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Design & TechnologyYear 8 Design and technology: brief to prototype30 min★★★ difficulty

Testing, user feedback and honest evaluation

Evaluation is not a paragraph saying you enjoyed the project. It is evidence measured against the criteria you wrote at the start.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Test, evaluate and refine their ideas and products against a specification, taking into account the views of intended users

Key learning points

  • • Test what you claimed
  • • Getting useful user feedback
  • • Qualitative plus quantitative
  • • Modify, then retest

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

refineproductsspecificationtakingaccount

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 19 · Discover5%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

Watch first

Testing, user feedback and honest evaluation

An English teaching video on this topic from KS3-5 Design & Technology. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Test, evaluate and refine their ideas and products against a specification, taking into account the views of intended users

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You should already know how to write measurable specification criteria and how to model an idea.

3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

Iteration
A cycle of making, testing and improving.
Prototype
A working model made to test an idea, not to sell.
Qualitative data
Views and descriptions from users.
Quantitative data
Numbers from measurement or counting.
Modification
A specific change made because of test evidence.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Testing against the specification

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

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

Learn

Test what you claimed

Take the specification line by line and record a pass, fail or partial result with the measurement. A table of criteria against results is worth more than a page of prose, because it shows exactly where the product falls short.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

Getting useful user feedback

Let users handle the prototype and watch what they do before you ask anything. Where do they hesitate? Ask open questions — 'show me how you'd use this' — rather than 'do you like it?', which invites politeness rather than truth.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

The best evaluation compares the product with...

8

Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

Quantitative evidence would be...

9

Reset break

Part 9 of 19

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
10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 19

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Using feedback to modify

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

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

Learn

Qualitative plus quantitative

Numbers tell you how much; comments tell you why. A 2 mm deflection under load is a number; 'it feels like it will snap' is a perception. Both matter, because a product users distrust will not be used even if it passes the test.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

Modify, then retest

Write each modification as a change plus a reason plus evidence: 'thicken the base to 6 mm because it tipped in four of six user tests'. Then test again. One untested improvement is a guess; a tested one is design.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

A well-written modification includes...

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

Watching users before questioning them helps because...

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • Liking a product is not evidence that it works.
  • Evaluation belongs throughout the project, not only at the end.
  • A change without a reason is a redesign, not a modification.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 19

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

17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

Take the ____ line by line and record a pass, fail or partial result with the measurement.

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Testing, user feedback and honest evaluation

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

  1. 1. Iteration means...

  2. 2. A prototype exists to...

  3. 3. 'Do you like it?' is weak because...

  4. 4. Partial pass on a criterion should be...

  5. 5. After modifying you should...

  6. 6. Qualitative data is best for...

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

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 4 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 19 · Watch & discover

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