Lesson video

Hello there.

My name is Mrs. Dhami.

Thank you for joining me for your design and technology lesson today.

Now, the big question for today is how do design decisions made at the design stage influence the environmental impact of a product throughout its lifecycle? Now we're going to explore this using some absolutely fantastic designs for the developing world.

So please be prepared to be wowed.

Let's get cracking.

Our outcome for today is we will be able to explain the role and impact of design in supporting developing countries.

We have three keywords for our lesson today: circular economy, design decisions, and design opportunity.

Now, we'll come to circular economy in a minute, but let's quickly recap design decisions.

they are a deliberate choice to meet a requirement or to solve a problem.

And lastly, design opportunity.

That is a gap or a need where a new or improved product would be beneficial.

We have two learning cycles today: design and investigation.

So let's kick off with design.

The circular economy is a way of looking at the product's lifecycle.

Now, the circular economy can be defined, and it's one of our keywords today.

It can be defined as an economic system where products and materials are kept in circulation and do not become waste.

Obviously, there will be a little bit of waste, but if you can notice from the diagram, that yellow waste arrow is much, much smaller, much, much narrower than the rest of the arrows.

At the design stage, designers have a huge responsibility to influence many other stages of a product's lifecycle through their design decisions.

If we take the raw material stage, design decisions at the start can influence which materials are used.

So, for example, choosing to use biopolymers rather than synthetic polymers.

Design decisions can also influence the distribution stage.

So designing a product to have the ability to be flat-packed, assembled, or stacked will mean that fewer containers are needed to be able to transport a certain amount of them.

Design decisions can also influence the product in use stage.

So designers could choose to enable products to use rechargeable batteries or renewable sources of energy.

Design decisions can also influence and impact the repair and maintenance stage.

So they could encourage products to be repaired, and that could be as simple as making sure that the batteries are easily accessible so that they could be changed and the product does not need to be thrown away.

Design decisions can also impact the recycling stage by enabling products to be dismantled for recycling or encouraging products to be passed on.

And again, that could be a simple design decision by enabling the product to be fully dismantled really, really easily.

Let's take a little look at all of these in a bit more detail in a few slides' time.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation explains the value of design in the circular economy.

They say, "Decisions made at the design phase influence how long something lasts, what it is made of, if it can be repaired, and what happens to it at the end of its life.

In fact, 80% of a product's environmental impact is influenced by decisions made at the design stage." Wow! That is how important our design decisions are when we are coming up with new products.

"And, in the context of a circular economy, it means we have the power to redesign everything in order to eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials, and regenerate nature." This highlights the important role that designers have in reducing environmental impact through their design decisions.

This is definitely gonna make us think twice, isn't it? The Ellen MacArthur Foundation states that "something" of a product's environmental impact is influenced by decisions made at the design stage.

Was it A, 75%; B, 78%; C, 80%; or D, 82%? Have a think.

Come back to me when you've got an idea.

Well done if you got C, it is 80%.

80% of a product's environmental impact is influenced by decisions made at the design stage.

I'm still wowed by that.

Hope you are too.

Have you ever opened an Easter egg and been a little bit disappointed at the amount of chocolate you received in comparison to the size of the packaging? I know I have.

This is a sales tactic to try to encourage users to buy a particular product but with detrimental effects on the environment.

Designers have the opportunity to reduce the amount of materials or packaging required in a product through their design decisions.

I bet at least one of you have got one of these plastic bottles on your tables as we speak.

But my question to you is how long does it take for a PET bottle to degrade? Is it one year, four years, 45 years, or 450 years? Have a little think, perhaps a chat with your partner, come back to me when you've got an answer.

Well done if you got 450 years.

It takes 450 years for a PET bottle to degrade.

Wow! So, therefore, designers have a vital role in design decisions regarding material use.

Biopolymers such as PLA biodegrade and are excellent alternatives to synthetic polymers such as PET.

But again, these decisions need to be made early on at the design stage.

Let's zoom into the distribution stage.

Imagine this chair is in front of you.

Now imagine what size box you would need to fit that chair exactly as it is into.

Okay, now imagine that we disassemble that chair and we flat-pack it.

Imagine how many more chairs would be able to fit into that one box.

