Key Stage 3 design and technology · Evaluate

KS3 design and technology: analysing designers and engineers

In Key Stage 3, pupils are taught to analyse the work of past and present professionals, and of others, to widen their understanding of design. The word that matters is analyse: it is not enough to say who a designer was or what they made. Pupils ask why it was designed that way, what problem it solved, and what they could borrow for their own projects. Studying real work gives them ideas and a sense of how design has changed over time.

Studying designers and engineers, explained

The curriculum does not list particular designers, so schools choose. You might hear about nineteenth-century engineers such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who designed bridges, tunnels and railways, or Joseph Bazalgette, whose sewer system for London was built after the Great Stink of 1858 and is widely credited with helping to end the city’s cholera outbreaks, which spread through water contaminated with sewage. Graphic and product designers feature too, such as Margaret Calvert, who with Jock Kinneir designed many of the road signs used in Britain, and architects such as Zaha Hadid, known for flowing, curved buildings. These are typical choices, not a required list, and good teachers also include designers from different countries, cultures and periods.

The phrase “and others” in the curriculum matters. It lets pupils study the work of groups as well as famous names: a local furniture maker, a team of engineers who designed a train, a fashion house, a community that developed a traditional building method, or the unknown makers of everyday objects. Pupils may also meet a professional who visits the school, or study how products such as a chair, a bicycle or a kettle have changed over a hundred years.

Analysis follows a pattern that pupils practise until it becomes automatic. They ask what the need or problem was and who it was for. They look at the materials and processes available at the time and how the designer used them. They think about what influenced the work, from earlier designers, nature, available technology or social change, and about the effect it had afterwards. Many schools give pupils a memory aid, such as a list of words covering function, appearance, cost, materials, safety, the environment and the user. A good analysis ends with a judgement about how well it worked and a statement of what the pupil will take from it.

The second objective for this topic asks pupils to understand developments in design and technology and their impact on individuals, society and the environment, and the responsibilities of designers, engineers and technologists. Studying professionals is one way to see this. Bazalgette’s sewers changed public health. A clear road sign saves time and may save lives. Looking at the past shows that good design solves a real problem for real people, and that choices have consequences long after the designer has finished. A separate guide covers this impact and responsibility in more detail.

This work often shows up in your child’s folder as a research page, a mood board or a “design influences” section of a project. Marks are usually awarded for what the pupil does with the research, so a page that explains how a historic design inspired a handle or a colour choice is worth more than one with many pictures but few ideas of their own.

Words your child will hear

Analyse: To look closely at something, break it into parts and explain how and why it works.
Influence: An earlier idea, person or event that shaped a designer’s work.
Context: The time, place and situation in which something was designed.
Legibility: How easily letters, signs or symbols can be read, often from a distance.
Innovation: A new idea, method or product that changes how something is done.
Mood board: A collage of images, colours and materials that shows the ideas behind a design.
Legacy: The lasting effect of a designer’s work after they have finished.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 3 says:

When designing and making, pupils should be taught to analyse the work of past and present professionals and others to develop and broaden their understanding
When designing and making, pupils should be taught to understand developments in design and technology, its impact on individuals, society and the environment, and the responsibilities of designers, engineers and technologists

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: analysing a designer’s work through road signs

A teacher asks: “Analyse the work of Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir on British road signs. What can you take from it for your own design?” How might a pupil answer?

Describe the need. From the late 1950s, faster traffic and new motorways meant drivers had only seconds to read a sign. The signs needed to be clear at a distance and at speed.
Say what the designers did. They created a new typeface and arranged signs using upper and lower case letters, for example a capital at the start of a place name rather than all capitals, because they judged that words with a recognisable outline are quicker to read at speed. Colour also gives information: blue signs are used on motorways, green on primary routes and white on other roads.
Look at the shapes. Warning signs are triangles, signs giving orders are circles, and information signs are rectangles. Drivers learn the meaning of a shape even before they read the symbol.
Evaluate the influence. The signs have been in use for decades and the system is still recognisable on British roads today, which suggests the main decisions worked. Legibility can be tested rather than assumed, for example by reading sample signs from a distance.

Connect it to your own work. State clearly what you will apply.

Idea 1: use colour and shape as a code
Idea 2: test legibility at a distance
Idea 3: keep wording short

A strong answer links the need (fast, clear reading), the design decisions (typeface, case, colour, shape), the effect (a system still in use today) and a specific idea the pupil will use, such as testing their own labels from three metres away.

Common mistakes and how to help

Describing the designer’s life instead of analysing their work

Biographies are easy to find and fill a page, so the pupil copies when and where someone was born and never reaches the design.

What helps: Ask three questions: what problem did it solve, how did they solve it and what can I use? A short paragraph for each is worth more than a long biography.

Believing design is only about appearance

Everyday language often uses “designer” to mean fashionable. Famous designers are often known for visual style.

What helps: Point out that most of Bazalgette’s sewers are hidden underground where no one admires them, yet they are among the most important designs in London’s history. Function, safety and cost are part of design, too.

Copying a famous design instead of learning from it

A striking design is tempting to reproduce, particularly if the pupil is unsure how to start.

What helps: Encourage them to name one principle behind it, such as the use of triangles or high contrast, and apply that to a new product for their own user.

Assuming good design only came from famous men in the past

School topics often follow textbook lists, which can leave out women, designers from other countries and everyday makers.

What helps: Ask who else made or influenced the object. Look at traditional methods from different cultures, and at designers working now.

How to help at home

Analyse an everyday object together. Choose something like a kettle, a chair or a door handle. Ask what problem it solves, who it is for, what it is made from and what a designer 100 years ago would do differently.
Notice design on the way to school. On a walk, look at signs, bus shelters, bridges or street lights, and ask why they look the way they do. Always keep to pavements and crossings.
Explore a designer’s story. Look up one designer, engineer or architect together and ask your child for two features of their work and one thing they would use themselves. Prefer sources that show the work rather than only the life.
Find the history of a product. Ask older relatives how a familiar product, such as a phone, a washing machine or a school bag, differed when they were young. The changes show how technology and needs shift.
Start a mood board. When a project begins, collect pictures, textures and colours that inspire it in a folder or on card, then label each with what it teaches. Labelling turns collecting into analysis.

Builds on

Key Stage 2: Analysing existing products
Key Stage 2: Design criteria and evaluating work
Key Stage 2: Inventors and designers who shaped the world