Design Template Sections

Kevin Greensill

Sheffield Hallam University

2006

Design Template Sections Explained

• The aim of this presentation is to explain each of the sections incorporated within the Design Template provided

• The intention is to provide users guidance around the template and augment understanding of its use

Maintenance

Maintenance is the action required to keep the designed object in a state of fitness for use. For example the design of a new car will require consideration regarding changing oil. Another example would be the design of a new house where necessary consideration regarding access to plumbing is essential

Performance

Performance is the consideration of the capabilities of the product being designed. For example a food liquidizer will have to turn portions of vegetables or fruit into a liquid form for drinks or soups. Another example would be a wind turbine. The turbine must perform in an efficient manner in order to provide electricity without using all of the energy extracted from the wind to simply rotate.

Target User

A Target User is a person whom is most likely to use the design being considered. For example an iPod user is more likely to be a teenager than an old age pensioner and is therefore the Target Users are 13-19 years old. Although exclusively designing an object for a particular Target User may restrict sales potential.

Safety

Safety in design terms means objects are designed to prevent injury or damage. A good example of safety in design is double glazing windows. It is now mandatory for all lower floor glazed doors and windows have to be fitted with toughened safety glass designed to shatter on impact but remain in one piece. Older window designs contained glass that could break into shards which could cause lacerations.

Costing

Costing of the actual production of a design is an extremely important consideration. For a design to be viable it must be economic to produce especially if it is designed for mass production. However there are exceptions to this rule. Bespoke jewelry design for example can often run into millions of pounds but may be the price a customer is prepared to pay for exclusivity.

Ergonomics

Ergonomics has traditionally been the study of people’s efficiency in their working environment. In design terms ergonomics means much more. Take a refrigerator for example, as a user you want the fridge to include easily accessible shelves, the door to open and close with minimum effort and to be able to select temperature settings on readily understandable controls. In other words the design has to be user friendly.

Manufacture

Manufacture is dependent on whether the product is to be produced in volume (mass production), or small numbers are to be made. Consideration has to be made regarding ease of manufacture and associated cost. For example injection moulding tooling is expensive at the outset of production but is capable of producing many thousands of identical products such as kitchen utensils. In contrast the capital cost of making a chair by hand may be low but the cost of each chair is likely to be high.

Sustainability

Sustainable design is the art of designing physical objects to comply with the principles of economic, social, and ecological sustainability. It ranges from the microcosm of designing small objects for everyday use, through to the macrocosm of designing buildings, cities, and the earth's physical surface.

Further explanation and design considerations at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_design#Terminology

Appearance

The aesthetics of an object can be as important as its function. Many modern designs are based upon pleasing the customers need to own artefacts that look good as well as having a function purpose. For example furniture for the home has to be comfortable in anthropometric dimension but must also provide style to the surrounding in which its placed.