Lesson video

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

My name is Mrs. Conway and I will be guiding you through your learning.

So let's look at our lesson outcome then.

Today's lesson outcome is I can use feedback and interpret this information to inform and justify design developments.

So we we're gonna be moving on to the design development stage today and thinking about how we can use feedback from our client to help move our developments on.

And these are our keywords.

So they are analysis, development, feedback, and justification.

I'll be going through these in more detail as we move through the lesson.

So firstly, we're gonna look at "Personal reflection informs development." So personal reflection is a really important skill for all designers so they can analyse their ideas critically.

When we talk about analysing, to analyse something is to examine something in detail.

And being able to reflect upon and analyse your own ideas helps you to develop and improve your work.

If you simply always just thought your ideas were perfect from the start, you possibly are not reaching and pushing yourself or being innovative enough.

So being able to analyse them critically and say also what needs to be improved about them will help to move your ideas on, but it is a skill that takes a little bit of practise.

Now, when we're talking about developing, developing is improving and building on design ideas to make them better.

So let's just do a quick check for understanding on those points.

How does self-reflection help with the design process? Is it A, it only helps to enhance the aesthetics of a project; B, it encourages designers to ignore user feedback; or C, it helps to develop and improve your work? Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about that.

And the answer, it was C.

So self-reflection really helps to develop and improve your work as a designer.

Right, so here we have Laura and she has her page of initial design ideas.

Now, Laura's been working on the design opportunity of making the herbs accessible to wheelchair users.

This is just a small part of, or the top section of her design ideas, so you can see in a little bit more detail.

Now as Laura's sketching, she's also added comments and annotation, and these comments and annotation are just to explain her ideas and also ask herself questions of how she could develop the ideas further.

They're there to explain the ideas where the sketches aren't quite clear, but they're also there to push her ideas on in some way.

They're kind of like little notes to herself as she goes.

So you can see here she's asked herself, "How can we actually access this idea that I've done on the window?" She's also asked, is this idea even aesthetically pleasing? Now, she hasn't necessarily put answers to these, these are just prompts for herself to see if she can actually go on to develop this or kind of answer this a little bit better by sketching.

Here's the bottom section of her design so you can see them in a little bit more detail.

Again, you can see she's added annotation onto here.

These are there to prompt her, to kind of help her move on.

So here you can see she's written about that's going to be an extendable pole.

She hasn't quite been able to draw or sketch that to show that, she's used arrows to try and help show it but she's needed to just add some annotation on there.

And she's looking at whether or not she's going to add an extendable pole to make the use of the vertical space.

Now designing is an ongoing process where you should continuously be seeking improvements.

Now, using the subheadings below, you can use these to kind of help frame questions to ask yourself or prompt you on what you need to be thinking about, 'cause if you're not used to doing annotation, it can take a little bit of a practise, and having these in your head can just kind of make you think of things to write about.

Now, you'll be familiar with these anyway and may have seen them before because they're also used of things such as analysing when you're doing product analysis.

And these are environment, cost, aesthetics, manufacture, ergonomics, lifecycle, safety, user, materials, function, form, and size.

Now, just like when you have done product analysis, not all of these will be relevant to your annotation.

They're there as prompts just to help you to think of things.

You won't use all of them.

You could if you wanted to, but you wouldn't necessarily always use all of them, but they might just prompt you to have a little think about what you can do to improve your designs.

So let's just have a little look at an example of using the user and aesthetics subheading.

So example questions could be, is this intuitive to use? Have I met the user's needs? Does the design work for all abilities? Is it inclusive? Now, if instead you used the subheading of aesthetics, what kind of things could you ask yourself then? Here are some examples.

So, has the aesthetics compromised the function of the product? Have I kept up with current trends or is it a little bit outdated? What emotions does this design evoke? These could be quick questions that you consider as you are working through your sketches.

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

Which of the following subheadings is most relevant when analysing how a design affects the comfort for the user? Is it A, aesthetics; B, safety; C, ergonomics; or D, cost? Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about that.

How did you get on? The answer was C, ergonomics.

Okay, so let's have a little look more at Laura's designs.

Here you can see she's done a design idea with some annotation included.

