Presentation project2 r519

Editor's Notes

• #2: Imagine that you are a designer. Your client, the school principal, requested you to improve the old campus map on the school website. How will you tackle the job? Where and how do you start? What steps will you follow to efficiently meet your client’s needs? (Wait for students to respond.) There are different ways to approach a problem. One very useful method that designers use is called the design cycle. But, what exactly is it and how do we use it? Let’s find out. (Proceed to next slide.)
• #3: The design cycle is a model that we can follow when addressing a design task or challenge. The diagram shows a big picture of the 4 important stages that facilitate the work of a designer. How do you think this model helps a designer in his or her job? (Wait for students to respond.) The design cycle serves as a guide as you go from identifying a problem to creating and testing a product or solution. In which stage do you think we should start? (Wait for students to respond). While the design cycle consists of successive stages, it is not always a linear process. The arrows in the diagram indicate that you can move around the stages while continuously working on a product or solution. More often, a designer revisits any of the stages while the work is still in progress. We can navigate this diagram by clicking on any of the 4 stages. Let’s try starting at the inquiring and analysing stage. (Click on the Inquiring and Analysing stage in the diagram.)
• #4: Inquiring & Analysing is the stage that requires you to do investigations. It allows the designer to look closely into a problem or situation. Is there a specific need to be addressed or resolved? What kind of product or solution do your clients want? Let’s take a look at the old AISM campus map. (Click link to open: AISM campus map). (After viewing the map, return to this slide.) Why do you think there is a need to improve it? (Wait for students to respond.) Once you have found good reasons for creating a product or a solution, you need to conduct research to further investigate the problem. You also need to check out existing products/solutions that have been tried before. Let’s see what you need to include in your research. (Click on the link: research) (Return to this slide.) After studying the results of your investigation, you are now ready to propose a solution. But, what how do you it? Let’s find out. (Click on the link: solution.)
• #5: To start your research, you need to write good guiding questions. By choosing your questions, you want to make sure that you gather only the relevant information necessary to create the product or solution. You can use a variety of primary and secondary sources such as books, magazines, newspapers, journals, websites, TV and radio programs, films, interviews and many others. For our campus map example, what kind of information will you get if you conduct a survey amongst students about their opinion on the old campus map? Do you remember what primary or secondary sources are? (Wait for students to respond.) When writing your research, also remember to use correct MLA citations for the sources used. Do you remember what MLA citations are? (Wait for students to respond.) (Click on the Inquiring & Analysing stage in the diagram.)
• #6: After analysing the results of your investigation, you are now ready to make a project proposal. What kind of product or solution do you have in mind? To describe your proposed product or solution, you need to write a design brief. A design brief gives an overview of the product, your target audience or intended users, and the main purpose of the product. Using our example, what could be a good design brief for an online interactive campus map project? (Wait for students to respond.) Now let’s move to the next stage. (Click on the Developing Ideas stage in the diagram.)
• #7: The Developing Ideas stage allows you to explore ideas for your intended product. Based on the results of your investigation, you should make a list of the characteristics that you want to see in your final product. This list is called the design specification. Let’s find out how to make a good design specification. (Click on the link: characteristics) (Return to this slide.) Based on your design specs, you need to brainstorm on possible ideas for your intended product. You do this by making sketches of possible ideas that represent a range of different designs for the final product. What possible designs can you think of for our interactive campus map example? (Wait for students to respond). Here is a design idea for our campus map example. (Click on the link: design idea.) (Return to this slide.) From your different design options, you then choose and present the best design based on the specifications you made. You then create detailed planning drawings or diagrams that will help you build the final product step-by-step from your chosen design. Let’s now move on to the Creating the Solution stage. (Click on the Creating the Solution stage in the diagram.)
• #8: The characteristics we want to see in the intended product may be essential or desirable. How do you think these characteristics differ? (Wait for students to respond.) Using our example, what specific characteristics should you include in an interactive campus map? (Wait for students to respond.) When the final product is completed, you go back to this same design specification to see if your final product actually met your requirements. (Click on the Developing Ideas stage in the diagram.)
• #9: Here is an example of a design idea for an interactive campus map. (Click on the image to enlarge.) (When done viewing the image, click on the Developing Ideas stage in the diagram.)
• #10: Before you can plunge into action in this stage, first, you need to come up with a good plan. What do you think should be included in a work plan? (Wait for students to respond.) Let’s take a look at a work plan for our campus map example. (Click on the link: steps.) (Return to this slide.) This stage is also where you get to build your product. You should aim to follow your plan and make good use of your time, resources and technical skills. What should you do when you change your strategies just because you cannot follow your plan? (Wait for students to respond.) Do you want to see an actual interactive campus map created by a student? Here it is. (Click on the link: final product.) (After viewing the sample final product, return to this slide.): Now let’s move to the next stage. (Click on the Evaluating stage in the diagram.)
• #11: Here is a sample work plan. (Click image to enlarge.) (When done viewing the image, click on the Creating the Solution stage in the diagram.)
• #12: Here is an example of an interactive campus map project designed and created by an 8th Grade student. (Click on the image to open the link to the interactive map.) (When done viewing the map, click on the Creating the Solution stage in the diagram.)
• #13: When you have completed the final product, then you need to evaluate your work. How will you know if your product is successful? (Wait for students to respond.) There are different ways to do product testing. One way is to ask your clients or intended users to try the product and make them check if it met the requirements of your design specification. Let’s take a look at an example of an evaluation survey designed for our campus map project. (Click on the link: evaluation survey.) (After viewing the survey, return to this slide.) Based on the results of your product evaluation, you can identify ways on how to improve your work. How do you think you can improve the sample interactive map project we saw earlier? (Wait for students to respond.) In your opinion, what are the impact and limitations of the interactive map project? (Wait for students to respond.) (Proceed to the next slide.)
• #14: Here’s an example of a product evaluation used for our sample campus map project. (Click on the image to enlarge.) (After viewing the survey, return to this slide.) How can you tell if the evaluation survey used is a good product testing tool? (Wait for students to respond.) Now that we have discussed the 4 stages, let’s take a look at the design cycle as a whole. (Proceed to the next slide.)
• #15: Finally, here is a diagram of the design cycle with more detailed aspects. What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of using this model? (Wait for students to respond.) Will you adapt your own method to this model, or will you modify this model according to how you work? Explain. (Wait for students to respond.) (Proceed to the next slide.)
• #16: Thank you for this engaging discussion on the use of the design cycle for project construction. Use it as a flexible guide in designing and producing creative and purposeful products or solutions.