Product Design and Technology

Introduction - Scope of study

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.

Rationale 

VCE Product Design and Technologies offers students a range of relevant practical and applied experiences that can support future career pathways in design fields. These include industrial design, textiles, jewellery, fashion, interior spaces and exhibitions, engineering, building and construction, furniture, and transport. Future pathways also include careers in specialised areas of arts and design at professional, industrial and vocational levels.

VCE Product Design and Technologies offers students a unique focus on creativity through the development and production of innovative and ethical products. Through the study of VCE Product Design and Technologies students become solution-focused and equipped to deal with both the interdisciplinary (interrelationship of multiple disciplines) and transdisciplinary (when disciplines interconnect to form new ideas) natures of design. This is achieved through collaboration (shared work) and teamwork (working on own tasks with a common goal to others), use of computer-aided manufacturing, work practice in designing and making, and development of speculative, critical and creative thinking skills. Students work with a variety of materials, tools and processes to develop their technacy and they employ innovative and ethical practices as they practise design. All of this contributes to the real-life industry relevance of this course.

Aims

This study enables students to:

·  understand sustainability and other ethical responsibilities that a designer addresses to embed social, environmental, economic and worldview considerations when designing and creating for identified needs and opportunities with the end users

·   use design thinking strategies - critical, creative and speculative - in the process of product development

·   employ a design process to generate and communicate multiple creative ideas, concepts and product design options, using a range of visual techniques and prototypes to develop viable solutions to needs and opportunities 

·   explore, test and use a wide range of materials, as well as explore the characteristics and properties that inform their use in a variety of contexts

·   practise methods of sourcing, processing, producing and assembling materials, and acknowledge their environmental, social, economic and psychological implications

·   develop, document and follow safe methods of working with technologies, across a range of materials, tools and processes

·   apply project management techniques to ensure production is delivered according to budget and timelines

·   analyse, evaluate and critique the appropriateness of designed products.

Structure 

The study is made up of four units.

·        Unit 1: Design practices

·        Unit 2: Positive impacts for end users

·        Unit 3: Ethical product design and development

·        Unit 4: Ethical production and evaluation

Each unit deals with specific content contained in areas of study and is designed to enable students to achieve a set of outcomes for that unit. Each outcome is described in terms of key knowledge and key skills.

Entry 

There are no prerequisites for entry to Units 1, 2 and 3. Students must undertake Unit 3 and Unit 4 as a sequence. Units 1 to 4 are designed to a standard equivalent to the final two years of secondary education. All VCE studies are benchmarked against comparable national and international curriculum.

Unit 1: Design practices

This unit focuses on the work of designers across relevant specialisations in product design. Students explore how designers collaborate and work in teams; they consider the processes that designers use to conduct research and the techniques they employ to generate ideas and design products. In doing this, they practise using their critical, creative and speculative thinking strategies. When creating their own designs, students use appropriate drawing systems – both manual and digital – to develop graphical product concepts. They also experiment with materials, tools and processes to prototype and propose physical product concepts.

In this unit, students analyse and evaluate existing products and current technological innovations in product design. They achieve this through understanding the importance of a design brief, learning about factors that influence design, and using the Double Diamond design approach as a framework.

In their practical work, students explore and test materials, tools and processes available to them in order to work technologically, and they practise safe skill development when creating an innovative product. This is achieved through the development of graphical product concepts and the use of prototypes to explore and propose physical product concepts .

Unit 2: Positive impacts for end users

Designers should look outward, both locally and globally, to research the diverse needs of end users. They should explore how inclusive product design solutions can support belonging, access, usability and equity. In this unit, students specifically examine social and/or physical influences on design. They formulate a profile of an end user(s), research and explore the specific needs or opportunities of the end user(s) and make an inclusive product that has a positive impact on belonging, access, usability and/or equity.

Students also explore cultural influences on design. They develop an awareness of how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples design and produce products, how sustainable design practices care for Country, and how traditions and culture are acknowledged in contemporary designs. Students also have opportunities to make connections to personal or other cultural heritages.