So the legs are taken apart, or the feet are taken apart, or the armrests are taken apart.

The seat part, the back part, they're all taken apart and flat-packed into a box.

Now, if so many more can fit into one box, that means that if one lorry is taking, say, 50 boxes, it will be able to take a lot, lot more chairs than if they were not flat-packed.

Therefore, reducing the size and weight of products means that more can fit onto a ship or lorry.

Reducing the amount of transportation consequently reduces the amount of carbon emissions, therefore having a much better impact on the environment at the distribution stage.

So this can be achieved through using lightweight materials, so making that material choice again at the design stage, and, of course, design decisions for products to be flat-packed, self-assembly, or stacked.

Let's zoom into product in use.

Now, this is a photo of one of the books that I had for my children when they were a little bit younger.

Basically, you press the button and it plays a sound, and my kids loved it.

However, the first time I bought it, once they wore the battery out, I couldn't change it because the battery was not accessible.

I ended up buying the product again because they loved it that much and it had become obsolete.

Let's recap that word.

Obsolete is when a product comes to the end of its life or is no longer used or useful.

So the book was no longer useful or used because it didn't play the tune that my kids loved.

So I rebought it, and then it came with a battery that you could actually change because the battery was accessible.

Great redesign of that product for the product in use stage.

Next product is a nightlight that we also have at home.

It attaches to the wall with a magnet, and you can see me pulling it off there.

So it's easily removable and it's easily rechargeable.

So design decisions regarding the use of rechargeable batteries reduce the need for disposable ones, therefore minimising chemical waste and battery disposal and having a much better environmental impact.

Designing a product such as a nightlight with a charging port enables: A, minimal chemical waste; B, product use or life to be extended; C, accessible batteries to be changed; or D, the product to become obsolete.

Have a think.

Come back to me when you've got an idea.

Well done if you got A and B.

Designing a product such as a nightlight with a charging port enables minimal chemical waste because you're not throwing away batteries, and it enables the product use or life to be extended.

Let's zoom back into the product in use stage.

Let's take a bike seat.

Bike seats enable you to be able to adjust the height depending on how long your legs are.

But what's great about them these days is that lots of them have a quick-release clamp.

This is great 'cause it enables you to be able to quickly change that height, whereas when I was growing up, you always used to have to get out a spanner, and it was a bit of an annoying job to do.

So many bike seats are now designed to adjust the height using that quick release.

It means it can be easily shared between users without the user's specific tools.

Therefore, these design decisions allow the product to grow easily with each of the users.

Let's zoom into the repair and maintenance and recycling sections of the circular economy.

Now, I'm sure lots of you at home probably have a pair of headphones.

Now I'm wondering how many of you might have had a pair of headphones, but they might have broken throughout your life.

I know that's the case with my two young children.

They've both had a pair of headphones, and they have both managed to break them.

Now, Kibo has noticed this as a design opportunity, and Kibo designed headphones that can be easily built by children, easily disassembled, and easily repaired by children.

They're so, so simple.

Now, one of their key selling features is that every part is replaceable.

So it doesn't matter if you only break a small part of it, you don't have to throw the whole thing away.

Instead, you can replace that one small part.

Therefore, Kibo has made design decisions that have reduced the need to throw away products.

What a great concept, what a great design.

Let's zoom into the recycling stage of the circular economy.

Now, this picture is a picture of the inside of my daughter's coat.

You can see, if you look closely, it says, "Name, name, name." And at the bottom, it says, "Please pass me on when you are done." Basically, it is encouraging us, once my daughter's finished with it, to pass it on to someone else, and they can write their name on it and then pass it on to the next person for them to write their name onto it, rather than throwing that coat away.

What a lovely idea.

So circular economy and lifecycle assessment are there to encourage both designers and users to place greater value on sustainability and encourage designers to make design decisions to shift away from the previous thinking of a throwaway society, in which many products were designed for a one-off use, so that we can keep those products in circulation.

On to task A.

The diagram represents the circular economy.

Match the design decision of reducing environmental impact to the correct stages of the circular economy.

So we have, A, adjustable height chair; B, plug-in rechargeable controllers; C, compostable plastic bags; and D, self-assembly furniture.

Good luck.

Come back to me when you've got some cracking answers.

Let's take a look at our answers.

