DESIGN PORTFOLIO LAYOUT

1. Title page – your name, title of project, class, school and year.

2. Contents page. 3. Design brief. 4. Investigation – analysis, research data and

specification. 5. Development Chosen Idea 6. Planning Solution (may be shown with sketches -

working drawings) 7. Realization 8. Evaluation – including report diary if used

FRAMEWORKS FOR DESIGNING

The following example will give you an idea as to what goes on in designing.

OUTLINE DESIGNING FRAMEWORK

1. DESIGN BRIEF 2. IDEAS

6. EVALUATION 5.

REALIZATION 4. PLANNING

SOLUTION

3. DEVELOPING CHOSEN IDEA

1. DESIGN BRIEF

The Design brief is a clear description of the problem you are going to solve. You may have to form the brief from either a situation (such as the layout of your kitchen) or a theme (such as storage). Before finalizing the brief you may need to do some investigations.

Design Brief (Scenario)

An untidy and unsafe situation

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Everyday Mr X comes home to find shoes lying untidily in the doorway. Sometimes he trips over them as he goes in or out of the house. He decides to do something about this situation.

Think and Ask Your Self What Should You Do To Solve IT ?

2. IDEAS

From the design brief you should get some initial ideas for your design. You may then need to carry out research before beginning to sketch these ideas. It is wise to sketch a number of realistic ideas so you have some choice about the solution. On completion of the ideas you should decide which one to carry forward, giving your reasons.

• Mr X gathers information to help him to design and make a shoe rack. He has to consider the following;

• Number of pairs of shoe

• Sizes of shoe

• How the shoes should be placed

• Size of rack

• Materials

• Construction details

• Suitable finish

• Cost

Research

3. DEVELOPING CHOSEN IDEA.

It is important to develop the chosen idea into a practical solution. This may involve further drawing of how it fits together, or modeling to see how it work. At the end of this stage you should have a sound idea of what you are going to make.

From his research, Mr X sketches out some possible designs for the shoe rack

Idea

4. PLANNING SOLUTION

The planning of the solution involves two stages. First, you need to make some drawings from which your solution can be made. These are often called working drawings. Secondly, you should plan how your solution is to be made and which materials and components are required.

He picks the most suitable design and works on the details. Then he prepares a working drawing

5. REALIZATION

Realization mean making – either a scale model, a prototype or the final product. It is the realized model or product which will be evaluated, so the quality is very important. The realization is one of the most exciting stages, but if the work in the previous stage has been poor, you may have difficulties.

He makes the shoe rack

Making

6. EVALUATION

Evaluation means finding out how well your solution works, and comparing it with your initial brief. Your evaluation should also suggest possible improvements.

Finally Mr X puts the completed shoe rack to use. He finds that it has solved his problem. The doorway is now tidy and safe

Evaluation

Let us recall the stages of Mr X went through to solve his problem

Stages

Problem The shoes were lying untidily in the doorway. It was unsightly and unsafe. Mr X decided to design and make a shoe rack.

Research Mr X gathered information and ideas for the design of the shoe rack.

Ideas He thought up ideas and put them down on paper.

Making Mr X planned and make the shoe rack

Evaluation He put the shoe rack to use to find out whether it solved the problem and thought of ways to further improve the design.

The first letters of these five stages in the design process from the word PRIME.

PRIME is a mnemonic and it can be used to help you recall the steps in the design process easily.

Today you are going to create at least 1 paragraph story problem under your Design Problem - this specifically identifies a need to solve a problem. It is sometimes called a ‘Design Situation’) Under Design Brief another 1 paragraph you are going to create what we intend to design or make. It states clearly what the problem is that you have to solve.

Example