Lesson video

Hello, My name is Mrs.Finlay.

And today, our lesson topic is Designing for others.

But to get ready for this lesson, you need to have with you some paper, a pen and a pencil.

Make sure you're somewhere quiet where you can hear my voice and you can concentrate.

I just want to double-check that you have got paper, pencil, and a pen.

Well done.

Let's have a look of what's involved in today's lesson.

Hopefully you've already done the intro quiz.

So next, we going to have a little look at how a specification is used.

We then going to build our own specifications.

And finally, we going to to use these specifications to do some sketching, come up with some ideas.

And as always, there's an exit quiz for you to do at the end of this lesson.

Keywords.

Okay, let's have a look at the words we need to identify in our lesson today and use as well.

The first word that we going to look at is Design specifications.

This is the list of criteria that we can design against.

So a client will tell a designer, "I want a product that will do this, this and this".

And this helps the designer make sure that they make the very best solution for the client.

Hopefully, you've done specifications at school but we going to be going through those today together anyway.

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Okay, let's look at the next word.

Function, this is the purpose of an object or the way it works.

Is basically what a product actually does.

So if we looked at something like a wooden spoon in a kitchen, that the Function of that spoon is to help stir and mix products together.

And also, I suppose, for the person using it not to have their hand burn.

So when we look around the room we're sitting now, we can probably identify the function of lots of products.

Okay, I wonder what the last one is? Let's have a look together.

Aesthetics, now super tricky aesthetics.

A E S T H E T I C now A E S T.

if you can remember that you're doing really well.

This is where we consider the form which is the outer shape or the beauty of a product.

And people have different opinions on different Aesthetics with products.

It is a really interesting one to put in.

Right, I'm going to test your knowledge, I know it's a bit early in the lesson but I feel like we need a little bit of a wake up.

Okay, so, I've put on here, four key terms for our specification.

Can you see any of keywords in that? Yeah, brilliant, fabulous, you've got Function and Aesthetics.

Okay, so let's have a little look at Function.

Is Function who the products for or what the product does, which one do you think it is? Who the product is for or what the product does? Amazing, well done, what the product does.

Yeah, how it behaves.

We talked about the wooden spoon.

Okay, Dimensions.

Let's have a look at Dimensions.

Now is dimensions the size of a product or is it the colour of a product? Okay, so have a look.

Yeah, well done, size of the product, really easy.

I put that in there though because sometimes people mention dimensions, mention dimensions.

Sometimes people mention dimensions and you think what is that? It is just size, so don't be baffled and don't be fooled.

Okay, next one, User.

Is this the person who designs the product or the person who the product is for? I'm going to read that again.

Is the user who designs the product or who the product is for? Okay, which one do you think that is? You sure? Let's have a look.

Yeah, who the product is for, well done.

Okay, last one, Aesthetics Now, in our key words, so you should be able to smash this.

Let's have a little look.

Okay, so Aesthetics, is it shape, texture, colour or where the product will be sold? What do you think? Okay, let's look together.

Yeah, shape, texture and colour, well done.

Now the reason I have pulled these four terms up is that we going to be using those in the specification we write.

So I want you to be confident with what those words mean.

I thought we could look at an example of a specification before we actually write it together.

We going to look at this milk carton.

And I want you to think about the five different examples to specification titles I've put down aside.

They've got function, Dimensions, User, Aesthetics and I've added in their Materials, what the product's actually made of.

So let's look at that milk carton.

Not often, and always actually, Function can be two three or four different things.

It isn't ever just one thing that a product does.

So can you think for me two or three things that milk carton does? Think about its primary Function, maybe then think about other things that it has to do.

Why is it that shape? Okay, let's look together.

The product should keep the milk fresh, snack easily, hold two litres of milk and allow the milk to be easily poured.

I want to just pause and think about that.

Should keep the milk fresh.

That milk carton is made of a composite, which is is more than one material.

