Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to this computer aided design unit of work.

My name is Mr. Wicken, and I am here to teach you all about computer aided design and what it has to offer you in understanding what design technology is all about.

In this unit, we're going to look at different computer aided design software, why it's important to the design process, and more importantly, how we can design using computer aided software.

In today's lesson, we're going to look into product analysis and why it's so important to the design process.

Let's look at the objectives for today's lesson.

The first is going to be what makes good design.

Then, we're going to move on to actually understanding what product analysis is, and how we do it successfully.

Then, we're going to look at what the word ergonomics means, and why it's so important when designing a product.

And finally, you're going to lead out of the lesson with the exit quiz to show all the understanding that you have picked up from today's lesson.

Now, to be successful in today's learning, there are some really important things we need to make sure are happening.

First, that you have either an exercise book or some blank paper to write down all the wonderful bits of learning we're going to do in today's lesson.

Then, you also need to make sure you've got a pen or a pencil to do that writing with.

It doesn't matter what colour the pen is, and it doesn't matter what type of pencil you've got, but just make sure you are comfortable using it.

And also, make sure that you're in a nice, quiet, safe environment in your home so that you can really concentrate on our learning in today's lesson.

Our first piece of learning in today's lesson is what makes good design.

Now the first task we need to do, is I need you to go somewhere in your home and find your favourite piece of clothing.

It doesn't matter what piece of clothing it is, it doesn't matter how old or how new it is, I want you to go and get that piece of clothing, and bring it back here so that we can then analyse it to work out why it's such a good piece of design, and why you have chosen it as your favourite.

If you can pause the video here, and we'll carry on when you come back.

Welcome back, and thanks for going to get your favourite piece of clothing.

Now, with that piece of clothing, we're going to do three different tasks.

The first task is we're going to look at the design of that piece of clothing you've selected.

We're going to look at two things within the design.

The first thing is why is it actually your favourite piece of design? There must be a reason why you selected it.

And we're going to discuss that in a minute.

The second is, what actually is it about that piece of clothing that you really like, be it do with the colour, the brand, the shape, whatever.

The second area we're going to look into is the function.

So when we're talking about the function there are two questions within that we going to ask ourselves.

First of all, is the piece of clothing comfortable to wear.

And the second question, is does that actually fit you really well? That piece of clothing you selected hopefully does fit you well.

And we're going to discuss why that's important afterwards.

And the third and final thing is emotion.

Actually, there must be a reason why you selected that as your favourite piece of clothing.

What emotions do you feel when you wear that piece of clothing? Are you proud? Are you sporty? Are you feeling really strong? Are you feeling invincible? Or actually it might be that you just feel really smart, and really professional.

I'm going to put my favourite piece of clothing on now.

Great, I'm now wearing my favourite piece of clothing which is a jumper.

Now let's analyse this jumper and your piece of clothing against the three areas, design, function, and emotion.

So, design, why is it that this is my favourite piece of clothing because of the design? Well, the really, really lovely thing about this jumper is its neck.

If you look, can you see that the neck goes all the way around, back down to the front.

And what that means is that during the winter months when there's a cold breeze blowing, actually my jumper protects me from that cold breeze.

She's lovely, and it makes me feel nice and warm, and nice and cosy.

The other thing I like about the design, it's a nice check it pattern on the front.

It's not too outstanding, it's not too garish, it just means it's nice and simple, and something for people to look at when I'm wearing the jumper.

Now, if we then look at the style and the colours, the style is very simple, clean, not too fussy, and actually something that I could wear pretty much anywhere I wanted to, maybe to school, maybe to the shops, maybe to a friend's house, but it means that I can wear it in different locations.

And the colours again are nice and simple, a loving grey silvery kind of colour, which can go with pretty much anything I want, perfect.

Now, let's move on to the function.

The most important thing about any piece of clothing is, is it comfortable? Well, this jumper is truly comfortable, absolutely 100%, every time I wear it, I think to myself just how comfortable and cosy it is when I wear this jumper in those cold winter months.

The next thing is about the fit.

The fit of this jumper is perfect, it's not too big, it's not too small, it's just perfect.

Which means then when I'm wearing it, it looks really good on me, so my friends and my family can say, "That's a really jumper Mr. Wicken." Thank you, I think it is too.

And the last thing is emotion.

Now, every time I wear this jumper, I always feel really happy, and really pleased that I bought this jumper for me.

I also feel really cosy, really warm, and safe because actually when I'm wearing it, I can be in a nice, warm and cosy location, maybe have a nice cup of tea and a biscuit, so I can enjoy my time wearing this jumper.

Now, as much as I love wearing this jumper and I'm sure you love looking at it, I'm going to take the jumper off now.

There we go, my jump is gone back into the cupboard, so it's nice and safe and protected.

Now, what I'd like you to do is in your exercise book, is to answer these questions against your favourite piece of clothing.

Don't forget, make sure you give me lots of detail in your answers, so I know clearly why that is your favourite piece of clothing.

Okay, let's move on to the secondary of learning.

