Lesson video

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

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

So today's lesson outcome is, I can identify design opportunities whilst avoiding design fixation.

So we are gonna be looking at what design fixation actually is, as well as investigating what are design opportunities and digging into that a little bit more.

And these are our keywords.

We have context, design opportunity, design fixation, and mindmap.

We'll be going through these in a little bit more detail as we work through the lesson.

We're going to start our lesson by looking at context exploration.

So when eventually you start your NEA, which is your non-examined assessment that you'll do in year 11, you'll be given a choice of contexts as a starting point.

Now a context is the situation which something exists or happens.

So basically, if you're given a context in Design and Technology, which you will be, is to be given a situation which is a starting point for your iterative design process.

The context for this particular unit is, Student living, so that's going to be our focus and our context for this whole unit.

Now you need to explore the context to help you identify potential design opportunities or problems. And that's always our starting point.

Now, a design opportunity is just a chance to create or improve a product system or service by you, as the designer identifying a problem or an unmet need within that context.

And the context that we are looking at is Student living.

So your design opportunity is going to come from a chance to create or improve a product associated with Student living.

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

What is the starting point for investigating, analysing, and identifying design opportunities? Is it A, an idea.

B, a problem.

C, a design brief.

Or D, a context.

Feel free to just pause the video here to take a moment to think about your answer.

And the answer, it was D, a context.

So the starting point for investigating, analysing and identifying those design opportunities is always a context.

Now, at this particular stage, you do not need to know what you are designing.

And sometimes that's a panic that some students and some designers have that they need to almost have the solution now.

This is not the case.

In fact, if anything, you're encouraged to really keep an open mind at this stage because that helps to avoid design fixation.

Now, design fixation is basically when you only consider one possibility and that can lead you to then sometimes miss an even better solution that may arise.

Now as you actually explore your context, feel free to look out for potential design opportunities.

In fact, I would encourage you to do so, but you do not need a solution at this particular stage.

Okay, let's just do a quick check for understanding on that then.

Which statements are true about design fixation? Is it A, it enables you to explore lots of possibilities.

B, your mind can only see one solution.

C, it is perfect for the iterative design process.

Or D, you may miss potentially amazing ideas.

Now, there may be more than one true statement there.

Feel free to pause the video just to take a moment to think about that.

Okay, how did you get on? The correct answers were these two.

So which statement are true about design fixation? Either one of these would've been great, so your mind can only see one solution and you may miss potentially amazing ideas.

So if possible we want to avoid design fixation.

Now there are different strategies available to us when we start to explore a context, which is what you guys are going to need to do.

We're gonna look at two possible strategies in this lesson, and those are mindmaps and also talking to a potential client.

Now, we'll start with mindmaps.

Mindmaps are a visual way just to organise your ideas around the main topic using connected branches.

And you may have used some of these before, and this may seem familiar to you.

This is an example of a mindmap on a different topic, but you can see that you've got lots of different branches all going off in different directions with lots of different thoughts and ideas on there.

Now, mindmaps are really, really good for exploring keywords, combining research, categorising your research, identifying links, or just getting lots of ideas down onto a page and trying to organise it a little bit or kind of a way of organising your thinking.

Now, sometimes actually filling a mindmap can be a little bit challenging, trying to think of all the things that you want to put down on that.

Sometimes lots of ideas comes out, but other times it's a little bit more of a struggle.

So you can use familiar acronyms to help you fill your mindmaps.

And these are just a really good idea to use almost like a bit of a starting point and also to ensure that all the areas that you could consider have been considered.

Now a couple of different examples of acronyms that you could then are the 4W's.

That is where you are considering the where, the what, the who, and the why.

Or you could also consider the 3P's.

Now, there's nothing to stop you from using both of these or just one or the other.

And the 3P's are person, place, and purpose.

And these are just prompt act like words that will help you to start considering how you can actually fill this mindmap? And help you think about all the different areas that you might want to think of.

Right, quick check for understanding on the 4Ws then.

What do the 4Ws stand for? Is it A, when, what, who and why.

B, where what, who and why.

or C, what, who, which, and why.

Feel free to pause the video here, just to take a moment to think about your answer.

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

So the 4W's stand for where, what, who and why, and they're used as prompts to help you fill your mindmap.

Now Sam's had a go at completing her mindmap on the context of student living.

And she's going to use the 4Ws to help her to complete this.

So the first thing she's going to consider is the where, and she's recognised that she wants to focus on university accommodation and halls of residence, but she's also mentioned that private housing will also need to be considered as after the first year of university students move out of halls of residence and into private rented accommodation.

She also wants to now consider the who as well.

And the who in this case are university students, but she's also again recognised that she might be looking at college students as the context of student living doesn't actually specify the age of the student, and college students could also be considered.

Now, she hasn't completed this particular mindmap, so she's going to now miss out why and a couple of watts as well.

But she's considered a different where again, and here she's considered that some students actually choose to live at home, especially what we're saving money and so they might also need to be considered as well.

Those students living at home might need more space, even though they haven't necessarily moved away.

It's perfectly fine to have more answers to one of the 4Ws, so if she's got several different answers for where, that's fine, same with who, why and what.