And inside it has an aluminium foil layer and that helps insulate the milk.

So that's the product does do that.

Helps keep, and that helps keep it fresh.

Now what about the design helps it stuck easily? That's right, it's geometric, it's rectangular.

Hold two litres of milk.

Well they can easily test that kind of thing to make sure that it helps you lead to the milk and allowed to be easily poured.

What has the designer put into that to make sure it's easily poured? That's right, there is a round and a conduct nozzle bet that you take the lid off.

Okay let's think about Dimensions and this will be a little bit difficult for you to know.

The product should be 300 Mil high, now that's the length of a long ruler, a little bit longer than an exercise book you might have at school 80 millimetres by 80 millimetres wide.

Can you notice something about the sentence starters for those specification points? Yes, they start with the same thing, the product should.

When you're writing a specification, it's fantastic to be very direct to the product should, would, must.

Okay, User, now the person using it.

Who's the person who would use this type of product? Okay, let's have a look, see if you're right.

The product should be designed for a family who needs to pour milk over a period of time.

And that's interesting that it's been put in that period of time because the idea of having the screw cap, means that you can put it back in the fridge easily.

Okay, Aesthetics.

Can you remember what Aesthetics mean? We had it in our keywords.

Good, how the product looks, great, it's form, maybe it's texture or colour.

So let's have a look.

The Aesthetic should show that the milk, rather it's milk sorry, have bold colours and a geometric form for easy stacking.

Sort of a repeat on the Function, but I think because we're talking about form and shape, it's important that that's in that.

So bold colours, maybe that's so it can be easily seen across supermarket and geometric form.

Why would we want that to have geometric form? That's right, for easy stacking that's been put there as a justification ,as a reason why.

Okay, last one, Materials.

Now I did mention Materials a little bit in Function, but let's have a look.

So there you go, the product should be made of a cardboard composite.

This means a cardboard with other materials put into it and they layer up the composite boards.

So that it will insulate, so that it will be strong.

This is a technical example of a specification.

And we now going to to move on, and we're going to write our own specifications but I'm going to be here to help you.

Okay, so we going to put together some notes that are going to help us when we do our research and build our actual specification.

So it's up to you really how he wants to do this.

You might want to watch me put the plan together, pause the video, and then copy down your own.

You can have to make sure that you've got space to write in and around.

Because that's what will show you the design problem you're going to be filling it in.

Okay, so first point we going to comment on is going to be Function.

Remember that's one of our key words today.

That's what the product should do.

Our second one, okay, into the account is going to be Dimensions.

And remember, can you, that's, another word for dimensions is sizes and we always have dimensions measure millimetres, MM.

We will also comment on the User, who is actually going to use the product.

And also Aesthetics, another one of our keywords from today.

And remember that's colour, texture, form.

And then the final thing we going to look at and comment on, is Materials.

What actually that product needs, what the materials in that product need to do and what materials they might be made from? So remember, you might just want to pause the video now and copy this down.

Here's our client.

Maybe you're a bit surprised.

Let's have a little look at him at action, here he is, he's just woken up but he gets quite fast when he gets going.

So the task we going to look at is creating somewhere for him to be when he's getting, when his house is being cleaned out.

So we are going to write a specification to help the designer, design a product that will look after that hamster, when his actual home is being cleaned out.

We going to look at each of those points in your specification plan.

And we going to write some notes down for what we think we need to consider in that specification point.

The first thing we going to look at is Function.

What do we think the product should do? We know that it's only going to be temporary to hold the hamster, but what else might we have to consider? Let's look at a little video of just putting the hamster in just a normal cobble box and see what happens.

Okay, so we're putting our little hamster into his box and you can already see that he's trying to work out how he can get out.

And even though there is a little bit of the lick on this box, it's not particularly safe for him.

And also it's a bit boring for him.

And I think as well, yeah, he's going to escape any minute now.

