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Click the train and clouds to see the stages of the Design Process |
Project Investigation |
Having chosen an idea for your project it is now important to find out as much as you can about the people you have decided to make this product for. You will need to carry on considering them throughout your designing and making. The Research that you do should come from a variety
of sources. Do the following: |
The Design Brief |
Before you can write the design brief
you need to produce some conclusions from your last bit of research.
Answer the following questions: |
Analysis |
It's now time to really do some careful
thinking and perhaps do some extra research from books, the internet or
other sources to help you look at the problem that you are trying to solve.
This analysis should consider: What your product will do, What weight and size it might be, Whether it uses battery power, How it can be maintained, What safety considerations are important, What the maximum cost should be and the total number of units to be made, What environment the product will need to work in and Ergonomic factors that make it easy and comfortable to use. Can you think of more? |
Specification |
Your design specification is very important:
it says which aspects of the design are fixed and those things that
may be altered. It will later on be a check list that you will look
at when you test and evaluate your finished product to see if it has
met all the requirements that you set out. For example it might state
the maximum allowable weight and size of the product. It might specify
the colour of the materials used: for instance, "It must be blue".These
are all fixed statements. If you want to leave it more open you might
say "The colours are not important" and then you have more
choice when you start designing. |
Research Sub-Systems |
OnTrack has been developed to let you
design your own electronic systems. You do not need to be an expert to
begin with. When you start designing, you will be taken to a list of many different Input, Process and Output modules. Look at what is available here and think how they might be used to develop your design solution. You may want to go back and change your design specification after looking. Do this research now and write down the subsystems that are of interest. Double click the systems to find out more. You should make notes on what you find. |
Design Ideas |
Produce a number of alternative
system designs that show you have considered the requirements of your
specification. You might need to try using
different sensors, for example, to detect changes in the environment or
select different ways of alerting people to the fact that something has
happened. After you have produced some alternatives, look at the information you have produced and say which of your designs is the best and why. |
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