In fact, if anything that's encouraged because you want lots of different ideas at this particular stage of exploring the context.

So Sam will move on to really fill this mindmap and might have several whys and several whats, and that's absolutely fine at this particular stage.

Now talking to a potential client was our other way of exploring a context.

And talking to a potential client could be a really useful way to learn more about a context, especially if it's a context you are not familiar with.

Now this context specifically concerns students and talking directly to them to get an idea of typical problems they face would actually give Sofia a better understanding.

Now, Sofia doesn't necessarily actually go to university herself, but she wants to focus on that university idea, and she's just explained here, "My older sister has just gone to university, so I will speak with her about any problems she has had since moving into halls of residence." Now it's very easy for us to sometimes guess problems or guess issues that a particular client may be having within a particular context, but it's always best to actually get the facts in the information and by talking directly to a potential client, you're gonna really get that really important information that only they will have and understand.

Now, the way to actually gather this information, you could do this as part of an interview, or a questionnaire, or by actually observing the student in their living quarters.

Okay, so it's gonna be over to you now.

I'd like you to explore the context of Student living, which is the one we've just been considering.

Now, you can do this by producing a mindmap, speaking to a student, or you can do both if you would like.

Now, when creating a mindmap, don't forget to use the 4Ws or the 3Ps just to help prompt you on what to include within that mindmap.

Okay, it's gonna be over to you now.

So feel free to pause the video, take some time to go through this and good luck with the task.

Okay, how did you get on with that task then? Now, I'd already shown you the start of Sam's mindmap, but let's have a little look at how we kind of carried on with it.

So if you remember, he commented on the where, the university accommodation, halls of residence, or private housing.

Now you might have something similar or you might have a few more ideas there for where as well.

He also, if you remember, commented on the fact that some students actually choose to live at home but may need more space.

The why he suggested here, is that students usually have one room to live in whilst they're at university, but can have lots of belongings.

And space is a common problem then.

If you think about it, a lot of adults live in more than one room, they live within an entire house.

But if students are being expected to live within one room and get all their stuff into there, space can be a really big problem.

He's also suggested that actually.

There's an idea for a what here, some sort of maybe storage, but also a transport system could be useful as well.

Now remember, there's no decisions being made at this particular stage.

The what's are just possibilities.

It doesn't mean you have to take one of those through.

You are just getting down as many possibilities as possible.

Now remember, he's also recognised that he's gonna be looking at university students, but also possibly college students as well.

And the why is students at university actually move very often.

So he's got a different why here.

The first why was really based around space being a problem, but the second why is actually looking at the fact that they have to move quite often, once a year usually.

So students at university move often such as every year, so they need their belongings to be transported and moved easily.

And some of those students moving may not have a car to actually make that move, they may be having to carry their belongings on the train, for example.

Now, you won't have exactly the same answers, but you might have some crossovers and some similarities.

That's great.

Have a little look at the example, see if it's kind of prompted you, if you missed anything yourself.

If you've got extra stuff, wonderful.

You should hopefully have a lot more than I've got in this example and your page would be really full of lots of different ideas.

Okay, so let's now look at design opportunities.

Now, design opportunities may have occurred to you as you were exploring the context, and that's perfectly normal, especially with that what question.

So design opportunities may just suddenly popped into your head and you may have made a little note of them.

So it's absolutely fine.

That's a perfectly normal thing to happen when you're exploring the context and you can make a note of those as they occur to you.

But just to kind of remind you, it's really important not to narrow your ideas too quickly and to keep those types of design opportunities as open as possible at this stage.

Don't make any really firm decisions at this particular point.

By not narrowing your ideas too quickly, that will help you again to avoid that design fixation, which we do want to avoid.

Okay, let's just remind ourselves and do a quick check for understanding.

Why is it important to not narrow your ideas too quickly? Is it A, because all first ideas are always the best.

B, to avoid design fixation.

Or C, to speed up the design process.

Feel free to pause the video just to take a moment to think about your answer.

And the correct answer, it was B, it's to avoid that design fixation.

We really want to avoid that at all costs.

So it's really important not to narrow ideas too quickly to avoid design fixation.

One way of actually looking at the design process is something called the Double Diamond.

And the Double Diamond is an approach to work through a design way of thinking.

This is the example of the Double Diamond.

As I said, this is a design process, but it has two phases.

Each phase is a diamond that you can see in front of you on that diagram.

So the first diamond is the one for exploring and also defining the context.

The second stage is the one for developing and delivering the best solution.

We're gonna look at each one of these stages in turn, and you can see that that Double Diamond has got these vertical lines going through it.

Those vertical lines actually separate the Double Diamond into four distinct categories.

So the first one is Discover.

And this is where we explore the problem really widely.

And this is what we're basically doing at the moment.

This is you exploring and getting ideas.

At the present point, you're exploring the context.

And you can see that line is actually widening because we're trying to widely research as much as possible.

We're opening up our ideas, and we're getting loads, and loads, and loads of different ideas hopefully by exploring that context and as we move into the research stage, we are still discovering.

So we're still opening and broadening that line.

The next stage then is Define.

