C.Tech

DESIGN BRIEF & DESIGN SPECIFICATION

The Design Brief is a short statement of what you are going to make, why you are going to make it, and for whom you are making it for.
It should be an open ended statement.

For example; a clock project.
A good Design Brief might be something like this...
"Teenagers have very busy lives. School, family and social activities mean that being punctual is very important.
I will design and make a wall clock that will be appealing for teenage girls. It will be a modern design and will be suitable for a teenage girl's bedroom. Because the design will appeal to teenage girls, them they will be more likely to look at it, read the time and therefore not be late.

A poor example would be something like this:
" I will make a football clock from plastic and print out pictures of players to use as the numbers."

DESIGN SPECIFICATION

The Design Specification is the most crucial element of the Investigate phase of the Design Cycle.
A good Design Specification should include information that you learned about the task/problem from your research.
It is a list of requirements that your design ideas must meet plus a list of constraints that you have. It is the check list that you need to use when you start to make your design ideas.

After your research you can develop a Design Specification. This will tell you:
  1. The Audience- Who you are designing for (who will see/buy the product)
  2. Objective - What the successful design must do: This is a description of what the solution will accomplish. It could indicate how well the solution is expected to work or under what conditions it will work
  3. Production -
      * What it should look like (Size/colours/etc)
      * What it should be made from
      * Tools needed to make the product
      * Time needed to complete the product
  4. Usage - How it will be used

This is an example of a good Design Specification for a Clock Project:
  * Must use the Quartz analogue clock movement...