Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Design & Technology
Design & TechnologyEvaluating design and its impact22 min★★ difficulty

Learning from professional designers

You don't need to invent every idea from scratch. Studying how skilled designers, past and present, solved problems sharpens your own design thinking.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Evaluate: Analyse the work of past and present professionals and others to develop and broaden their understanding

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Analyse the work of past and present professionals and others to develop and broaden their understanding

Key learning points

  • • Why analyse existing work
  • • Past and present designers
  • • Turning analysis into your own ideas

This lesson at a glance

  • 22 minutes
  • 13 parts to scroll through
  • 3 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

presentprofessionalsothersbroadenexisting

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 13 · Discover8%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 13

Watch first

Learning from professional designers

An English teaching video on this topic from Yi MakesItEasy. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Analyse the work of past and present professionals and others to develop and broaden their understanding

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 13

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · Why analyse existing work

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 13

Learn

Why analyse existing work

Looking closely at a well-designed product — how it is made, what materials it uses, who it is for — reveals decisions that are easy to overlook when only looking at the finished item. It builds a mental library of solutions to draw on later.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 13

Learn

Past and present designers

Comparing historical design movements, such as Bauhaus's 'form follows function', with contemporary designers working on sustainability shows how context and values shape design choices over time.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 13

Quick check

What is the main benefit of analysing existing products?

6

Reset break

Part 6 of 13

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
7

Quick check

Part 7 of 13

Quick check

'Form follows function' is associated with which movement?

8

Learning cycle

Part 8 of 13

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · Turning analysis into your own ideas

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 13

Learn

Turning analysis into your own ideas

Rather than copying, good analysis asks 'what worked, what didn't, and why?' then adapts the useful principles to a new brief, giving your own design a stronger, more informed starting point.

10

Quick check

Part 10 of 13

Quick check

Good analysis of a designer's work should lead to…

11

Challenge round

Part 11 of 13

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

12

Mastery quiz

Part 12 of 13

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Learning from professional designers

3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. What is the main benefit of analysing existing products?

  2. 2. 'Form follows function' is associated with which movement?

  3. 3. Good analysis of a designer's work should lead to…

13

Lesson round-up

Part 13 of 13

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Report

Why the first prototype broke

A team designed a phone stand from 3 mm plywood. The brief said it must hold a 200 g phone at 60° and survive being knocked. The first prototype looked right but snapped at the joint after two knocks.

The team tested again and found the grain of the plywood ran across the narrowest part of the joint, so the wood split along it. They widened the joint from 8 mm to 20 mm, turned the piece so the grain ran along the load, and added a small fillet at the corner to spread the force.

The second prototype survived twenty knocks. It used 15% more material and took four minutes longer to cut — a trade-off the team recorded in their evaluation.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Name the fault in the first prototype and explain why it happened.
  2. List the three changes the team made and what each one does.
  3. Write an evaluation of the second prototype against the brief, including the trade-off.

  • Design sheet

    Diagram

    Sketch two ideas with measurements and notes, then photograph the sheet.

    2 labelled sketches

  • Evaluation

    Writing

    Write how well your idea meets the brief and what you would change next time.

    6–8 sentences

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 13 · Watch & discover

How this is going

  • Not looked at yet

    Analyse the work of past and present professionals and others to develop and broaden their understanding

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