Lesson video

Hello, welcome to your 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 iterate ideas for a piece of student furniture using card, foam and other materials." And these are our keywords.

We have: developing, iteration, analyse and evaluate.

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

And first of all, then, we're gonna start with analysing and evaluating models.

Now as part of the development stage of designing, iterations of models can take place.

Now developing is improving and building on design ideas to make them better.

An iteration is that process of refining and improving a design.

It's really important to iterate your design ideas and the whole reason for that is that we want to see if we can make them better, which we usually can.

Let's just do a quick check for understanding on that then.

The process of refining and improving a design is called: A: duplication, B: iteration, C: decoration or D: preservation? Pause the video here.

Just take a moment to think about your answer.

And the correct answer was B: iteration.

So that process of refining and improving design is called iteration.

Now, analysing and evaluating design ideas can help to inform your iterations.

To analyse our initial design ideas, we basically are going to examine them in detail.

You can then use this analysis to help you evaluate; and to evaluate is when you think about what you did and also suggest any changes or improvements that you can do.

Now, there are several ways that Andeep here could analyse and evaluate his models.

So he could, if he wanted to, evaluate against user wants and needs, he could evaluate against the design brief that he's written.

He could gather direct feedback from his user, and he could test his model out as well.

So another quick check for understanding, then.

When we examine something in detail, we A: memorise it, B: analyse it, or C: simplify it? Feel free to just pause the video here.

Take a moment to think about your answer And the correct answer, it was B.

When we examine something in detail, we analyse it.

So Andeep has actually decided how he's going to evaluate his model and he says here, "I have decided to evaluate my model against my design brief as my design brief included my user's wants and needs." So in Andeep's opinion, everything that's in his design brief are all the key pieces of information that he wants to evaluate against.

So let's just remind ourselves of Andeep's design brief: Design a storage solution for arts and craft supplies that is compact and transportable.

The product needs to help save space and the solution must appeal to university-aged students and be able to be manufactured at an affordable price for students.

Now looking at that design brief, what do you think are Andeep's key points from this, and also what he's going to evaluate his model against? Feel free just to pause the video to take a moment to think about that question.

Okay, so these were Andeep's key points that we could pick out from that design brief.

You can see them highlighted there in purple.

So the first one is a storage solution for arts and crafts supplies, that is compact and transportable.

The next one is it needs to save space, also appeal to university age students and also it needs to be affordable.

So I've picked those out by putting them just in bullet points at the bottom as well.

Now that's gonna make it a lot easier for Andeep to be able to refer to these.

We've almost created like a little tick list for him to evaluate against that.

Now Andeep can then take each point in turn to evaluate his model against those points.

So for example, if we take the first point, which was the storage for arts and crafts, he can now evaluate against that, and he said here: "The main cabinet holds larger items such as canvases and paint bottles whilst the drawer and top compartment can hold smaller things such as brushes and tools.

I thought this was a good idea, but I think maybe I could do with more smaller compartments and the cabinet can be a lot smaller as most of the supplies are small in size." Now you can see here he's explained what he's done and some of the decisions that he's made, but he's also given a suggestion of how he could improve it as well, and that's what makes it an evaluation.

Let me just break that down for you then.

So here he looks for the positive things about his model and he said here the main cabinet holds larger items and the drawer and top compartment can hold smaller things.

So those were his positives from this.

But then he suggests that improvement.

So he said there, more small compartments and also the cabinet can be a lot smaller.

Let's have a look at a different example.

He's now gonna look at the point of making it compact.

So he said here, "This design is now very compact and so I would need to make smaller.

By focusing more on the smaller items that are difficult to organise, I can reduce the size of it overall." Again, he's given suggestions of how he can improve it.

Let's look at the example for transportable.

"At the moment, I have not considered how this could be transported, so I'll need to think about this element to include it." Again, he's thought about the fact that he hasn't actually got anything for transporting it and he's given himself an improvement.

He needs to think about this element in some way to make it easier to carry around.

It's going to be over to you now to do a task.

I'd like you to analyse and evaluate your model using one of the following methods: You could evaluate against your user wants and needs.

You could evaluate against the design brief like Andeep did.

You could gather direct feedback from your user, or you could test the model.

Which one you choose is completely and utterly up to you.

You could do a combination of them if you want, or you can just stick to one.

Remember what we've gone through, look for the positives of your model and then consider ways to improve it.

If you can only see things that are not so positive and a little bit more negative, that's fine, but make sure to suggest the improvement.

Don't just stick with something that's bad.

Make sure you suggest a way that you can improve that thing that is a negative comment.

Okay, pause the video here to have a go at this task and good luck.

Hopefully you got on okay.

Let's have a little look at an example from Andeep here then.

So Andeep decided to gather some user feedback on his design idea, as well as comparing against the design brief.

So Andeep's user was his sister who was in her first year of university studying art and design.

And Andeep organised his sister's feedback into a mind map.

So this was his sister's feedback.

She likes the separate storage compartments.

She also has commented that she needs a handle or a way of carrying it.

She's also said that it would take up too much space on her desk, so could do with it being shallower.

She really does like the mix of the drawers and the cupboards.

The bottom cabinet, however, is possibly too big and would be better for more small stuff or be more useful if it could hold small stuff.

And the drawers need smaller compartments within it.

So all that small kind of equipment doesn't roll around.

So some really useful feedback from his client there.

He's gonna now organise this.

So he's organised it already into a mind map and now he's gonna pick out and compare his model to that feedback as a way of evaluating it.

So your answers might be similar to this.

So he said, "The separate compartments on my design are effective at organising the art equipment and giving everything a place and making them easy to find.

But the largest compartment is too big for most of the art equipment and this space could be broken down into smaller sections to make it more useful.

