Teaching about product design

Industrial design practices
As part of developing their knowledge and understanding about food, students should be taught about industrial practices that relate to the design and development of food products. They should understand that designing is a process-based activity, requiring the application of a range of designing skills, egs. evaluation, analysis, investigation, creative thinking, but that different approaches to designing may be taken.

There is currently a great deal of emphasis on how to develop students' designing skills, such that they too can evaluate, analyse, investigate, create and innovate and this is a major focus of the National Strategy D&T Framework.

The following account of food product development outlines some of the key concepts, approaches and techniques to be taught. It is information that may be illustrated and brought to life by use of case studies, examples from industry, use of video, software and carefully selectedInternet sites. Students can be set tasks and activities that give them direct experience of these practices, egs. problem-solving around solutions to specific needs, evaluating other people's design ideas for feasibility, market research exercises.

What is innovation in food?
Innovation in food to do with the development of ideas for products you can make - otherwise known as designing or product development.

It is about putting food ingredients together in new, interesting or different ways, or using new processes. Food product development is mainly about improvement, imitation or variation of existing ideas, products or ways of doing things.

To be appropriate and useful, food product design should be carried out to meet people's needs. This might be:

It isn't always the product itself that is new, but may be:

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Turning ideas into real products
In industry, new product development is usually carried out by teams of people working for a food company or retailer. Case study examples are provided in the F-files by searching on product design, egs. Being a Food Product Developer 1 and Being a Food Product Developer 2.

Their skill lies in developing concepts or ideas:

At the concept development stage the aim is to develop and model ideas. Ideas are gradually refined as they are screened for feasibility. A product specification can then be drawn up. This guides those who will be working on its further development and realisation. It also gives them something objective to evaluate against, during the prototype and trialling stages.

The concept development process typically involves:

One approach to concepts is to see them as hooks onto which ideas can be hung and then developed, egs:

Other factors that might be considered during concept development:

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The role of evaluation in the innovation process
Product ideas, recipes and formulations are developed and refined until they are considered to meet the specification. Evaluation is an important part of this development process, for example:

Teaching tips
Students need to be taught:

Food technology should provide them with these opportunities and these should be practically based wherever possible, ie. learning by doing - 'having a go' at some of the techniques of evaluating, analysing, investigating markets, generating and developing ideas.

These do not always have to be taught within the framework of an extended design and make assignment, (although students at all key stages should have the opportunity of being challenged to design and make their own food products). Instead these skills and techniques may be taught and practised within shorter, focused tasks. Indeed, a whole unit of work could be based on the topic of product development, including the development of knowledge and skills for investigating, evaluating, modelling and making, understanding and using materials, developing industrial practices awareness.

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Case Studies about innovation
A number of the case studies featured in the F-files provide examples of innovation. They support teaching and learning about food product design and manufacture and are designed to help improve understanding about the processes and technologies involved in being innovative with food, ie. industrial design practices. There are two specific case study in the F- files on Being a Food Product Developer 1 and Being a Food Product Developer 2, providing examples of product development in different contexts.

At the end of each case study there are activities to help students get the most out of the case study and signposts to specific further sources of information ('Making use of the case study - things to think about and do').

To find these case studies use the F-files search facility to search on innovation, or use the F-files pull-down menu to see the full range.

Some of these case studies have a Design Council Millennium Products logo which have been awarded for outstanding innovation.

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What makes a successful case study?
Look at the case studies presented in the F-files and refer to the Case Study Lines of Enquiry on which these case studies are based. To do this, go to the user notes.

What works well? What does not work so well? Is the information useful? Is it accessible? Is it of interest to those learning or finding out about the foods we eat? What alternative or additional approaches might be taken? How might teachers use them to support their students? How might they be used for teachers¹ professional development? Do the case studies pose challenging issues and provoke critical thinking?

Further resources
Check out the FoodForum PowerPoint Resources which support the development of designing skills and which promote strategies used by professional designers.

The Bright Ideas series of cd-roms from DATA have been developed to support the National Strategy: FS D&T Programme - see Ask the Expert for explanation of the National Strategy and D&T Framework.

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