The VCE Product Design and Technologies Study Design outlines the nature and sequence of learning and teaching necessary for students to demonstrate achievement of the outcomes for a unit. The areas of study describe the specific knowledge and skills required to demonstrate a particular outcome. Teachers are required to develop a program for their students that meets the requirements of the study design, including areas of study, outcome statements, key knowledge and key skills.
This study examines the role of ethical and sustainable product designers. It gives students the opportunity to develop the practical, research, design and project management skills that are required for complex design tasks. Environmental, economic and social sustainability and worldview perspectives should be incorporated into Units 1–4.
Factors that influence product design are examined and students utilise these factors to design and produce products that meet the specific needs of end users. Students investigate how product design is enhanced through knowledge of social, technological, economic, historical, ethical, legal, environmental and cultural factors. They also explore cultural influences on design and make connections to personal and other cultural heritages.
All units of VCE Product Design and Technologies should incorporate elements of the following cross-study specifications:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge, history and culture
- Design brief
- Design process
- Design thinking: critical, creative and speculative thinking
- Developing and conceptualising products
- Design specialisations
- Working technologically and technacy
- Factors that influence product design
- Sustainability
- Health, safety and ethical research considerations.
Teachers should use the study design in conjunction with these support materials to develop a program that includes appropriate learning activities that will enable students to develop the knowledge and skills identified in the outcomes for each unit.
Teachers should facilitate learning and inquiry by developing programs that help students to demonstrate and apply key knowledge and skills in practical ways. Practical work should be planned according to the key knowledge and key skills specific to each area of study.
Each outcome draws on the set of contextualised key skills in the study design. Attention should be given to developing a course that is:
- relevant to students
- contextually based
- employs a variety of tasks
- uses diverse sources for materials.
Unit 1
Students need to understand the design process and work through the Double Diamond design approach. Students should be given the opportunity to collaborate and work in teams, and also complete independent design and production work. Teamwork and collaboration may involve a larger design project or smaller design tasks completed as students work through the Double Diamond design approach. For fair and equitable assessment, the teacher will need to determine which components of the work will completed as teamwork, which will be completed collaboratively, and which need to be completed individually.
Teamwork encourages communication between students and mirrors professional design practice where designers, when developing solutions, fulfil identified roles within transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams. Teamwork combines the individual efforts of all team members to achieve a goal.
Collaboration occurs when students are working together on classroom activities and completing work collectively. Examples of collaborative activities include:
- group brainstorming and mind mapping design problems and design specialisations
- developing end-user questionnaires that collect quantitative and qualitative data to help define potential needs and opportunities
- presenting proposed design solutions and providing group feedback to determine a preferred option for prototyping and production
- testing processes, recording data and reaching consensus about processes
- sharing documents or resources about completed risk assessments
- undertaking group evaluations and testing final prototypes based on established evaluation criteria.
Unit 2
In Unit 2, there are three outcomes to complete. It is important to note that the time needed for teaching the key skills and knowledge for each outcome may vary. Outcome 2 consists of working through the Double Diamond design approach to complete both the design and production of a prototype and / or product. This may take more time to complete than content in Outcomes 1 and 3. These outcomes may be taught concurrently or in an order chosen by the teacher.
Units 3 and 4
School-assessed Task (SAT): Students are required to complete a record of evidence and practical work over two units. This consists of Outcomes 2 and 3 in Unit 3 and Outcome 1 in Unit 4. Some components of this SAT will be assessed at the conclusion of Unit 3 and some at the end of Unit 4. Teachers need to plan a timeline that will allow students to have enough time to complete all components of the SAT.
Teachers need to make sure they teach the content in Unit 3 Outcomes 2 and 3, and Unit 4 Outcome 1 before students complete parts of the assessment that relate to this content. Students need to develop an understanding of course content before assessment. In the case of the SAT, students would need time to develop an understanding of what a design brief, end-user profile and market research is, as well as time to consider how ethical problems may be addressed. These concepts should be taught prior to any SAT assessment. It is also important to note that all School-assessed Task (SAT) and School-assessed Coursework (SAC) assessment must also be completed in the year the student is enrolled in Units 3 and 4.
Students should be encouraged to look broadly beyond themselves when choosing a design specialisation and design problem to address for the SAT in Units 3 and 4. This will allow students to gain experience in genuine market research and feedback. Design problems must focus on an end user(s) so it is critical that students are taught who an end user is and what their needs may be, as a range of different individuals should fit the profile of the end-user. Students will need to collect feedback from a range of individuals who meet the profile of the end-user.
Units 1–4: Considerations for practical activities
The practical application of key skills is an important feature of the study. A list of potential design specialisations can be found on page 16-17 of the Product Design and Technologies Study Design. This is a suggested, but not exhaustive, list of potential design specialisations to help encourage students to think broadly about potential design problems. Learning activities must include practical activities, such as demonstrations of production / manufacturing techniques, use of tools and equipment, drawing and / or computer-aided design (CAD), and product analyses and material tests or trials. Practical activities should be carried out in school-based settings. When students are carrying out practical activities, consideration should be given to safety practices and the development of technical skills. Teachers must refer to the safety information outlined in the safety and wellbeing section on p. 8 of the study design.
A wide variety of materials and processes should be explored by students when working through a design process.
These terms are provided for teachers to assist with the VCE Product Design and Technologies teaching and learning program. They are not to be used as definitions for students to rote learn but rather to provide guidance for teachers about the expectations of the terms in the context of teaching and learning. This information needs to be read in conjunction with the study design.
