Time 4 Design
The design project internal assessment allows a wide range of contexts to be explored through the varying material disciplines of design technology. These include, but are not limited to the following.
Product design
Food product design
Fashion/textile design
Electronic product design
Robotics
The challenge posed by the problem should be complex and commensurate with the level of the course. At the same time, students should ensure the challenge is not so great they are unable to complete the internal assessment in the time given.
The internal assessment must be based on a real-life context—it should not be a fabricated problem—and, ideally, students will have their own problem to address.
The context of the problem can be drawn from a wide range of areas, as suggested in the sections below.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Students are encouraged to consider problems that can be aligned with the 16 SDGs. There are many aspects of the SDGs that can provide inspiration to students and ensure their problem is one worth solving. Where the SDGs are broad, students should consider how they may be able to address an aspect of an SDG in a more localized environment. This may allow scope for them to interact with local clients, have access to local target users and develop a solution that will be used.
Where it is not possible to identify local clients and potential users, students should consider how they can access the information they require as part of both primary and secondary research.
Other areas of inspiration
There are many other areas of inspiration from which students can draw, including special individual needs, community needs/projects, and global issues made local. Some ideas are included in the table below. These are suggestions to help students explore possible design contexts; however, students are not limited to this selection.
Specialist individual needs
Community needs
Environments and habitats
Global issues
Design for …
Design for babies, toddlers and children
School, education and learning
Health and well-being
Climate change
Design for a circular economy
Inclusive design
Safe public and community spaces
Re-wilding and reforestation
Poverty
Design for manufacture
Design for the elderly
Safe homes and workplaces
The natural world and wildlife
Hunger
Design for materials
User-centred design and usability
Sports and exercise
Domestic and commercial agriculture
Access to clean drinking water
Design for process
Design for mobility
Hobbies
Outdoor living
Green and eco-design
Design for assembly
Refugees and displaced peoples
Crime, terrorism and safety
Work and employment
Energy conservation
Design for disassembly
Minority user groups
Animal and pet health and wellbeing
Transport
Waste management and mitigation
Design for production
Games and toys
Arts, music and performance
Sustainability and regeneration
Population and density
Design for emotion
Table 2
Possible areas of inspiration
Further considerations for an HL project
Students completing their internal assessment as an HL component need to ensure there is sufficient scope for any solution to be developed for commercially viable production processes. If there are limitations on the scope for redesigning the product for commercially viable production processes, the student will likely struggle to address the requirements of criteria E and F.