So under Function, you need to identify what should this do? I think safety is important, so we need to make sure that our hamster won't be harmed.

I also think it's important that he is kept confined, so he isn't going to escape.

So safety, not escaping, and maybe we could add something in that about him having somewhere to be able to play with or interact with, to keep him amused.

See if you can add some of your thoughts to the Function part of our little plan that we created.

Pause the video now and have a go at that.

Dimensions.

So this is our hamster measuring device.

In order to be able to create a product for the hamster, we have to have a good idea about how big he actually is.

Now I don't know if you've ever handled a hamster but they're pretty quick.

So we've created this little measuring device so that we can see how high he is and how long he is.

So those are centimetres going up the side now really they should be in millimetres, so it's not very good.

And then from the nose of the measuring device all the way along, it also tells me, so it is 180 Mil, 18 centimetres long, and then we've gone to 90 Mil high, nine centimetres high.

So what we've done is we've encouraged the hamster to walk along the measuring device and we've done it.

We filmed it in slow-mo to hopefully we can get some accurate readings.

We need to make sure in our specification, that the whatever we make for the hamster, it can he can fit in safely.

So what's important in this spec point is that we're putting in, the product should allow a hamster of this size by this size to freely move about.

So let's look at how big that hamster is.

I'm going to play the video for you.

Okay, here we go.

So there we go a little bit slow-mo just guiding him into where we want to go.

There he is.

Okay, make sure you watching.

How big do you think this hamster is? There he is.

Oh, I'm going to pause it.

So we've got, 40 Mil across the top.

He is a bit crouched down and length, yes he looks about 118 Mils long.

Let's just play on in case he gets any will moves up until now.

There he is, super happy sniffing around.

So we've now got all Dimensions.

So on your mind map, you can write down, that's got to allow for a hamster to be moving round.

I would say maybe 50 Mil high, five Centimetres and allow for, assume that the hamster is 180 Mil wide Okay, so we've commented on Function or what the product should do and Dimensions.

I now want you to go and come up with your own points that you can comment on, for the User, Aesthetics and Materials.

But when we think about the User, it's not just the hamster is going to use the product.

The owner is going to have to interact with that product to actually put the hamster in it.

When you think about Aesthetics, maybe think about what colours would you like to see? Do you want to see really bright colours? Do you want to have texture in the product? What about the shape or form of it? And that's your decision.

You can choose what you think.

And then finally Materials.

And I'm going to to give you a top tip on this.

The materials are going to have to be really good so that the hamster can't eat his way or her way out of the product.

Okay, so that might be something to think about when we're writing about Materials.

So I'd like you to finish your specification plan now.

So pause the video and we'll go through some answers in a minute.

Now I'm going to write down your specification formerly.

Now the most important thing to start with, is that you realise that everything we going to write, we going to to write in a full sentence.

Now we talked about the start of a specification sentences before, and we're going to try and have our sentences starting, the product should or the product must.

So I'm going to show you what my specification plan looks like now.

Here it is, this is where you might want to pause the video and check some of your thoughts and make sure where you have got gaps that you've actually topped up.

So I've got my five main parts.

I've got my Function, Dimensions, User, Aesthetics and Materials, and then of those I've highlighted out the things that I think should be added to the specifications.

Pause the video if you want to just check your work.

Okay, so we going to have a little look at Function.

So in Function, we said that the product should be safe for the hamster to use, it should make sure he doesn't escape and also provide an activity maybe, that when they're in there they don't get bored or and their well-being is considered.

So let's take that idea of safety first.

So what we're going to do is we going to formally write out from our plan.

So let's think about that safety.

Now, how could we phrase our specification point? The product should, let's have a look.

The product should keep a hamster safe when it is being cleaned out.

And what I'd really like you to do is within those sentences, say why that is important.

Why is it important that our house is kept safe? Well, this is important so the hamster doesn't fall and injure themselves.