The drawer seemed to be the most useful for storage, and so adding more drawers would be a good idea.

I need to think of a way that the product could be carried, and the product needs to be shallower to fit on a desk." So he's evaluated his model, considering those points from his user feedback.

Your answer's going to be slightly different to this and it also depends on which method of evaluating you chose to do, but this is just an example.

So compare yours to the amount of detail that Andeep's put in there and also compare it to consider did you include those improvements? Okay, next we're gonna look at design iterations led by the analysis and evaluation.

So once a designer has analysed and evaluated their design, they can then use this to create a list of things that can be improved or also what needs to remain the same.

Now this list can then be used to help develop further iterations of the design.

And by using the evaluation points, the designer can make really informed decisions that lead to effective improvements that also meet the needs and wants of the user.

Let's just do a quick check for understanding.

That was a lot of information there.

So why do we use evaluations of our designs to develop further iterations? Is it A: to reduce the time spent on thinking, B: to finish the project faster without changes, C: to avoid receiving any feedback, or D: to make informed decisions that lead to effective improvements? Feel free to pause video here just to take a moment to think about your answer.

Okay, how did you get on? The correct answer was D.

So we use evaluations of our designs to develop further iterations so as to make informed decisions that can lead to really effective improvements.

Well done if you got that right.

So we're back with Andeep now and Andeep analysed and evaluated his model if you remember.

I'll just remind you of what those were.

"So the separate compartments on my design are effective at organising the art equipment and giving everything a place and making them easy to find." So the separate compartments are good, he's saying, he likes that.

The largest compartment, however, is just too big for most of the art equipment and this space could be broken down into smaller sections to make it more useful.

The drawer seemed to be the most useful for storage, and so adding more draws would be a good idea.

He's also said, "I need to think of a way that the product could be carried and the product needs to be shallower to fit on a desk." I'd like you to just have a look at that in a little bit more detail and then consider, what are the main points from Andeep's evaluation So if we're gonna create a list of things that we can improve, what can we pick out from that? Feel free to pause the video here, just take a moment to think about that question.

Okay, what did you come up with? So here are the main points from Andeep's evaluation.

Just have a look and see if you've got these.

So separate compartments should be included as they work well, so he wants to keep those in there.

The largest compartment needs to be smaller to be more useful.

The drawer is great for organising small pieces, so adding more drawers will be a good idea.

A way to carry the product needs to be added and the dimensions and the proportions need to change so as to make it shallower.

So we've got some really clear points that we can now use to help with our iterations and developments.

Okay, it's going to be over to you now to have a go at this yourself.

You're going to do this in stages, but you are working towards creating your own iteration and development of your ideas.

So the first thing you are going to do is create that list of things to improve and things to keep, and that's gonna be based entirely off your evaluation of your model.

So you're gonna look back at your evaluation and you're gonna pick out the key points, just like Andeep did and just like you did looking at Andeep's evaluation as well.

The second task you're going to do is then make a new iteration and development of your design.

And you're going to do that again as a 3D physical model.

You're gonna do that development completely based off the list that you have just created from your evaluation.

And if you do that list really well, that's going to be very clearly leading you through your iteration.

So hopefully it's not gonna be as hard to think of the ideas.

And then lastly, you're going to check that iteration or that model against your list just to make sure and ensure that you have met all of the requirements that you picked out from your evaluation of your model.

So three tasks there to be getting on with.

Pause the video here to have a go at those and good luck.

Okay, how did you get on? There was quite a few tasks there, so let's take each one in turn.

So the first thing that you should have done was to create a tick list or a list of things that you can do to improve based on your evaluation.

Now Andeep has his here, and you've already seen this before, so let's just remind ourself of his.

He's got separate compartments should be included as they work well.

The largest compartment needs to be smaller to be useful.

The drawer is great for organising small pieces, so adding more drawers will be a good idea.

A way to carry the product needs to be added and the dimensions and proportions needs to change to make it shallower.

Just compare yours to Andeep's.

Do you have the same level of details? Do you have quite a few things that you could actually do to improve? The next task then was to create a new model and this was an iteration or development of your other model based upon that list.

So you can see here, this is Andeep's developed model.

You can see he's added more drawers.

He's added a way to carry it.

He's also changed and played around with the proportions.

But let's actually then just evaluate this, which was the third part of the task.

So Andeep compared his model to his tick list to ensure he has met all of the requirements.

You can do this with yours as well.

And this was your third task.

It's almost like a little, a tick list or an evaluation of whether or not you've included all of those points.

So Andeep managed to consider every single one of his points from his evaluation that he picked out with his new model.

So his new model has managed to achieve all of those.

Did you manage to achieve all of your points? Don't worry if you didn't because sometimes as you model, you might work out that they might not necessarily work or be the best idea.

So it's not a bad thing if you don't hit all of those points, but just have a reason and be able to evaluate for yourself why you decided not to make that change in the end.

Okay, so today we've been looking at iterating with modelling.

So let's summarise the lesson.

As part of the development stage of designing, iterations of models can take place.

An iteration is the process of refining and improving a design.

Remember, it's really important to iterate.

Sometimes we don't want to, we think we've got the best idea, but actually we do that to just make sure and see and double check if we can make it better, which to be honest, you usually can.

Analysis and evaluation can be carried out on design ideas to aid iterations, and we did that as a practise.

We also helped Andeep do that to actually pick out those key points from his evaluation.

And we then use those to help improve our design and iterate it.

So by using the evaluation points, the designer can make informed decisions that lead to effective improvements that meet the needs and wants of the user.

Thank you so much for joining me for the lesson today and well done for all of your hard work.

Thanks for joining me and I'll see you soon.