Lesson video

Hello, thank you for joining me for Design and Technology lesson.

My name is Mrs. Conway, and I will be guiding you through your learning today.

So today's lesson outcome is I can use digital media to present my design portfolio.

And these are our keywords.

We have design portfolio, iterative design process, and digital media.

I'll go through each one of these in more detail as we work through the lesson.

The first thing we're going to look at then is the purpose of a design portfolio.

A design portfolio is a collection of a designer's work.

It shows how ideas develop from start to finish and includes things such as sketches, research, models, and evaluations.

Here's some example pages of a typical design portfolio.

Now, design portfolios are used in GCSE Design and Technology to show your thinking and also your decision-making.

It is sometimes tempting to only include the best work and the best ideas in a design portfolio, but in fact, it should show the journey of the designer, including all of the ideas that were not taken through or were not successful.

Okay, quick check for understanding on that then.

What work should be included in a design portfolio? A, only the designer's best work, B, only the final ideas, or C, a mixture of all the ideas to show the design journey? Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about your answer.

And the correct answer was C.

So a design portfolio should include a mixture of all of the ideas to show the design journey, not just your best ideas.

A design portfolio allows the designer to showcase their creativity and skills by demonstrating what they can do, but also their style and their ideas as well.

It acts as evidence of the design process itself.

And the design process is a journey that the designer travels, and the design portfolio should show every stage of that journey.

It should not just show the final outcome, but instead act as a step-by-step record of how the designer got there.

It helps to communicate the designer's ideas to others, which is useful for people like examiners, teachers, clients, and employers.

It can also be used as a reflective tool, as it can show why the designer chose certain ideas or materials, and can help the designer to improve and understand what worked well.

In this example of a design page from a design portfolio, the designer has included: their sketches and their ideas, which you can see clearly, but also annotation to explain their ideas to anyone reading the design portfolio, but also it's acting as a reflective, evaluative and analytical tool for the designer themselves as they can reflect on their annotation and make some notes on that.

The designer has used the page to work out their ideas basically, but has also communicated their ideas to others with clear sketches and annotation.

Now, there's no set order that a design portfolio must take.

The order that it takes is the order in which the designer carries out the design process.

It should reflect the iterative way in which the designer has worked.

The iterative design process is a cycle of creating, testing and improving a design until it meets the user's needs.

Let's look at a little bit more in detail at the iterative design process.

So firstly, a designer will identify the needs of their user or their target market, and they will carry out research and analysis based on this before moving on to designing and developing an idea and then testing and evaluating it, then refining and improving it.

However, to be an iterative design process, the designer may find that they need to then return to the beginning or return to any of these previous sections.

They may find that they test and evaluate their idea and then realize that actually they need to go back and carry out further research.

Or they might get through to the stages where they're refining and improving their idea and actually they realize that they need to go back and identify the needs of the user again, or maybe more clearly, or maybe they need to go back to do further design ideas.

This is an iterative design process.

The key to the iterative design process is it's not a straight line, it's not linear.

You keep revisiting and improving your ideas instead of sticking with the first idea.

Okay, quick check for understanding on the iterative design process then.

What is the main feature of the iterative design process? A, following a fixed step-by-step plan without making changes, B, continuously testing and improving ideas through feedback, or C, creating one final design at the start and sticking to it? Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about your answer.

And the correct answer was B.

The main feature of the iterative design process is the continuous testing and improving of ideas through feedback.

Well done if you got that right.

Okay, it's gonna be over to you now to have a go at a few tasks.

First thing I'd like you to do is to explain what a design portfolio is.

Then I'd like you to explain four purposes of a design and technology design portfolio.

And then I'd like you to explain how the iterative design process helps the designer improve their product.

Okay, pause the video here to have a go at these tasks and good luck.

All right, how did you get on? Let's take each one of these in turn.

The first thing I asked you to do then was to explain what a design portfolio is.

And the example answer reads, "A design portfolio is a collection of work that shows the design process, ideas and final outcome." The next thing I asked you to do was to explain four purposes of a design technology design portfolio.

A design portfolio is important because it shows the whole process of designing from the first ideas to the final product.

It also allows the designer to demonstrate their creativity and problem-solving skills.

The design portfolio helps to communicate ideas clearly to teachers, examiners, or clients so they can understand the decisions made.

And finally, it provides evidence of research, testing, and evaluation, which supports and justifies the design choices.

Did you get those four main purposes of a design technology design portfolio? Just check your answer against the examples and make sure you've included all of those key points.

Last thing I asked you to do then was to explain how the iterative design process helps the designer improve their product.

The example answer reads, "The iterative design process helps the designer improve their product because it allows them to test their ideas and make changes when something does not work.

