 areas below.

analise why its a problem

For instance in the example of the CD player, what are its faults, the CD jumps, you can only play 1 CD at a time, its large and uncomfortable to carry, you need speakers or headphones in addition to listen to music. The materials to make the case are often cheap, plastic, the casing breaks easily, the hinges break, the buttons break, often look stupid and are pressed by accident. You cant record etc..etc..

http://www.weidemyr.com/com/audiovideo.shtml

analise the needs of the problem

I would like a CD player which doesnt have any of the faults listed. You could use a well written questionnaire at this point to collect information about the needs of the user.

Your writing should go something like this...

For my CD to be attractive to a target market (the group your going to sell your product to) it would need to fit the following criteria:

It would need to be attractive, to be made from a strong durable material, and for the menu and buttons to be attractive and lock so that they could not be pressed by accident. It would be a good feature if the CD player could record as well as play cd´s and dvd´s and be sold with a usb cable to connect to a home entertainment system or PC. etc..etc..

click here to download example questionnaire

write a design brief

What is a design brief?

here´s a definition;

a short document that includes the following:

• what the designer must accomplish, and

• what the solution must accomplish.

The design brief provides the frame of reference for the efforts and decisions of the designer or design team.

For the CD player the design brief may include the following points...

The CD player will be aimed at a luxury market the cost of production of the CD player within $30 to $60 dollars. The design must be attractive to 18 to 25 year olds and have a modern up to date appearance. The CD player must be as light as possible weighing less than 330gramms, but also as strong as possible and use modern materials and manufacturing processes. It must be a size that would hold a CD or DVD and it has to function without headphones. It should have the ability to store data using flash memory...etc...etc

The solution must accomplish all the technical objectives stated in the design brief. The solution is more than just a standard CD player it will be an innovative design leader and it must have a look which states that it is this...etc...etc