And as you can see, the line is now coming back together.

So we're actually now narrowing down.

So we've taken all of that research and then we narrow it down to what the real problem actually is within that context.

What is it that we need to solve? What thing are we going to actually focus on as the designer? The next stage, once again, you can now see it actually opening up again so it's broadening again.

And this is as we move into the Develop stage.

And the Develop stage is again where we start to really expand our ideas and try to think of lots of different ideas as possible.

And we are now designing.

So we're developing ideas, we're sketching, we're putting ideas down to the page, and we're coming up with lots and lots and lots of different ideas.

And you may have been spoken about that by your teacher before, that as you design, you should try and go for lots and lots of different ideas rather than just that one narrow idea.

So we should be widening up our ideas again and our thinking again.

And then that very last stage, you can see we're gonna narrow it back down again.

And at this point we move into Deliver, which is where you choose and refine the very best solution.

And this is where we go and start moving towards our manufacturing.

So we decide which of these designs that we've come up with is the one that's gonna really work, and we start to narrow it back down from all those different ideas to one solid idea.

Now, as I said, you are currently in that first stage where you are gathering as many ideas and as much research as you can.

And reminding you, this is called the Discover stage.

So we really want to be collecting as many ideas rather than narrowing at this particular point.

And by narrowing, that's where we go towards design fixation, which is what we wanna avoid.

So by keeping it really wide, and broadening our ideas, and gathering as many different as ideas as possible, we're gonna be able to avoid that design fixation and work really effectively through our design process and our design way of thinking.

So you are not narrowing your ideas at this stage, but you are in fact widening them as much as you can.

Okay, let's just do a quick check for understanding on that.

At what stage of the Double Diamond framework is a designer when they are exploring the context? Is it A, deliver.

B, define.

C, discover.

Or D, develop.

Feel free just to pause the video to take a moment to think about that.

And the correct answer, it was C.

So the stage of the Double Diamond framework that you are working in, if you're exploring the context is the Discover one.

You're discovering and finding out as much information as possible.

Right, so before you have a look at Izzy now.

Izzy thought about her context and actually came up with a potential design opportunity.

And she's explained here what that design opportunity is.

"Students move house every year and need to easily pack and move with all of their belongings." So she's not come up with a solution, she has instead come up with a design opportunity, almost like a problem as such.

This is a great example of a design opportunity because it does not give a specific solution and it's really open and could have lots of possibilities belonging to it.

It also identifies a problem that has an opportunity to be solved.

Okay, it's gonna be over to you now.

So using your mindmap, I'd like you to think of at least four different design opportunities.

Now feel free to talk these through with your classmates, that's absolutely fine, or with somebody else just to kind of bounce some ideas backwards and forwards.

Remember, a really great design opportunity does not give a specific solution, is open and can have lots of possibilities, and identifies a problem that has the opportunity to be solved.

The second part of this task then, is I would like you to write down, but also then explain each opportunity.

Let's go into it in a little bit more detail about why you think that's a design opportunity under the context of Student living.

Okay.

You're now gonna pause the video here to have a go at this task, so good luck.

Okay, how did you get on? It's quite a tricky task thinking of design opportunities.

A lot of creativities needed and sometimes you might have been a little bit stumped, but hopefully you've managed to come up with four design opportunities.

Remembering that these are not solutions.

You don't have to worry about whether it's possible, or not possible, or coming up with a final idea.

It's just an opportunity to focus on.

So your answers could include these ideas like Andeep has suggested.

So Andeep has decided on a design opportunity of space.

And he's just explained it here.

So "Space is a problem for a lot of students living out of one room in halls of residence." He said, "I could consider how to save space in the storage of everyday items that a student needs." So you might have come up with something similar.

Alex has come up with something different again.

He's explained, "I'm going to focus on students having to share everyday items in the kitchen and many students bringing the same items and losing track of who the equipment belongs to." This is a really good idea and something that may not have come up without actually speaking to the potential client of a student.

So the kitchen is often a shared area, but still a lot of students bring similar equipment from home to actually get themselves set up to be able to prepare their own meals.

And actually that can sometimes get muddled or confused of who's is who's.

And then a little bit of kind of trickiness comes in, especially trying to keep track of things like washing up, for example.

As I said, you might have completely different ideas.

That's great.

These are just some ideas from Andeep and Alex.

Okay, so let's summarise today's lesson.

You should hopefully have a really nice detailed mindmap now, really exploring that context in depth.

And you'd also have four potential design opportunities led from that mindmap, or a potential client interview, or questionnaire, or observation.

So to summarise the lesson then, a context is the situation within which something exists or happens.

To be given a context in Design and Technology is to be basically given a situation as a starting point, which forms the starting point of the iterative design process.

A designer needs to explore the context, but also help identify potential designer opportunities or problems. And at this stage, a designer does not need to know what they are designing and should try to keep a really open mind to avoid that design fixation.

And lastly, a design opportunity is a chance to create or improve a product, by identifying a problem or an unmet need.

Thank you so much for joining me for your lesson today.

Hopefully you've learned a lot about this first stage of the design process.

Thank you very much, and I will see you soon.