By creating prototypes and trying them out, they can find problems and fix them.

They can also use feedback from teachers or users to make their design better.

Each time they repeat the process, the product becomes more refined and works more effectively." Your answer will read slightly differently, but again, just check you've got those key points included.

So next we're going to look at digital media.

Now it's up to the designer the way in which they present their design portfolio.

One way to present a design portfolio is to use digital media.

Digital media is any content that's created, stored, or shared using digital technology.

Right, which two statements about presenting a design portfolio are correct? A, the designer can choose how to present their design portfolio, B, digital media can be used to present a design portfolio, C, all design portfolios must be handwritten on paper, or D, digital media only includes printed drawings and sketches? Pause the video here just take a moment to think about your answer.

And the two statements were A, the designer can choose how to present their design portfolio, and B, digital media can be used to present a design portfolio.

Well done if you got both of those.

Now, digital media can make it easier to include things such as video and audio, also things like CAD models and animation.

Using video or animation to show testing of designs and materials helps to communicate findings.

Audio can also be used to explain ideas if it is not clear through the text and images alone.

Now, benefits of presenting a design portfolio using digital media are: Jacob has suggested, "When I use digital media, my work looks neater and more professional." Now, that might not be the case for all of you, but some of you may quite appreciate the fact that it can look a little bit neater.

Sofia has said, "I found it easier to make changes, improvements to my design portfolio." This is a really good point.

If you've made one tiny mistake on an entire sheet, sometimes if you've done that by hand, you might have to start all over again.

But Sofia's pointed out, she can actually alter that really easily.

Andeep has suggested, "It allows me to include things like videos, CAD models, and audio more effectively," and we've looked at some examples of that.

And Sam has said, "I can share my design portfolio with my teachers and examiners easily." Absolutely.

And Izzy said, "I like that I can include high-quality images without losing any detail, which sometimes happens when printing." And lastly, Aisha has suggested, "I'm really happy that my design portfolio is more sustainable as it does not use as much paper or printing," and that's an excellent point.

Okay, another quick question for you then.

Which of the following is the benefit of using digital media to present a design portfolio? A, it makes the design portfolio harder to edit once completed, B, it reduces the quality of images and visuals, C, it requires the design portfolio to be handwritten and printed, or D, it allows the design portfolio to be shared easily with teachers and examiners? Pause the video here, just take a moment to think about your answer.

And the correct answer was D.

So one benefit of using digital media is it allows the design portfolio to be shared easily with teachers and examiners Right, I have a few more tasks for you then.

Firstly, I'd like you to look back at the working pages you have completed for your design portfolio.

And I'd like you to review your pages and consider the following questions: is my job design journey clear? Could I add extra annotation or pages to make my design journey clearer? Have I explained my design decisions throughout? And could my design portfolio be enhanced by using a digital media? And secondly then, considering the answers to those questions, I'd like you to make any necessary improvements to your design portfolio based on your answers.

Quite a big task for you to consider here and to have a go at.

So really look through your design portfolio objectively and in a lot of detail and answer those questions to really think about how you can improve it and take it back a little bit further.

Pause the video here to have a go at these two tasks, and good luck.

Let's look at Alex's example For the first task then Alex has considered, "I have a lot of sketches, screen grabs and photos that need to be annotated, explained and presented on a page.

I'm gonna focus on this as an improvement to my design portfolio." He's picked out some great improvements here then that he can consider and make to his design portfolio.

So here are Alex's initial sketches and also some of Alex's sketching over CAD.

At the moment, they're not quite explained and his design journey isn't quite clear.

Here then we have an improvement done by Andeep.

He's explained, "I've used digital media to organize and show my design journey more clearly." And I asked you to do the same, so considering the answers to question number one, I asked you to then go ahead and make the improvements into your design portfolio, and here, Andeep has done that.

He's recognized that he's got lots of drawings and notes all over the place, and he's used digital media to pull that all together onto one page and add annotation to explain his thinking.

This is a really great use of digital media.

Right, let's summarize today's lesson then.

Today we've been looking at digital media presentation.

A design portfolio is a collection of a designer's work.

It shows how ideas develop from start to finish, and includes things such as sketches, research, models, and evaluations.

It should show the journey of the designer, including all of the ideas that were not taken through or were not successful.

There is no set order that a design portfolio must take place.

The order that it takes is the order in which the designer carries out the design process.

And it should reflect the iterative way in which the designer has worked.

Digital media can also be used to present a design portfolio.

And lastly, the iterative design process is a cycle of creating, testing and improving a design until it meets the user's needs.

Thank you for all of your hard work today.

Thank you so much for joining me for the lesson as well, and I will see you soon.