Mini-Lesson

Learning from Existing Products and Practice

This mini-lesson covers Learning from Existing Products and Practice for OCR A-level Product Design: product analysis, key designers and movements, and commercial and manufacturing practice.

You will analyse products with ACCESS FM, meet Bauhaus, Dieter Rams and Marc Newson, and run a cost analysis. Press Start to begin.

Product analysis

Analysing existing products

Studying existing products reveals what works and what to improve. A common framework is ACCESS FM:

Aesthetics, Cost, Customer, Environment, Size, Safety, Function, Materials (and manufacture).

Products can also be studied by disassembly — taking them apart to learn about construction, materials, fixings and assembly.

Quick check

Why analyse products?

?What is the main purpose of analysing and disassembling existing products?

Designers & movements

Designers and design movements

Influential movements:

Arts and Crafts (William Morris) — celebrated handcraft against poor machine goods.
Bauhaus (Walter Gropius, from 1919) — art meets industry; simple geometric forms; form follows function.
Modernism — function and simplicity over ornament.
Memphis (Ettore Sottsass, 1981) — bold, playful, decorative.

Key designers: Dieter Rams (Braun; less, but better), James Dyson (dual cyclone), Charles and Ray Eames (moulded chairs), Philippe Starck (Juicy Salif), Marc Newson (Lockheed Lounge).

Quick check

Which movement?

?The principle form follows function, and a drive to unite art with industrial production, are most associated with which movement?

Sort it

Sort the names and tools

Tap an item, then the group it belongs to.

🏛️ Design movement

👤 Designer

🧰 Analysis tool

Commercial practice

Commercial and manufacturing practice

Learning from industry practice:

Benchmarking — comparing a product against the best competitors to set targets.
Commercial manufacture — how firms use scales of production, standardisation and quality systems.
Design for manufacture — shaping designs so they are efficient and economical to produce.

Quick check

What is benchmarking?

?A company measures its kettle against the three best-selling rivals to set improvement targets. What is this called?

Match it

Match each designer or movement to what they are known for

Tap an item on the left, then its match on the right.

Name

Known for

Calculate

Your turn — cost analysis

1In a product analysis, a kettle retails at 24 and its materials cost 6. Material cost as a percentage of retail price = material cost ÷ retail price x 100. Calculate this percentage.

%

Hint: 6 ÷ 24 x 100.

Recap

The big ideas to know

Product analysis: ACCESS FM and disassembly to learn materials, construction and function

Movements: Arts and Crafts, Bauhaus (form follows function), Modernism, Memphis

Designers: Dieter Rams, James Dyson, Eames, Philippe Starck, Marc Newson

Benchmarking compares against the best rivals to set targets

Design for manufacture makes designs economical to produce

You have covered how to learn from existing products, designers and commercial practice.

🏆

Mini-lesson complete!

⭐⭐⭐

You have worked through Learning from Existing Products and Practice for OCR A-level Product Design. 🎉

Your stars: 0 / 0

Next: test yourself in the Evaluate stage Confidence Quiz, then lock it in with Verify.

📣 Smashed it? Share your score

Challenge a mate to beat your stars, or show a parent how you got on.

→ Back to all subjects