Activity 3.1.

4 Submission
PLTW IED
Prepare
Read Activity 3.1.4 found on the PLTW website. You will be determining how the criteria
of design limit the material choices in the design.
1. What is explained in the criteria of a design?
2. What is explained in the constraints of a design?
3. How can a specification be labeled as poor or better?

What Is Required?
A design brief helps identify the details of product creation. Completing a design brief
encourages thinking through all aspects of a problem, and the brief can serve as the deliverable for
step one in the design process, Define Problem.

Two critical components of a design brief are measurable criteria and constraints because they
define what a design needs to do to be successful.

Criteria and Constraints Guidelines

● Specific, concise written information about the requirements that must be met to attain the
intended outcome.
● Must be specific and distinct.
● Stakeholder(s) must be involved and their input incorporated.
● Each criterion and constraint should be expressed with specific or measurable value(s).

Design Criteria
Design criteria are used to evaluate a product’s potential to be successful and to create testing
procedures. The table below lists categories that criteria may address along with a description.

Category Description
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Performance Specify the function of the product. What will the product need to do?

Product Size Specify form, dimensions, and/or weight. How big or small should the object be?
and Shape

Aesthetics The way that a product looks, including color, surface treatment, shape, and material, will
affect marketability, especially for a consumer item. What should the design look like?

Materials Often chosen by the design team to meet criteria, but sometimes dictated based on
special needs or availability. What should the product be made of?

Safety and Consider human health and safety. Is the product safe for consumers?
Legal Issues

Ergonomics Products should be designed for human comfort, efficiency, safety, and ease of use. Is the
product efficient for customer use?

Environment Consider operating environment and global environmental impact. In operating

environments, products can encounter a wide range of environments (temperature,
corrosion, pressure, vibration) from manufacture to operation by the customer. How does
the product’s life cycle impact the environment?

Life Cycle Specify service life, product life, and/or planned obsolescence. What does the product’s
life cycle look like?

Maintenance Product should not need major repairs within the service life, routine maintenance should
be planned, and routine maintenance should be easy. How can the product be repaired?

Customer What the customer expects the product to be. What does the customer need?
Needs

Your Turn

1. Grab and revisit your products from Activity 3.1.2. Choose one of the products to work with for
this section of the activity.
Discussion Prompts: Imagine you’ve warped back in time and joined the design team that
created the product. With your partner:
● Brainstorm what problem the design team was trying to solve.
● Examine the product and determine the characteristics that were essential to the
success of the design. What makes the product successful?
● How the product might be manufactured?
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● What limits would potentially be placed on the design? How could these limits be
quantified?
○ Manufacturing Processes: Revisit the Manufacturing Processes page to
recall different processes.

Each criterion and constraint should be expressed with a specific or measurable value. See the
table below for examples of poor specifications, and how each can be improved by adding measurable
values.

Poor Specification Better Specification

The device must warn the Within one second, the device must warn the vehicle driver and disengage
driver and slow the vehicle the cruise control when the car attains a distance of fewer than 50 feet
when the car is too close to directly between itself and another vehicle.
an object.

The sneakers must be Recyclable sneakers must cost less than $30 to buy.
recyclable.

2. How would you “measure” the success of the product with respect to the criteria? Write a set of
measurable design criteria and constraints based on characteristics you identified in your step 2
discussion.
i. Hint: Revisit the list of Criteria and Constraints Guidelines above. Use these
guidelines as a checklist for each criterion and constraint.
3. Exchange your list of criteria and constraints with another person.

4. Conduct a peer review. Are the criteria appropriate and measurable?

5. Share your review with the other person.

6. Revise your list of criteria and constraints based on peer feedback.

INSERT CRITERIA AND CONSTRAINTS WITH FEEDBACK

Conclusion

1. Why is it important to identify the criteria and constraints of a design challenge before building
and testing a prototype?
TYPE ANSWERS HERE
Activity 3.1.4 Submission
PLTW IED