Product Analysis       

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Analysis is a process that goes on right the way through a project, although quite a bit of it needs to be done after research. The main idea is to look at all the information that you have gathered and put it into three 'piles' very useful, useful and useless. You can discard the useless but say why it is no good to you. Remind the examiner that you did look and not all of what you found was good. Remember that in the examination you might be given some information that you have to look at when you are starting your designs. You have to make sure your designs use that information. For example the size of a CD or game in its cover, might be given, and you would have to make sure that your design was good enough to hold games and CD's of that size. This also needs to take into account stuff like finger spaces and so on.

Now look at the rest of the information you have gathered. Try to put it into areas like 'people', 'materials', 'measurements', 'finishes', 'market products' and so on. From here you might say who was the tallest and smallest people (very important if you were making a tall CD rack), tallest/thickest CD if you were making a holder for them, which materials were the best of the bunch you investigated and why, look at all the measurements involved and pick out those which are very important (for a media holder it could be making sure your finished job holds a certain number or has to hold stuff of three different sizes and so on), say which of the finishes would be most suitable for making the work (paint perhaps if it was metal polished if it was wood) . If it was plastic brightly coloured if it was for a teenager or child. From your market products pick out the best features and say why you like them.

So really analysis is about sorting the good from the bad, saying why you have come to the conclusions you have and narrowing down your research information into a manageable size.

By now with what you had in your head to start with and the narrowing down of the information into the VERY USEFUL you should be in a position to take a few decisions on how you expect your work to develop.

Don't forget, if you are given sizes in the test you have to design with those sizes in mind. (It's no good making a media holder 20cm long if it has to hold 25 games, if the game is 1cm thick (it doesn't add up does it you silly sausage). Look below and see the main areas you need to consider when analysing:

1. Function - what is the finished product got to do

2. Form (or aesthetics) - this means what do you want it to look like when its finished.

3. Ergonomics - making sure the finished product is easy to use and is comfortable.

4. Cost - if its too expensive will people buy it?

5. Competition (market research) - is yours going to be able to compete with others on the market?

6. Environmental - are the production methods good for the environment, can the product be recycled?

7. Materials - How easy are they to shape/machine what qualities do they have?

8. Manufacture - what do you need to know about before you start, plastic moulding perhaps, joints, welding, you need to look into it.

9. Development and evaluation - make it better, more appealing, sell more, it's that simple!