Product Design & Technology

Wood and Textiles

Product design is a solution-focused approach that engages with the diverse needs and opportunities of individuals, society and the environment in which we live. Product designers aim to improve welfare, which includes quality of life, by designing innovative and ethical solutions. Product design is enhanced through knowledge of social, technological, economic, historical, ethical, legal, environmental and cultural factors. These factors influence the form, function and aesthetics of products.

Central to VCE Product Design and Technologies is a design process that encourages divergent and convergent thinking while engaging with a problem. The design brief identifies a real need or opportunity and provides scope for designing, making and evaluating. Investigation and research inform and aid the development of designed solutions that take the form of physical, three-dimensional products.

In VCE Product Design and Technologies students are designer-makers who design solutions that are innovative and ethical. As designer-makers, they learn about the design industry, teamwork and the collaborative nature of teams, entrepreneurial activities, innovative technologies and enterprise. The development of designed solutions requires speculative, critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, numeracy, literacy, and technacy. Students participate in problem-based design approaches that trial, test, evaluate, critique and iterate product solutions. Students prototype and test using a variety of materials, tools and processes. Throughout the process of designing and testing, students learn that innovative and ethical solutions come from constructive failure and intentional evaluation.

Knowledge and use of technological resources are integral to product design. Designers safely and sustainably transform materials into products using a range of materials, tools and processes. In this study, students gain an understanding of both traditional and new and emerging materials, tools and processes. They study and experience a variety of design specialisations and use a range of materials, tools and processes as they demonstrate technacy.

Read the complete Study Design and access Past Examinations for VCE Product Design and Technology