C3 Use of product analysis and disassembly procedure
During my degree we never really covered this area nor have I come across it during my experiences at school with Design and Technology, therefore this is graded as a '1' aka very little knowledge if not any at all. I honestly can say that I do not have a clue as to what this part of the audit entails however my intentions are to investigate and explore this area further so that at a later date I will be able to enhance my knowledge and grade this section higher.
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My INITIAL understanding of the term 'USE OF PRODUCT ANALYSIS AND DISASSEMBLY PROCEDURE'...
If I were to make a guess I would say that the term 'Product analysis' would translate to analysing a product and perhaps evaluating the piece. 'Disassembly procedure' could mean taking a product apart and putting it together and analysing how easy this process would be?
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What I have learnt and what I understand now...
I have learnt that a Product Analysis and a Disassembly procedure are both processes that can help you gage an understanding on why designs work and how they work and also aid development in generating further designs/ideas.
During my projects I have also discovered that they are part of your primary research within the design process and therefore very useful sources to conduct and refer to during your development.
Product Analysis
In Bhav’s lesson we learnt about what a Product Analysis entails. It is a detailed analysis of a product or products and it helps you to dig deeper and think wider within your own design ideas. I now know that by conducting a Product Analysis you also tend to focus on several areas or guidelines these are:
Below is an example of a product analysis I conducted in my Design Innovation module.
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My INITIAL understanding of the term 'USE OF PRODUCT ANALYSIS AND DISASSEMBLY PROCEDURE'...
If I were to make a guess I would say that the term 'Product analysis' would translate to analysing a product and perhaps evaluating the piece. 'Disassembly procedure' could mean taking a product apart and putting it together and analysing how easy this process would be?
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What I have learnt and what I understand now...
I have learnt that a Product Analysis and a Disassembly procedure are both processes that can help you gage an understanding on why designs work and how they work and also aid development in generating further designs/ideas.
During my projects I have also discovered that they are part of your primary research within the design process and therefore very useful sources to conduct and refer to during your development.
Product Analysis
In Bhav’s lesson we learnt about what a Product Analysis entails. It is a detailed analysis of a product or products and it helps you to dig deeper and think wider within your own design ideas. I now know that by conducting a Product Analysis you also tend to focus on several areas or guidelines these are:
- The Materials and Components: Why they have used that particular component or material?
- Aesthetics: Howe we react to the product, how we feel about the style and the finish affects, the appearance and how it feels. How it can fit in with out lifestyle, and whether it is suitable for many different environments.
- Working principles and Functions: How the product works, how well it works, if it has been designed for the job intended, how the target consumers react to it.
- Ergonomics: How well the product meets the needs of the users, whether it is safe, efficient and easy to use and if it bares in mind a range of users.
- Manufacture: The processes that have been used to manufacture the design, whether it was mass produced, whether it is assembled or supplied to the consumer as a flat-pack kit to assemble themselves.
- Environmental impact: The life cycle of the product, whether it can be repaired and recycled, how the materials were obtains or sourced, how much energy was used to manufacture and transport the product, and the people that were involved within the products manufacturing process.
Below is an example of a product analysis I conducted in my Design Innovation module.
I realised that I learnt quite a lot just from this task. I was able to identify and understand more about what makes a design good and bad and also why it is was successful and what important decisions have been made during the design and development stages. I also found that it took me back to my own specifications and brief to see whether I was meeting the requirements properly and then further more which is probably the most important thing I realised that I was then able to create and think about alternative and somewhat better designs just from completing the analysis. Personally, I think that being able to explore a product in this way can really help someone progress in terms of their designing but also their understanding of the functionality of the product. What’s more, it brings you back to why as a designer you are creating this product in the first place, it reminds you of the purpose of the product. I think that Argos is quite a good site to complete a product analysis because you can see things like customer review and so forth. www.argos.co.uk
Disassembly procedure
I now understand more about this area of the audit, I have learnt that again like a product analysis it is an important part of primary research. In some respect I think it is quite similar to completing a product analysis but with a dis-assembly procedure you actually take apart a product. By doing so it enables you to come to terms with how a product works and how it fits together, how it is manufactured. It also begins to raise questions like why the materials were used and what types, what kind of manufacturing process has taken place and things like the safety factors. It also made me realise how much work actually goes into making a product how it is.
Here is an example of myself taking apart a product (this was just an old mobile phone that I had). I think that this has helped me because what it has enabled me to do is understand how this product works and how the manufactures have made the certain decisions along the way. I also began to think about the process that may have taken place during this time and it was quite interesting to try and think about how it would have been made.
Please note.. this is not the original dissemble that I completed, my USB broke and therefore I lost all of the images that I had captured during this process.
Disassembly procedure
I now understand more about this area of the audit, I have learnt that again like a product analysis it is an important part of primary research. In some respect I think it is quite similar to completing a product analysis but with a dis-assembly procedure you actually take apart a product. By doing so it enables you to come to terms with how a product works and how it fits together, how it is manufactured. It also begins to raise questions like why the materials were used and what types, what kind of manufacturing process has taken place and things like the safety factors. It also made me realise how much work actually goes into making a product how it is.