Why do we analyse products? It's a really good question, and one that I want to make sure that we are all clear in understanding.

So, before we go to design any new product, we need to be really clear and understand what already exists in other products that are similar to what we are wanting to design that are already for sale.

By looking at existing products that people can already buy, we can find out some really key questions.

Those questions would be, actually how can we better design that type of product, by looking at those existing products we can clearly see where there are good points, but more importantly, where there are areas that we need to improve the design.

And by doing that, we can ensure that we're designing a product for our target market so that they can clearly have the best product that they can buy.

Now, when we are analysing any type of product we need to do this against six key areas.

And those six key areas are proportion, colour, size, texture, shape, and materials.

Now why these six areas? These six areas will allow us to give a greater level of understanding as to what this product that already exists is doing well but as we've already said, what it's not doing so well that we can improve on when we create our design.

And these six areas ensure that what we do, can clearly help guide our design going forward.

Now, what I'd like you to do, is to stop the video, and I would like you to analyse your favourite piece of clothing against those six areas.

So when you're analysing them make sure that you're thinking really clearly about those six different topics and why your piece of clothing is good at what it does, or more importantly, how it could be improved.

Okay, you want to pause the video now, and we'll come back when you finished.

Great, thanks for finishing that task, now let's move on.

So far, we've looked at what makes good design, but also why we analyse products.

Now, another thing that we need to understand is function.

Now, a products function is also vital to know when we analyse any product.

If we don't know the purpose of that product, when we analyse it and look to see whether it's good or bad, we won't know what is actually for, unless we know what its function is.

But it's not as clear as just knowing what its function is, because most products actually will have a primary function, so the reason for it mainly existing, but also a secondary function.

So an additional area of that product that adds to its usability.

So, a really good example is my pencil.

My pencil's primary function is what? Exactly, writing.

The pencil mainly is here so that I can write or draw a whole all different things, but a secondary function is the rubber that's at the end of it.

This rubber is not the main reason why I have this pencil, but it is a secondary function which allows me to get rid of any mistakes I make with the pencil.

So there is an example of a product having a primary, and secondary function.

Now, what I'd like you to do is to pause the video again, and this time I want you to look at a mobile phone, and I want you to think what is the mobile phone's primary function? What is the main function that actually the mobile phone has been designed for? Then, I want you to consider what the secondary functions of a mobile phone are.

So these are the additional features that a mobile phone will have that go above and beyond the primary function.

If you can make sure you write your answers into your exercise book, that would be brilliant.

Pause the video here, and let's finish this task.

Great, thanks for finishing that task.

Now let's move on, to what is the last area of learning in today's lesson, and that is, what is ergonomics? Ergonomics is a new word and I want to make sure that we can all say it.

So I'm going to say it, and I want you to repeat it.

Ergonomics, ergonomics, ergonomics, great.

Hopefully you're going to remember this because it's really important to the design process.

So what does it mean? Ergonomics means the relationship between the product and the user.

If a product is ergonomically designed, it will be easy to use and not present any problems to the user.

That means, when you use a product you don't really notice it.

When was the last time you actually thought about how your toothbrush worked? I know I don't think about it very often, and that's because it's been so well, ergonomically designed.

Now, let's consider another product that's been well designed ergonomically, your classroom chair.

This would have been ergonomically designed, which means it's had the following considered when the designers were creating it.

The first is the height.

How high does the chair need to be, so that it support you when you're learning in your classroom? Secondly, what's the weight going to be of this chair? If it's too heavy, we're not going to be able move it.

But again, if it's too lite, we might break it far too easily.

And lastly, the age range, it's really important we consider the age range of the user because if we get this wrong, it means the person who uses it at the end could be the wrong age for the product.

You wouldn't see an adult playing with a baby's toy, would you? Maybe you would, but it's not been designed specifically for an adult, it's been designed for a baby.

Okay, let's move on to the activity.

So, I want you to look at the two games controllers on this page.

First of all, I want you to write down in your exercise book, which controller out of the two you believe has been ergonomically designed, and what makes you think this.

Remember, ergonomically designed means that it's easy for the user to use the product.

Then, I want you to consider which controller of the two has not been ergonomically designed.

And again, what makes you think that? So this time, the product is going to be difficult and could possibly hurt the person using the controller for a long period of time.

And then finally, bring it back in our product analysis learning from earlier how could these controllers be further improved to help the users play the games? That's really important, if you've got the controller and the controller isn't actually helping you, it's actually going to be a hindrance.

So, I want you to now pause the video, I want you to analyse the two different controllers and when you're done, we'll come back and conclude the lesson.

Great, thanks for completing that task, I hope you found it really engaging, and actually you were able to decide which controller had been ergonomically designed and which one hadn't.

And that's it for today's lesson, thanks for being here with me.

I hope you really enjoyed the different things we've done.

We've looked at what makes good design, we've understood what product analysis is, and we've introduced a new word, ergonomics, and now we understand what it is, do complete some task around it.

I look forward to seeing you in the next lesson.

Take care, bye-bye.