The document provides guidance on writing a design specification for a product. It explains that a design specification lists the key features and requirements that a product is intended to have based on research and design intentions. Examples of what could be included in a specification are provided, such as size, ergonomics, materials, and user needs. Students are then given two specification points and asked to re-write them to make them more clear, concise, user-focused, and comprehensive.

1. TaskImagine that you have been given a million pounds and intend to buy a car and a house. Do you go out and by the first car that you see? Or do you have some features that you would like to ‘include’ in your dream car and house that make you shop around a little?On the cards that you have been given, sketch a car and house, write down the key features that you would like your dream car and dream house to have. You could include things like location, number of rooms, decor.Remember, you have a million pounds!

3. Coursework checklist

4. Design SpecificationIf your ideal house would stand on the bank of a river, face the sun as it rises and be surrounded by woods, then it would be a very different house to the one needed for an office worker in central London who wants somewhere close to the office and near to restaurants and pubs.Features that you want to include in a design for a product you intend to make are much the same. These features when listed are what we call the ‘Design Specification’.Much of what you have found out as a result of your research will be included in your specification.

5. Learning OutcomesTo investigate how to write a design specification.To write a design specification which fully reflects your design intentions.(Reflective Learners, Creative Thinkers)

6. Mind map

7. Chart or table

8. List/ Bullet points

9. Headings – such as essential, desirable, optional

10. Break it down into sections – function, performance, size, weight, target market, aesthetics, ergonomics, materials, safety, cost, manufacturing, social and moral considerations, consumer law, environmental factors, sustainable technologies and so on...