So the adjustable height chair impacts the product in use stage, as it extends the use of the product.

B, the plug-in rechargeable controllers, impact the repair and maintenance stage, as it reduces the impact of batteries being thrown away.

Compostable plastic bags influence the waste stage, as they are biodegradable, having little effect on the environment.

And lastly, the self-assembly furniture impact the distribution stage, as reducing the packaging size enables more to be transported in a given method of transport.

Fantastic.

Onto learning cycle two: investigation.

Landmines are explosive devices which are planted in the ground that are designed to detonate when triggered.

Usually, they're detonated by pressure, movement, or proximity.

It's estimated that over 70 million landmines are buried in over 50 countries, including Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Angola.

70 million.

Wow.

Landmines kill or injure thousands of people, including children, each year.

And this picture shows a man who has lost his legs in a landmine explosion.

Landmines do not expire.

Some have been buried for over 40 years and are still deadly.

Over 160 countries have signed the 1997 Ottawa Treaty, which bans the use, stockpiling, and transfer of anti-personnel mines.

People can't safely farm, build homes, or travel in mine areas.

This causes food shortages, economic hardship, and displacement.

Removing landmines is labor-intensive, costly, and extremely risky.

Therefore, this creates a design opportunity.

GadShaananDESIGN responded to this design opportunity and developed the Spider Boot to enhance the safety for those working in landmine clearance.

Let's find out some more about how the design works.

Their research found that many more landmine injuries are caused by shockwaves travelling upward from beneath the leg rather than by flying shrapnel.

PSI stands for pounds per square inch, and this measures the magnitude of the shockwave.

Now, let's put this in perspective.

If you are travelling in a car that generates roughly a 32 PSI.

Let's put this in comparison to a landmine.

If you tread on a landmine, a landmine generates a nine million PSI.

Wow, what an incredible difference.

But luckily, GadShaanan designed the Spider Boot, and wearing this reduces the PSI incredibly, from nine million to under 1,000 PSI, therefore, reducing the amount of deaths and reducing the severity of injuries.

They discovered that every centimetre that the foot is away from the explosion, the PSI drops drastically.

The boot's design features a platform which is supported by four legs, which help disperse the force of the blast and direct shrapnel away from the foot.

The positioning of the legs moves the explosion from happening directly under the foot to the side.

What an incredible design.

The legs are made by a cheap polymer, and they're engineered to detach upon impact, which then further reduces the shockwaves to the wearer.

Product testing has shown that this design offers four to five times greater protection than standard mine-clearing footwear.

Such a simple design, yet saving so many lives and reducing the severity of injuries.

The Spider Boot has a positive effect on the environment, as once landmines are cleared, previously dangerous land can be reclaimed for farming, wildlife, or housing.

Design decisions made at the design stage influence the environmental impact at other stages of the circular economy too.

So, for example, product in use.

The design decision to make the Spider Boot adjustable has a positive environmental impact on the product in use, as it means it can be adjusted using the straps to any shoe size, so anybody can use it.

They do not need to buy multiple variants, which means that multiple variants do not need to be manufactured either.

One size fits all.

A brilliant sustainable design decision.

Quick check-in.

The missing stage of the circular economy has an influence on many other stages.

The missing stage is called what? Have a little think.

Come back to me when you've got an idea.

Well done if you identified that it was the design or redesign stage.

Onto the investigation of another design opportunity and another fantastic product.

Prosthetics are artificial devices used to replace missing body parts.

They are designed to restore function, mobility, and appearance for individuals who may have been landmine victims, amputees, or are disabled.

Prosthetics are usually expensive because they are custom-made, made specially for a particular body.

Many people cannot afford prosthetics, and this is the case in many developing countries.

Therefore, this creates a design opportunity.

The Jaipur Foot is a response to that design opportunity.

So, the Jaipur Foot is a low-cost prosthetic developed to be accessible for people in developing countries.

It was developed in India in 1970 by orthopaedic surgeon Dr.

Pramod Karan Sethi and sculptor Ram Chandra Jaipur Foot is a fantastic example of design for the circular economy because lots of the decisions made at the design stage have a positive environmental impact on lots of other stages.

Let's take a look at this in closer detail.

