Product Design

A-level Product Design helps students take a broad view of Design and Technology. The specification also helps them develop their capacity to design and make products and appreciate the complex relations between design, materials, manufacture and marketing.

Approaches are centred on consumer goods, where issues surrounding everyday manufactured products are developed and explored. The course investigates the cultural, technical and commercial factors which influence the development of innovative new designs, and it introduces the creative and professional strategies which underpin design.

Future opportunities

It is a practical subject that will show your versatility and dexterity.  It is a useful addition to any A level programme but is particularly relevant if you are hoping to progress to a career in engineering, architecture, set and theatre design, furniture or jewellery design and manufacturing industries.

Course content

During the course you will look at the physical and working properties of a wide range of materials and components so that you can develop an understanding of why they are used in different applications. You will also consider their manufacture, use and disposal. Health and Safety figures highly in the course alongside a range of manufacturing techniques and the relationship between design and manufacture. You can then apply this knowledge to design and manufacture and evaluate a product and communicate your research and evaluation to others.

Assessment

50% written examination and 50% practical coursework

There are two 2 hour exams; one, worth 25% of the exam, based on Core technical principles and core designing and making principles, a mixture of short answer, multiple choice and extended responses. The second exam, also worth 25% of the exam, is about additional specialist knowledge, core technical and core designing and making principles and is also a mixture of short answer, multiple choice and extended response questions.

The coursework is worth 50% of the exam and will be based on a context developed by the student in June of Year 12. This is practical application of core technical principles, core designing and making principles and additional specialist knowledge which is assessed as a substantial design and make task which takes approximately 45 hours and is a written or digital design portfolio with photographic evidence of final prototype.