Analysing a Product Against Specification Criteria
A specification is a checklist a product must live up to. Learn to judge any product, and the work of other designers, against criteria like form, function, cost and sustainability.
Justify the choices, the way you are assessed
Free interactive practice on the decisions the assessment actually asks you to justify.
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Judging a design
How do you decide whether a product is any good? You compare it against its specification - the checklist of requirements it was meant to meet. This module shows how to analyse any product, and the work of other designers, against those criteria.
Specification words
Four terms run through this module:
Looks and does
Two of the biggest criteria pull in different directions, and a good design balances both.
The checklist
What is a design specification?
- A list of requirements a product must meet
- The finished product itself
- A type of material
- The selling price of a product
Match each criterion to its question
- Function
- Aesthetics
- Sustainability
- Cost
- Does it do its job well?
- Does it look good?
- Is it kind to the environment?
- Can it be made at the right price?
Learning from others
Designers also investigate the work of past and present designers and companies. You analyse their products the same way: judging how well each one meets the specification criteria, so you can learn what works and improve on it.
On the checklist
Select the TWO things a product specification would set out.
- How well the product must perform
- Who the user is and what they need
- The designer's favourite colour
- The weather on the launch day
Match each criterion to its meaning
- Marketability
- Innovation
- Materials
- Scale of production
- How likely the product is to sell
- How new or original the idea is
- What the product is made from
- How many will be made
How to analyse a product
Put the steps for analysing a product against a specification into order.
- Read the specification and its criteria
- Examine the product feature by feature
- Judge each feature against the matching criterion
- Decide which criteria it meets and which it misses
The green criterion
Which criterion asks about a product's impact on the environment?
- Sustainability
- Aesthetics
- Marketability
- Form
Analysis in words
A _____ is a list of requirements a product must meet. When you analyse a product, you judge its _____, how well it does its job, and its _____, how it looks. You also check its _____, its impact on the environment, and its _____, how likely it is to sell.
Specification and analysis
Tap the TWO statements that are TRUE.
- A specification is a list of requirements a product must meet.
- Analysing a product means judging it against each criterion.
- Aesthetics is about how well a product performs its job.
- Sustainability means how much a product costs to buy.
- Innovation means copying an old design exactly.
Which criterion?
Work out which specification criterion each design decision serves.
- A designer makes a kettle from recycled plastic that can be taken apart for recycling. Which criterion does this serve best?
- A phone is given a slim, colourful case to make it more appealing. Which criterion is this?
- A toy is designed so it can be made cheaply in very large numbers. Which criteria does this serve?
Analyse a product
Choose a simple everyday product, such as a water bottle or a chair. Analyse it against three specification criteria of your choice.
- Name the product and one criterion, such as function
- Explain how well the product meets that criterion
- Analyse it against a second criterion, such as aesthetics or cost
- Analyse it against a third criterion, such as sustainability