The Jaipur Foot can be manufactured locally in just a few hours out of locally sourced materials, rubber and timber.

You can see the rubber, that's the blue part in the picture on the right.

And then the timber is the part just above the blue where the screw goes into.

Now, these are locally sourced materials, meaning that they have not got to travel huge distances, and manufacturing it locally also reduces and avoids the environmental impact of importing when distributing, therefore minimising carbon emissions and minimising the effect on the environment.

Successful design decisions with the Jaipur Foot have also impacted the environmental impact at the product in use and the repair and maintenance stage too.

So, careful sustainable decisions at the start include making the Jaipur Foot water-resistant and flexible in various directions.

This makes it suitable for use with or without footwear across different activities and environments.

Therefore, it makes it a really durable design, which needs very little repair and maintenance and lasts a good three years.

What a fantastic design.

Not only that, but so far it has benefited nearly a million amputees in regions impacted by landmines, allowing many people to return to work and communities to come back together.

What a fantastic design.

The Spider Boot and the Jaipur Foot are examples of incredible designs for the developing world.

But coming up with designs can often be daunting, and often design companies come together to create designs collaboratively.

So, a design strategy is a way of generating design ideas.

One design strategy used in the design stage of the circular economy is collaborative design.

And I'll bet that was used with those two products.

Instead of one person producing design ideas, a group of people come together to produce multiple solutions to the design opportunity identified.

And you can see in this picture, lots of people have come together to create many designs.

Quick check-in.

What is a design opportunity? Is it A, a design decision? B, a final design solution? C, a gap or need where a new or improved design solution would be helpful? Or D, a design strategy? Have a think.

Come back to me when you've got an idea.

Well done if you got C.

A design opportunity is a gap or need where a new or improved design solution would be helpful.

Onto task B.

The design stage in the circular economy can positively influence many other stages of a product's lifecycle.

Using the Spider Boot or the Jaipur Foot as examples, explain the design decisions made during this stage that help reduce environmental impact.

Choose the one you like the most, enjoy, and come back to me when you've got some fantastic ideas.

Answers could include: In the circular economy, the design stage plays a key role in reducing environmental impact across a product's life through design decisions.

The Jaipur Foot is a great example of this.

It is made from low-cost, locally available materials like rubber and timber.

These are the raw materials.

This cuts down on imports and lowers the carbon footprint.

Its design also allows for quick, energy-efficient manufacturing, linked to the manufacturing materials processing.

This person goes on to say the Jaipur Foot is also durable and repairable, linking into the repair and maintenance section.

It lasts around three years and worn parts can be replaced instead of the whole foot.

It works with or without shoes, in water, and on rough ground, making it suitable for many users and reducing waste, linking to product in use.

These thoughtful design decisions in the design stage reduce environmental damage, promote reuse, and reflect the principles of the circular economy.

Onto task two.

In many developing countries, access to running water is rare for rural communities.

This means that drinking water can be frequently carried long distances.

Using the design strategy, collaborative design, work as a team, class, or family to produce design ideas to meet the design opportunity for carrying water easily and efficiently.

This is meant to be a fun task.

Come up with some brilliant ideas as a class, as a group, and come back to me when you've got a few of them.

Well done with your team efforts with that.

So, part two, Aisha, Laura, Jun, and Alex each produced a design idea to solve the design opportunity.

This created more potential design solutions than they may have thought of individually.

And hopefully, that was the case with you.

Hopefully, you came together, and you all produced completely different ideas.

Let's take a little look.

Jun produced a backpack idea, which weighted out at the back, distributed that weight.

Alex came up with a rolling idea where you roll the water along.

Aisha came up with an idea which you carry on shoulders, and Laura came up with an idea that you pull along.

Each one of them approached that very differently.

Well done, folks.

This brings us to the end of our lesson today.

Well done with all of your hard work, and let's summarise what we have found out.

The circular economy is an economic system where products and materials are kept in circulation and do not become waste, or very, very minimal waste.

At the design stage, designers have a huge responsibility to influence many other stages of a product's lifecycle through their design decisions.

Design opportunities identified in developing countries can lead to innovative design solutions that support communities, whilst also aligning with the principles of the circular economy.

Well done, folks.

I hope to see you in another lesson soon.

Take good care.

Bye.