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Lesson 5 of 18
  • Year 10

Define a brief from design opportunities: communal areas

I can define a design brief from my opportunities.

Lesson 5 of 18
New
New
  • Year 10

Define a brief from design opportunities: communal areas

I can define a design brief from my opportunities.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. A design brief must develop from identified design opportunities.
  2. A primary user is identified.
  3. A design brief is a short statement outlining the design opportunity and identifies a primary user's needs and wants.
  4. Design opportunities are developed from exploring the design context.

Keywords

  • Design opportunity - a gap or a need where a new or improved product would be beneficial

  • Design fixation - focusing so heavily on one idea that creativity and problem-solving become limited

  • Design brief - a statement which explains what you are going to design and manufacture

Common misconception

Pupils tend to define a product that they wish to design and make at this point. They become fixated on a design.

Pupils need to keep their design brief open so that it does not create design fixation.


To help you plan your year 10 design and technology lesson on: Define a brief from design opportunities: communal areas, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Encourage pupils to follow design opportunities that they find interesting. This is a huge project and the more interested they are, the more likely they are to stay invested throughout.
Teacher tip

Equipment

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Prior knowledge starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
What is a product life cycle?

a marketing strategy used to promote new products
Correct answer: the stages a product goes through while aiming to reduce environmental impact
the process of designing only reusable products

Q2.
A linear product life cycle is also called cradle to

Correct Answer: grave

Q3.
What is it called when a designer creates products that are not only sustainable but also ethical and inclusive?

exclusive design
commercial design
Correct answer: responsible design

Q4.
What does LCA stand for?

Correct answer: life cycle assessment
life circle assessment
life cycle analysis

Q5.
Why do designers carry out life cycle assessments?

to focus solely on reducing production costs, regardless of environmental impact
to make products more complex and difficult to manufacture
Correct answer: to evaluate and minimise the environmental impact of a product at every stage

Q6.
At what stage of the product life cycle would you consider energy consumption, resource use and emissions from material processing?

raw material
design/re-design
Correct answer: manufacture and materials processing

Assessment exit quiz

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4 Questions

Q1.
Design is when you only consider one possibility and then sometimes miss an even better solution.

Correct Answer: fixation

Q2.
Why is it important to identify who your user is?

Correct answer: Different users have different wants and needs.
It helps you design faster.
It's important because all users want the same thing.
It's important so you can skip user research.

Q3.
A short statement outlining the design opportunity and identifies a user's needs and wants is called a ...

mood board.
product analysis.
Correct answer: design brief.

Q4.
A design brief should be __________ to avoid design fixation.

specific
Correct answer: non-specific
uninformed
difficult