A4-The Design Brief

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When developing the design brief, you should concisely summarize only the useful and relevant information you have found through your research. Present this information in your own words. Do not copy and paste information from sources without analysis and/or indicating relevance.​

At this point, students have collected a great deal of data that requires analysis and summary to inform the design of the solution and be useful. The analysis and summary must be presented in a design brief , a series of detailed paragraphs that present only the useful information.

The brief shouldn’t solve the problem at this stage, but instead outline what the student intends to design to solve the problem, provide answers to each of the research questions, and clarify the essential and desirable features of a solution. It should also state any determined values that the design must meet, such as the following.

• When designing a bird house, the student may have researched the size of desired birds and therefore determined the size of the entry hole to the bird house.

• When designing a new noodle product, the student may have determined the “base” recipe for making the noodles as part of his or her research.

• When designing a web page, the student may have identified certain fonts or images that need to be included.

• When designing a video game, the student may have identified particular sprites that he or she will use to represent the main characters in the game.

How does a Design Brief look?

• present key information concisely

• explain how and why the information is relevant to solving the problem

• evaluate the validity of the data

What a Design Brief does NOT look like

• write large paragraphs of text

• include statements that do not relate to solving the problem

• make statements without evidence from expert opinion or data

• include all of their research within the body of the project.

Once you have gathered your research data and completed your product analysis you should summarize the important parts which are relevant to your project and use this to form your design brief.  

The design brief is your opportunity to set out what you intend to do to solve the problem.  It should give a broad overview and may include different options, don't be too specific at this point.  For example if you have researched colour schemes or materials you can present all your findings and suggest some of your options, rather than stating exactly which colour or material it will be.  

The design brief should be your own work, do not copy and paste sections of text into it.  

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