And Laura has asked herself a question about her design relating to its size.

So she's asked, "Could my design be narrower so it can easily fit onto a windowsill?" Now, by doing that, she's prompted herself to actually create a further development because she then could try that idea actually being narrower.

By asking questions, it allows Laura to develop her ideas further.

Right, time for you to have a go at this then.

You're going to be taking your initial design ideas and you are going to annotate them.

You're going to do this using the following subheadings to prompt you on what to consider.

But remember, you don't have to use all of these.

You can choose whichever ones actually are useful to you and prompt you to actually think about questions that you might ask.

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

Alright, how did you get on? Here we can have a quick look at Laura's designs again and her page of initial ideas that have annotation.

Now, Laura has added annotation on her designs to include things she likes about her designs, things she could try out, and also some of those questions that we were mentioning that she could ask herself.

This she can then use to further develop her ideas.

Remember, your annotation is gonna be very different to the example here, but hopefully you've got lots of annotation and lots of prompts for yourself to be able to move on and develop your ideas a little further.

Right, next we're gonna look at "Client feedback informs development." Now, a designer seeks feedback from their client to ensure their design meets their needs.

When we talk about feedback, feedback is when the client gives a comment on a design to help improve or refine it in some way.

It's meant to be helpful information or helpful comments to be able to help refine it or develop it.

A client feedback is really, really important, we are always designing for our user in mind.

And it's important that we get that feedback so that the product actually meets their needs.

Also their wants as well.

Remember, the product is for them, so it needs to suit them.

So let's just do a quick check for understanding on client feedback.

What is client feedback? Is it A, when the client gives a comment on a design to help improve or refine it; B, when the client approves the design without suggesting changes; or C, when the designer explains the design to the client? Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about that.

And the answer was A, so client feedback is when the client gives a comment on a design to help improve or refine it.

Now, client feedback is then used to inform and also justify further developments to designs, so it really can be incredibly helpful.

If we're talking about justifying, justification is the reason or explanation for why something is done or believed to be right.

And designers always need to ensure that any developments are justified based on their client's wants and also their needs.

Let's just do another quick check for understanding then.

Why is it important for designers to justify further developments to designs? Is it A, to make random changes that the designer prefers; B, to ensure that changes align with the client's wants and needs; or C, to avoid considering client feedback in the design process? Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about your answer.

And the correct answer was B.

So it's really important for designers to justify further developments to designs just to make sure that the changes align with the client's wants and needs.

Remember, the product is for them, it needs to suit their wants and needs above anything else.

So let's look at Laura again.

Laura has gathered feedback from her client about her initial designs, and the feedback that she carried out was actually carried out as an interview, so she's decided to record that as a mind map for her to be able to more easily analyse the results.

Let's have a look at that feedback.

So her client has said that their favourite idea was the one that went up the side of the window.

If you remember, that was like the shelving idea that went up the side.

They also didn't think the tentacles idea would look right in their house.

And they don't want their work surfaces cluttered, so anything that's gonna go onto a work surface wouldn't really work for them, they need more space.

The client really liked the ideas that went vertically.

And she's included a quote from the client here.

"I don't want my view out of the window to be blocked." So even though they like the idea that went at the side of the window and they like the idea that was vertical, they really don't want any of that view out of the window to be blocked by the product.

And they really like a more natural and organic kind of style to the designs as well.

So Laura is now going to use her own personal reflection that she did to start off with that you also did in Task A, and also the feedback from her client, to help inform, justify, and develop her designs.

Now she's made a plan for herself by listing what she will look at to develop her designs.

She's taken the key points from her feedback and her annotation.

It's a really good idea to do this as it's almost like a little plan for yourself to kind of spot and make sure that you don't miss anything and decide what are your key points for what you're going to develop.

So Laura has decided she's gonna focus on the designs that go in the window based on that client feedback.

She's going to develop the vertical designs.

Again, her client said that they preferred the vertical designs.

She's gonna try and make it look more organic in style, however.

Again, that's what the client said they liked and preferred.

But she's also gonna think about how to lower the platforms, and that point was actually in her own annotation when she was asking herself some questions of how those platforms could be lowered or also raised.

