The Work of Past & Present Designers
Analysing Products: The Ten Specification Criteria
Before you design anything for your own non-examined assessment (NEA), you need to know how to look critically at products that already exist. Analysing existing products teaches you what works, what does not, and how a designer balanced competing demands. The specification sets out ten criteria you must use whenever you analyse a product.
These criteria give your analysis structure, so it is not just a list of opinions. Every point you make should be linked to evidence from the product itself and to the needs of the people who will use it.
The ten criteria are: form, function, client and user requirements, performance requirements, materials and components/systems, scale of production and cost, sustainability, aesthetics, marketability, and consideration of innovation.
What Each Criterion Means
Form is the shape, look and structural arrangement of a product — for example, whether a kettle is rounded or angular. Function is what the product actually does and how well it performs that job. A well-designed product usually balances form and function so that it looks good and works well.
Client and user requirements are the needs, wants and preferences of the people who commissioned the product and the people who will use it every day. Performance requirements set out the technical standards a product must meet, such as how much weight it can hold or how long its battery lasts. Materials and components/systems describe what a product is made from and how its parts fit together to function as a whole.
Scale of production and cost consider whether a product is made as a one-off, in batches, or through mass production, and how this affects the cost of each unit. Sustainability looks at the environmental and social impact of the materials used, and how the product is disposed of at the end of its life.
Aesthetics covers the visual and sensory appeal of a product — its colour, texture and finish. Marketability asks whether the product will actually sell: does it appeal to its target market and stand out from competitors? Finally, consideration of innovation asks how original the product is compared with what already exists on the market.
Imagine analysing a modern kettle using all ten criteria. Form: a rounded body with a comfortable handle. Function: it boils water quickly and switches off automatically. Client and user requirements: an elderly user might need a lightweight kettle with a large, easy-to-read water gauge. Performance requirements: it should boil one litre of water within a set time. Materials: a stainless steel body with a heat-resistant polymer handle. Scale of production: it is mass produced, which keeps the unit cost low. Sustainability: the steel body is recyclable, but the polymer handle is harder to separate for recycling. Aesthetics: a brushed steel finish looks premium. Marketability: it is priced to compete with similar mid-range kettles. Innovation: a keep-warm function sets it apart from basic kettles on the shelf.
Learning from the Work of Past and Present Designers
The specification also requires you to investigate designers and companies, past and present, so you can see these ten criteria applied in the real world. Studying other people’s design decisions gives you a bank of ideas to draw on and helps you understand why certain solutions became popular with users.
Historical examples show how context shapes design. The nineteenth-century Arts and Crafts movement, associated with the designer William Morris, reacted against mass-produced Victorian goods by promoting hand-craftsmanship, natural materials and decorative pattern design — showing how social attitudes towards industrial production can drive a whole design movement.
More recent designers show how the same ten criteria apply to modern products. The German designer Dieter Rams, who worked for the electronics company Braun, became known for the idea that good products should be simple, functional and free of unnecessary decoration. Charles and Ray Eames became known for moulding plywood into curved shapes to make affordable, comfortable furniture. James Dyson is known for developing bagless cyclone vacuum cleaner technology, an example of consideration of innovation driving a whole company’s identity.
Studying past and present designers helps you generate a wider range of ideas and avoid design fixation — getting stuck on the first idea you think of instead of exploring genuine alternatives.
When you research a designer or company for your own notes, use the ten criteria as headings. For Dieter Rams and Braun, you could note: form and aesthetics — clean lines, minimal colour, geometric shapes; function — controls that are simple and intuitive; innovation — an approach that went on to influence product design at other companies, including Apple, decades later; marketability — a restrained style that helped Braun stand out from more decorative competitors of the time. Structuring your notes this way means you can reuse the same headings for any designer or company you study.
Using This Analysis in Your Own Project
In your NEA, this kind of product and designer analysis belongs in the investigate stage. It should feed directly into your design brief and specification, not sit as a separate, disconnected section. Remember that designing is iterative: you will return to analyse products and revisit designers’ ideas throughout your project, not just once at the start, as you test, evaluate and refine your own prototype.
When you write about a product or designer in an exam answer, use the ten criteria to organise your response. This shows that you understand the full range of factors shaping a design decision, rather than focusing on just one factor, such as aesthetics.