Your task now is to go through your specification plan and write out formal sentences for your design, for your specification plan.

There's an example on the screen there to help you.

Hold on that task, it was not easy.

Writing things out formally is very tricky and that's why I always find a plan really helps me.

Okay, time for some doodling.

What I would like you guys to do is on your paper that you have available ,is have a quick doodle.

Now I've done some very quickly doodles not really sure what they are of.

You can either choose to copy these or you might choose to do your own doodling.

I don't mind if you use pencil, or Biro, or pen, whatever you have to hand.

The idea is I want to get you sketching really quickly.

So pause the video.

Spend five minutes, do some quick doodles.

So you probably guessed what we're building up to.

We are going to now design some ideas using our specification for a product that can hold our hamster while their cage is being cleaned out.

Now I've said this to you before but I'm going to say it again.

When you design, don't edit your ideas, don't think you can't design and you don't have ideas.

Don't worry if your drawings look a little bit messy.

Some of the best ideas I've ever seen have been from little ideas that have been drawn on envelopes, or use it odd bits of pen or you look at them, you think what on earth is that? So I don't want you to edit your ideas.

Sometimes I think that coming up with ideas and sketching is a little bit like being sick.

So, lots of different colours, you can't stop it, it's like a compulsion, is up the wall, is lines and squares and triangles, and that's how I want your ideas to be.

If you edit your design ideas down then we're never going to see the really great ideas that I know you have.

Okay, so, three things to think about.

I want you to come up with design ideas that are different.

I want you to think about the specification points that we've written out to make sure that we are coming up with the very best design solution.

And finally, really importantly, don't edit your ideas.

If you draw something in it, isn't very good.

Don't worry cause the next thing you come up with will be even better.

I'm going to do a little bit of a demo a little bit of a sketching to get you started and then I'm going to leave you to it.

Okay, I'm going to think about the start with, what I want to create for my ideas.

And the first thing we going to do is come up with some really quick little ideas.

So I'm thinking something, this is just a 2D thing, something like that.

Maybe we've some, it might have some ladders in it for the little hamster Maybe some kind of little wheel thing, although I know that's not very good for that backseat space.

Another little idea I could have is, maybe I have something that's totally round or even, or actually, maybe something that's round like this, like that.

So there isn't any corners, maybe came down like that.

Maybe it have some little, little bumps or widener maybe a segment taken out here with a little tunnel for it like that.

Now you might look at this and say, "Oh! that's not very good sketching".

That's the whole point.

I said, she didn't know.

Some of the ideas might be a little bit crazy.

So what about something that maybe something like that little cover on there? Maybe half of it in there, half of it might be in the dark.

So we'd have a little hamster in there.

And then maybe the other half we could have bits that we put on that maybe go off in two different directions or something like that.

And might be a bit of a dead end there.

This one might drop down.

Not very safe though, that wouldn't cover the specifications very well.

Okay, let's try again.

Let's do something more standard.

Say there's my standard boring box that I got.

What I might want to do with my design ideas as well is to start to think about actually how big is that hamster in there? So here we go, let in here, do my little hamster.

I'll make it a drawing houses that sort of roughly the scale, that's how big he would be.

Okay, so on this one, I might decide that I want to have maybe a couple that stack like this.

Could have a couple of ideas stack, a couple of boxes stack and this could be something that will not do up there.

Maybe a little thing going here, maybe some somewhere for him to hide in there as well, say like to hide and be out in the way.

Okay, that might not be very good because obviously that looks quite cumbersome.

So come up with ideas, see what you think.

I also would like to see you add some thoughts onto it.

So somebody might look at my work now and wonder if that answered any of that.

But if I start to put wheel for exercise or this could be round with a hiding place.

All of a sudden, my designs are coming to light.

I could add some colour onto here as well.

Have a go, see what ideas you come up with.

Well done today, we've got lots of designing and we've done some work with specifications.

And I look forward to seeing you in another lesson.