And lastly, she's gonna look at a smaller design that doesn't block the view out of the window.

So she's given herself some really clear points of what she's going to tackle in her development, and all of them are led by either her own annotation or the client feedback, so she's been able to justify all of these developments based on that information.

So here she's done some further developed design ideas, and she's done this using the feedback.

And she's focused on those bullet points that she just picked out as being the key things.

So she's focused on the designs that go in the window.

All of the designs that she's done here really do go very much in the window or alongside it.

She's developed the vertical designs only.

She's also tried to look at making it look more organic in style by not making it look too geometric in its style.

You can see she's actually been kind of inspired by the tree shape.

And she's also looked at making it smaller as well so it doesn't block the view out of the window.

So the first sketch is a little bit more over to the side, whereas the second idea on the top right you can see she's actually just experimented with what would happen if we made that a lot smaller.

Obviously by doing that she would have to use smaller kind of herb pots, but she's just experimenting at this stage.

Right, so now over to you.

You've got two tasks here, and the first one is using the feedback you have gathered from your client as well as your own annotation on your initial design ideas, you're gonna pick out the key ideas you're going to use to further develop your ideas, and you're gonna write those down as bullet points just like Laura did in the example.

The second part of the task then is you're then going to go on to develop your design ideas using the bullet points you have listed for question one.

So those bullet points are gonna be your own little kind of plan of action.

You should aim to have a full sheet of different and developed design ideas.

So this is gonna be a brand new sheet of paper.

You've already got your initial design ideas, these are gonna be your developed design ideas.

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

And remember, you're working to get a full sheet of different and developed design ideas by the end of the task, good luck.

How did you get on? Developing ideas can be quite tricky.

You've really got to be on your toes to think about lots of different ideas and things you can do, but hopefully the annotation and the client feedback helped you to generate those developed design ideas.

So the first thing I asked you to do was write down key bullet points.

Just to remind you, these were Laura's key bullet points.

Yours will be different to Laura's, but how many did you do? Were they quite varied and different? They would've been completely and utterly based on your own annotation and your own client feedback.

The second task was then to develop your design ideas using those bullet points from the first task.

Just to remind you, this is Laura's little development sheet, and she's got a full page of different and also developed ideas.

Now she's got the idea that I've already shown you, which was the vertical idea going up through the window where she's experimented with the size of the product, the vertical nature, and also the style, turning it a little bit more organic.

But she's also had a bit of a question that's come up here about how accessible this idea is.

And so while she's doing this, she's gone on a completely different idea.

It's just inspired her to come up with something different and she's gone back to that hanging concept, but this time she's done a hanging concept off the lower cabinetry.

So she's thinking of it being in a kitchen, she's looked at the lower cabinets and she's thought about something that would hang off the edge of there, as that would be more easily accessible for the person and her client in a wheelchair.

Don't be afraid if your ideas suddenly go off in a completely different new route, that's fine.

It doesn't always have to be this perfect process through developing one particular or two particular ideas that you've had from the start.

Sometimes brand new ideas will evolve as you're sketching.

That's not a problem.

So again, your ideas will be completely different to Laura's, but have a little look at your sheet.

Is it full of ideas? Are they different? Have you actually developed them based on the client feedback and your own annotation? And have you answered some of those questions that you asked yourself in your own annotation? Okay, let's just summarise today's lesson then.

We've been looking at using feedback to develop ideas.

Now being able to reflect and analyse your own ideas really enables you to develop and improve your own work, so it's a really important skill that you practise to get used to doing.

Just to remind ourselves, developing is improving and building on design ideas to make them better.

So when we're working in this design section, we really are trying to improve our ideas.

We also looked at annotation and annotating our own design ideas, and the best way to add annotation to your designs is to remember designing is a process, so you should be constantly looking at ways to improve any sketches, and by adding little notes or questions for yourself using those subheadings we looked at can really help you do this.

And lastly, client feedback.

Now, client feedback is used to inform and also justify further developments of your designs.

And client feedback is really important because the product that we are designing is for the client, so it needs to fit their wants and their needs.

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

I hope you've got a lot from it and I hope you've got lots of different developed ideas.

I will see you soon.