AS Level (CAIE) Product analysis & Improvement project
What Is Product Improvement?
Product improvement or enhancement is defined as the process of making changes to an existing product to optimize it further. The purpose of improving the product is to refine it, increase its value, improve user experience, and maintain competitive advantage.
It’s a strategic method to identify the areas of improvement, improve the aesthetics, and streamline different workflows.
Overview
You will identify an existing product on which you will base your improvement project. You will then create a coursework portfolio containing detailed research and analysis of the existing product and how that product could be improved in terms of either function, ergonomics, safety or sustainability. You must identify a series of problems or opportunities for improvement through the analysis and focus on one of these areas to improve the design of the product.
Candidates have a choice of materials to make their improvement. For example, it could be made from resistant materials such as wood, metal or plastics, or it could be made from paper, card, thin sheet plastic or modelling materials, or it could bring in the use of systems and control technology such as electronics where appropriate.
Candidates select a single, named, specific product that they have some familiarity with.
Candidates are free to choose their own product to improve. However, they must ensure that the chosen product has scope for the improvement project and that candidates will be able to fulfill the requirements of the coursework improvement project.
Candidates should then design a suitable proposal for one improvement. The area or element chosen for improvement will need to give enough scope for it to be redesigned to, for instance, improve the design for product usage or lifespan (Sustainability) or for it to be disposed (Sustainability or Safety) of in a more sustainable way. Only changing one element of the product such as the colour or the material it is made from is not sufficient to fully meet the requirements of the project; there must be sufficient scope for it to be redesigned in a substantive way.
The iterative design process should be clearly documented with annotated sketches, photographs or screenshots. The model with its improvements should be constructed, tested and evaluated and the construction, tests and evaluation should be recorded as part of the portfolio.
Iterative means you create the first idea for the product, test it, and revise for the next version. The iterative process is simply a series of steps that you repeat, tweaking and improving your product with each 'cycle' until you reach a conclusion.
Candidates need to submit their project in a portfolio format. This could include freehand sketches on A3 paper as well as screenshots of computer-aided design (CAD) packages as evidence of the design process.