Design Proposals

How many marks is this bit worth? 12
How many pages should it occupy? 4-5

This is an important section of your project because it is here that you sketch out your ideas that will form the basis of your design and then choose the best of these to develop.

This section should show progression or 'tell a story'. To begin with, your ideas will be imaginative, creative, wide-ranging, probably consisting of lots of quick annotated sketches. These ideas should evolve so that the weaker ones - those that are least likely to meet the specification - are weeded out, whilst the better ideas are developed in the form of more detailed sketches, that include simple cross-section drawings, possibly exploring constriction methods, dimensions etc. and also early CAD drawings. By the final page, it should be clear which idea you are going to develop and model in the next section.

Range of Ideas – 4 marks

In theory it is easy. Keeping the brief and specification in mind, all you have to do is to sketch a number of different ways of solving the problem. You can do this by considering the whole project or by looking at individual parts. The key to this section is variety and flexibility of thinking. The more varied your ideas are the more marks you will earn – it is as simple as that.

Don’t use a ruler. Nobody sketches with a ruler.
Use colour/shading sparingly, perhaps to represent shape, texture or material.
Don’t redraw your ideas “in neat”. It is a waste of time.
Cutting out your ideas and sticking them onto bits of coloured card is an offence, as is word processing your annotation.
Use annotation to describe details that may not be obvious. Don't write comments such as 'I don't like this idea because it looks tacky'.

Annotation should help to explain how well the idea meets the criteria of your specification.

Evaluation of Design Ideas – 4 marks

When you have a good variety of ideas you will need to review them against the specification. Choose the idea that stands out, or choose the best parts from a range of ideas, to suit your specification. You might even use a potential client to give their judgement on your ideas. By the end of this section it should be clear which design you have developed and will be using as the basis for the next secition of the project.

Communication Techniques – 4 marks

Though we are not looking for little works of art, your sketches should be clear and, where appropriate, shown in 3D. A variety of graphic techniques will earn you more marks and the inclusion of a CAD drawing will help you to reach a top mark.

In the 'How To...' link you will be able to download help files for using ProDesktop and there is a link on the left to download Google Sketchup.