Unit 3: Ethical product design and development

In this unit students research a real personal, local or global need or opportunity with explicit links to ethical considerations. They conduct research to generate product concepts and a final proof of concept for a product solution that addresses the need(s) or opportunities of the end user(s).

Product designers respond to current and future social, economic, environmental or other ethical considerations. This unit focuses on the analysis of available materials in relation to sustainable practices, tensions between manufacturing and production, modern industrial and commercial practices, and the lifecycles of products from sustainability or worldview perspectives.

Students plan to develop an ethical product through a problem-based design approach, starting with a need or opportunity and using a design process and testing to problem-solve. The design brief, product concepts and the final proof of concept are developed through the Double Diamond design approach, using design thinking. Students undertake the role of a designer to generate, analyse and critique product concepts, with the chosen product concept becoming the final proof of concept. Throughout a design process, the product concepts and the final proof of concept are evaluated using relevant factors that influence product design, and shaped using design thinking. Students learn about ethical research methods when investigating and defining their design need and/or opportunity and generating and designing their product concepts.

In Area of Study 1, students examine a range of factors that influence the design, development and production of products within industrial settings. Students research and investigate designs across a range of specialisations that include historical iconic designs that have stood the test of time; designs with inbuilt obsolescence; products that are fast to the market; products that are designed to last its lifetime; products that have a second life through disassembly and reuse and/or designs in and with nature. They consider influences on product design when addressing ethical considerations for end users.

In Area of Study 2, students use design thinking to formulate a design brief that addresses a need or opportunity related to ethical product design, and conduct research to explore current market needs and/or opportunities. Students generate, evaluate and critique graphical product concepts (visualisations, design options and working drawings) related to ethical product design.

In Area of Study 3, students explore the physicality of product concepts through developing prototypes to select and justify the chosen product concept and a final proof of concept. Students develop a scheduled production plan to manage the resources in a design process and implement this scheduled production plan to make their product safely.

Unit 4: Production and evaluation of ethical designs

In this unit students continue to work as designers throughout the production process. They observe safe work practices in their chosen design specialisations by refining their production skills using a range of materials, tools and processes.

Students collect, analyse, interpret and present data, use ethical research methods and engage with end user(s) to gain feedback and apply their research and findings to the production of their designed solution. Students also focus on how speculative design thinking can encourage research, product development and entrepreneurial activity through the investigation and analysis of examples of current, emerging and future technologies and market trends.

In Area of Study 1, students continue to make the product designed in Unit 3, using materials, tools and processes safely and responsibly. Throughout the production process, they monitor and record their progress during implementation of their scheduled production plan and justify decisions and modifications, if and when necessary.

In Area of Study 2, students evaluate their product and a range of existing products using criteria, data and feedback. They speculate on how designers can be future-focused, innovative and entrepreneurial by suggesting and justifying possible product enhancements and/or improvements based on this evaluation.

Design specialisations

In VCE Product Design and Technologies, students design and make three-dimensional products using a range of materials, tools and processes. The available resources will vary between school settings; however, where possible they should emulate current design industry practices.

A breadth of experiences should be offered across a variety of materials, tools and processes, allowing students to encounter the diverse nature of design. Isolated experiences with singular materials are not encouraged and should be minimised. Through their practical work, students should become skilled in the inter- and  trans-disciplinary nature of design, and come to understand that design specialisations require broad skills, and may combine traditional materials, tools and processes with new and emerging materials, tools and processes. For example, wearable accessories could employ fabric and plastic and be manufactured using traditional textile production processes as well as 3D-printed plastic clips and resin cast components. In this example, students are working across multiple materials and learning a broad range of processes to demonstrate technacy, and also learning how multiple technologies can be successfully integrated.

The table below depicts possible design specialisations that students may explore along with examples of materials, tools and processes.

PD&T Study Design