Collaboration and teamwork
Collaboration refers to activities that support students to work together in the classroom, completing work – such as group discussions, brainstorming ideas, analysing problems and reaching consensus about processes – collectively.
Teamwork refers to students having identified roles within teams to achieve a goal.
Design thinking
In VCE Product Design and Technologies, design thinking is an approach used throughout a design process that enables divergent and convergent strategies to occur. It involves working creatively, critically and speculatively to conduct research, tests and trials, and to make informed decisions from evaluation.
Critical thinking is where evaluation, reasoning and comparison occur.
Creative thinking is where ideation occurs.
Speculative thinking is where students synthesise information and consider the appropriateness and usefulness of a range of ideas or suggestions, with a focus on the future.
(Refer to p. 14 of the VCE Product Design and Technologies Study Design)
End user(s)
An end user refers to the profile of the individual(s) or group who ultimately ‘consume’ the product. End users can be customers or purchasers of the product or they can be the users of the product. The product can be consumed by a group of people who have the same end user profile, for example young corporate females who work in the city and ride their bikes to work or elderly men who live in apartments and exercise regularly. The end user may be a baby or an animal, in which case the designer may also seek end-user feedback from other relevant individual(s), such as parents or pet owners, who purchase rather than use the product. Therefore, a product may be ‘consumed’ by more than one end user.
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What is an end-user?
Product concept
A product concept is a product idea that is not yet in production.
In VCE Product Design and Technologies, there are two types of product concepts:
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Graphical product concepts: these are represented through visualisations, design options and working drawings.
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Physical product concept: these can be actual or virtual and involve prototyping.
The chosen product concept becomes a final proof of concept, and this signals the design is ready to move into implementation and production.
(Refer to p. 15 of the VCE Product Design and Technologies Study Design)
Types of drawings
Graphical product concepts are represented by three types of drawing: visualisations, design options and working drawings. It is expected that students will annotate these drawings. Annotations are critical because they provide explanatory notes and comments that link back to the design brief and the project scope (considerations and constraints).
Visualisations
Characteristics: Visualisations are quick, freehand drawings of ideas that may be whole or parts of an envisaged product. They are usually drawn in pencil using lines and very basic rendering.
Purpose: Visualisations are informed by research and the student’s own ideas to communicate possibilities. They are used to ‘work through’ potential ideas to take forward into design options.
Design options
Characteristics: Generally, these drawings show what the whole of the product will look like and include annotations. Design options often include lines, colour and rendering in pencil, markers and watercolour / wash. Computer-aided design software (CAD) may be used to produce design options.
Purpose: Design options provide a good indication to the end user(s) and others of what a potential product could look like. Annotations provide details, such as construction methods, and link back to the design brief and project scope (considerations and constraints).
Working drawings
Characteristics: These are more refined drawings developed from a design option. These drawings include technical language and conventions and include symbols and measurements. Technical instruments and computer-aided design software (CAD) are often used to produce working drawings.
Purpose: Working drawings accurately show what the product looks like and how it will be constructed. These drawings are used to work out product specifications, such as materials, parts and sizes needed to make the product.
Scheduled production plan
In VCE Product Design and Technologies, a scheduled production plan includes a timeline that outlines production steps, estimated times and quality measures; a materials and costings list; a tools and processes list; and an overview of risk assessments and safety control measures.
Students implement a scheduled production plan and make annotations to it to record progress and justify modifications.
Sustainability frameworks and strategies
The following frameworks or models are referred to in the Product Design and Technologies Study Design.
Six Rs: Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair
The Six Rs of sustainability refer to six steps in the process of dealing with waste:
- Rethink: reviewing production and consumption practices to consider impact(s) on the environment.
- Refuse: not using technologies that are harming the environment.
- Reduce: minimising the number of technologies that we use and buy, based on the premise that the less we consume the less we will waste.
- Re-use: using a product again instead of getting rid of it; the new use could be to fulfill the same function, or the product could be repurposed to serve a different function.
- Recycle: returning materials or products to an earlier stage in the production cycle.
- Repair: fixing broken products to stop using natural resources to make new products. This reduces the resources extracted from the planet, as well as the amount of waste in landfill.
Circular economy
This relates to designing products for durability, re-use, re-manufacturing and recycling to keep products, components and materials circulating in the economy. This in turns preserves energy, labour and materials. Circular economy refers to supporting production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, re-using, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible.
Cradle-to-cradle approach
This refers to the goal of designing and creating products that will be re-used or recycled rather than disposed of when the product is no longer in use. The product has a new life rather than being disposed of in landfill. It is part of a never-ending cycle, where the materials it is made of can be recycled and used again and again.
Design for disassembly
This is an approach to design that considers the end of the product’s life cycle during the design stage. The designer typically uses minimal types of materials and plans for the easy separation of materials to maximise the chances of re-using or recycling materials instead of disposing of them in landfill.
Extended producer responsibility (EPR)
In this approach, the manufacturer or producer takes responsibility for the end of the product’s life cycle, generally committing to collecting, recycling or disposing of the product or its parts in order to minimise environmental impact(s) when the product is no longer used. It may also be called product stewardship.
Life cycle analysis / assessment (LCA)
This refers to the process of assessing the sustainability impact(s) associated with the stages of a product's life, from raw material extraction through to material processing, design, production, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, as well as disposal or recycling.
Triple bottom line
Triple bottom line categories include the three dimensions of sustainability and are often referred to as considerations of people, planet and prosperity. They include social wellbeing, environmental health and a just economy.