OCR GCSE Design and Technology

## Why a designer starts with the context A design solution is made for a particular setting and a particular group of people, so the first job is to find out what that setting asks of the product. A kettle designed for a family kitchen and one designed for a camp site are both kettles, yet the materials, size, power source and price that suit one are wrong for the other. Exploring the **context** means finding out where and how the product or system will be used, who will use it, and what social, cultural, moral and economic conditions surround it. What the designer learns turns into opportunities (things the product could do well) and constraints (things that limit the design), and both feed the requirements the finished product is judged against. ### Where and how the product is used The physical environment sets many requirements directly. A product used outdoors meets rain, sunlight and temperature changes, so it needs materials and finishes that resist weathering and corrosion. A product used in a hospital ward may need to be wiped clean with disinfectant, so seams and crevices that trap dirt are a fault. A product used in a noisy workshop cannot rely on a quiet beep to tell the user something has happened. How the product is used matters as much as where. The designer asks how often it is used, for how long, by one person or several, with one hand or two, standing or sitting, and what happens when it is used wrongly. A tool used for a few seconds once a day can…