Here is an example of myself taking apart a product (this was just an old mobile phone that I had). I think that this has helped me because what it has enabled me to do is understand how this product works and how the manufactures have made the certain decisions along the way. I also began to think about the process that may have taken place during this time and it was quite interesting to try and think about how it would have been made.
Please note.. this is not the original dissemble that I completed, my USB broke and therefore I lost all of the images that I had captured during this process.
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Analysis of new knowledge and the next step
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At first I marked this section of the audit as a '1' meaning very little knowledge. However, now that I have explored the area further I would say that I have really gained some essential new knowledge.
Firstly, I now know that it is so important to conduct this as part of your research within any design work, by doing so it can fundamentally shape and determine your final product and designs. When I conducted a product analysis I found that I was quite successful at finding the relevant information about the product but what I did find hard is finding the right information about the environmental impacts that particular product has. I also found that reading reviews that consumers had written about the product helped me to determine the important factors to consider when creating my own product for example it needs to be sturdy and with stand and consider all weights. The down side of this is that I found it difficult during the analysis was to get my head around some of the components the product and manufacturers have used in order for it to function, also trying to work out what type of process the manufactures went through in order to create the final outcome was something I found challenging at time, but I think mainly this is due to lack of terminology and knowledge in the area and perhaps this will be different as I progress in the course.
In regards to disassembling a product I found that I was quite successful at taking it apart, but less successful at putting it back together! Perhaps this is most common amongst many? With electrical products I found myself slightly confused at times as to what component did what and why, but again I think this is just due to lack of knowledge in this area after all I am aware that at times I will inevitably be out of my comfort zone. Now I can understand that by disassembling a product it certainly determine which materials and manufacturing process you can use for your own product at a later stage. Also I found that the practical element of the dis-assembly engaged me further in my thinking, I found that I began to start thinking out side of the box and even about how I can improve the product. By taking things apart, I think it was really useful because it enables myself as a learner to comprehend the basis of the product, I also noticed that I started to understand more about why the manufactures did certain things not just to make the product better but also to cater to the users.
In general both of these tasks I found were really useful for me in my development stages not only in gaining new understanding in this area of the audit but also within my own design work. My next step is to generally explore further with products that really do baffle me, because what I now know is that the more I explore the questions that I had before are normally answered after these processes.
____________________________________________________________________
At first I marked this section of the audit as a '1' meaning very little knowledge. However, now that I have explored the area further I would say that I have really gained some essential new knowledge.
Firstly, I now know that it is so important to conduct this as part of your research within any design work, by doing so it can fundamentally shape and determine your final product and designs. When I conducted a product analysis I found that I was quite successful at finding the relevant information about the product but what I did find hard is finding the right information about the environmental impacts that particular product has. I also found that reading reviews that consumers had written about the product helped me to determine the important factors to consider when creating my own product for example it needs to be sturdy and with stand and consider all weights. The down side of this is that I found it difficult during the analysis was to get my head around some of the components the product and manufacturers have used in order for it to function, also trying to work out what type of process the manufactures went through in order to create the final outcome was something I found challenging at time, but I think mainly this is due to lack of terminology and knowledge in the area and perhaps this will be different as I progress in the course.
In regards to disassembling a product I found that I was quite successful at taking it apart, but less successful at putting it back together! Perhaps this is most common amongst many? With electrical products I found myself slightly confused at times as to what component did what and why, but again I think this is just due to lack of knowledge in this area after all I am aware that at times I will inevitably be out of my comfort zone. Now I can understand that by disassembling a product it certainly determine which materials and manufacturing process you can use for your own product at a later stage. Also I found that the practical element of the dis-assembly engaged me further in my thinking, I found that I began to start thinking out side of the box and even about how I can improve the product. By taking things apart, I think it was really useful because it enables myself as a learner to comprehend the basis of the product, I also noticed that I started to understand more about why the manufactures did certain things not just to make the product better but also to cater to the users.
In general both of these tasks I found were really useful for me in my development stages not only in gaining new understanding in this area of the audit but also within my own design work. My next step is to generally explore further with products that really do baffle me, because what I now know is that the more I explore the questions that I had before are normally answered after these processes.
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Further development
I have now approached a product analysis in a different way and realised that you can also analysis a group of products as well as just one.
By looking at similar products that have different approaches, it can also help your designing and generation of ideas.
With the example products above, they all identify the same problem but have different functions, use contrasting materials, and even have distinctive fit for purposes, for instance, some can openers are aimed for camping and household purposes, whilst other designs are targeted towards people who suffer from arthritis. I think that this has been a really useful task for me to explore and has made me realise that it can also help to develop ideas and think outside of the box by focusing on other types of similar products.
It is also very interesting to analysis and consider how products have developed over time. How products perhaps change as new materials come on the market, new technology advances, and our needs become wider as consumers. This kind of product analysis would be really interesting to do if you are set a Design Innovation project because essentially you are trying to take a existing product and making it better which is ultimately what these designs demonstrate.
Professional Year Further Development
Today we had a lesson with Bhav where we looked at various unsual products. We were not told the purpose of the product and had to make guesses as to what they were used for by going through the same processes as a product analyisis almost. I think that this would be a really good exercise for my future pupils to take part in because it helps us to think creatively and independantly. It can in turn help shape students into more innovative designers whilst also supporting good product analysis methods and techniques. The image below shows a example of one of the products we looked at.