YEAR 11-12
VCE Product Design and Technologies
Subject Area
Design and Technologies
VCE Units
1-4
About the Course
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.
UNIT 1
Design practices
Area of Study 1: Developing and conceptualising designs
In this area of study, students focus on the Double Diamond design approach. They investigate and define needs and/or opportunities. They generate and design when proposing graphical product concepts using visualisations, design options and working drawings. This gives them the opportunity to demonstrate design thinking that incorporates critical, creative and speculative thinking.
Specifically, they learn to use appropriate drawing systems for their design specialisations and refine their product concepts to convey their ideas graphically, using manual and digital technologies.
Students work in various design specialisations and have opportunities to work individually, in teams, and collaboratively in their classroom environment. Teamwork encourages communication between students and mirrors professional design practice where designers, when developing designed solutions, have identified roles within transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams. Teamwork combines individual efforts of all team members to achieve a goal. Additionally, collaboration occurs when students are working together on classroom activities and completing work collectively. Examples of collaboration include group discussions, brainstorming ideas, analysing problems and reaching consensus about processes. Digital technologies can facilitate teamwork and collaboration when students are developing designed solutions.
Area of Study 2: Generating, designing and producing
In this area of study, students focus on the second diamond in the Double Diamond design approach to develop, trial and test physical product concepts, and make a designed product. Based on the graphical product concepts proposed in Outcome 1, students create prototypes to experiment with the physicality of their product concepts. Trials and tests are conducted to inform, evaluate and critique physical product concepts and to justify the selection of the chosen product concept and its production processes. Students develop a final proof of concept and implement a scheduled production plan to make the product efficiently and effectively. They explore available materials, tools and processes, and develop skills in using them to develop technacy through generating, designing, producing and implementing. Students use various materials, tools and processes to demonstrate how products can be a synthesis of various design specialisations and technologies. They have further opportunities to work individually, collaboratively and in teams to share work, knowledge and skills. Students evaluate their designed product and their contributions to collaborations and teamwork to complete the project.
UNIT 2
Positive impacts for end users
Area of Study 1: Opportunities for positive impacts for end users
In this area of study, student engage with a variety of human and/or non-human end user scenarios and research current products that cater for the specific needs of end users. They explore opportunities to work collaboratively with end users to create positive impacts and minimise harm by supporting increased belonging, access, usability and/or equity through inclusive product design.
In this unit, students research designs across a range of design specialisations, and critique products to make judgments about their success (or failure) using the factors that influence product design. Products selected for research should address inclusion through belonging, access, usability and/or equity considerations. Students also analyse and evaluate future market opportunities or needs for products.
Area of Study 2: Designing for positive impacts for end users
In this area of study, students respond to a need or opportunity to develop a profile of an end user(s), and they design and make an inclusive product that improves belonging, access, usability and/or equity for the end user(s). Students explore needs and/or opportunities of end users, which may involve adjustments and/or variations for specific needs or opportunities, to create positive impacts and minimise harm by supporting inclusion through increased belonging, access, usability and/or equity.
Specifically, students use design thinking strategies - creative, critical and speculative - to examine ways to make a positive impact and minimise harm when generating and designing graphical and physical product concepts, including prototypes, and a final proof of concept that addresses the need or opportunity of the end user.
Area of Study 3: Cultural influences on design
In this area of study, students look at how culture influences products, and how a designer should engage with culture as they develop a profile of an end user(s) when designing products to address their needs and/or opportunities. Specifically, students look through a cultural lens to extend their thinking about the needs and opportunities of end users, going beyond physical requirements.
Students investigate a diverse range of end users, designers and other people, and explore varied perspectives to develop insights into how culture influences and affects product design. Students specifically focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and explore how they demonstrate their culture through design in both traditional and contemporary ways. Students are also encouraged to make connections to their own cultural heritage through the understanding of other cultures. Students research locally and globally to develop a worldview of cultural influences in order to gain an understanding about themselves as both designer and consumer within a diverse global community.
UNIT 3
Ethical product design and development
Area of Study 1: Influences on design, development and production of products
Students explore examples of product design and innovation and evaluate their impact on sustainability and other ethical considerations. They also examine how companies react to market needs and/or opportunities and technological advancements. In particular, they focus on how new and emerging technologies and innovation influence the design, development and production of products.
Students investigate the use of computer modelling, computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacture (CAM), and new and emerging technologies including tools and/or materials used in industry. In the context of industrial manufacturing, they develop an understanding of a range of issues relating to innovation, research and development, and how designing ethically positively impacts and creates market needs and/or opportunities.
Area of Study 2: Investigating opportunities for ethical design and production
In this area of study, students apply design thinking to investigate, research, test and experiment when formulating a design brief and defining a need or opportunity that relates to the ethical design of a product. They conduct research to analyse current market needs and/or opportunities. Students examine how a design brief describes an identified need or opportunity, and how the project scope and its constraints and considerations shape product concepts.
Students work in the first diamond of the Double Diamond design approach to identify a purpose for their product by conducting research, evaluating existing products, and investigating and defining the needs or opportunities of an end user(s). In doing so, they acknowledge and navigate IP and other legal responsibilities. Students collect and present data, demonstrating ethical research practices, including privacy. Students work in the second diamond of the Double Diamond design approach to propose graphical product concepts to address the design brief. They draw visualisations and gather feedback to refine design options and working drawings to generate and design graphical product concepts. They record the process in their multimodal record of evidence.
Area of Study 3: Developing a final proof of concept for ethical production
In this area of study, students engage with the second diamond of the Double Diamond design approach to generate and design physical product concepts based on the graphical product concepts developed in Outcome 2 . Students also apply design thinking to test materials, tools and processes to develop and refine physical product concepts through prototyping that will inform the chosen product concept. The chosen product concept becomes the final proof of concept, which in turn, becomes the product that the students make. Students develop a scheduled production plan for making their product and evaluating it; then they make judgments and recommendations about ethical considerations regarding use of materials, tools and processes, and they consider resources such as time and costs.
UNIT 4
Production and evaluation of ethical designs
Area of Study 1: Managing production for ethical designs
In this area of study, students focus on working technologically to implement the scheduled production plan and make a product that relates to ethics in order to address the needs or opportunities of an end user(s) as described in Unit 3. Students continue to use materials, tools and processes safely and manage the risks involved. They record and monitor their implementation of the scheduled production plan and document decisions and modifications made throughout this process.
Area of Study 2: Evaluation and speculative design
In this area of study, students have the opportunity to gather feedback from end users and use criteria to evaluate their product and a range of other existing products. Students follow ethical research practices and use digital technologies that facilitate efficiencies in the collection of data. Students interpret and use these results and other feedback to suggest and justify possible product enhancements and/or improvements.
In addition, students explore speculative design thinking and examine how designers can be future-focused, innovative and entrepreneurial in the adaptation and renewal of products, by using research and development to integrate new and emerging technologies and address market trends.