Choose a single product and prepare to give a brief product review.

Your product review should include:
• a description of the product
• the way the product is used
• the cost of the product
• a comparison with other, similar products
• a recommendation to buy or not buy the product
• a reason for your recommendation
• a rating on a scale of 1-5

 

 

 

1D Design and Specifications

1. In small groups, discuss the following:

1. What is design?

2. Design is all about appearance.

3. Designers are the same as scientists and engineers.

4. The secret of good design is to be new and different.

5. Which objects in your home are particularly well-designed?

 

2. Read the text and correct wrong statements:

1. Design is something related to fashion and style.

2. A good design begins with a good idea.

3. Design is not connected with people’s quality of life.

4. Designers try to realize only sensible ideas.

5. Scientists and manufacturers don’t have anything in common with designers.

 

WHAT IS DESIGN?

 

Design is everywhere. The word “design” means different things to different people. One definition given by designer Richard Seymour is ‘making things better for people’. The design activity is focused first and foremost on human behaviour and quality of life. It transfers any idea into a blueprint for something useful, whether it's a car, a building, a graphic, a service or a process.

Scientists can invent technologies, manufacturers can make products, engineers can make them function and marketers can sell them, but only designers can combine insight into all these things and turn a concept into something that's desirable, viable, commercially successful and adds value to people's lives.

A good design begins with the needs of the user. No design, no matter how beautiful and ingenious, is any good if it doesn't fulfill a user need. Finding out what the customer wants is the first stage of what designers do. The designer then builds on the results of that inquiry with a mixture of creativity and commercial insight. Different designers use different methods-combining market research, user testing, prototyping and trend analysis. These methods lead to innovative products and services. Designers learn that ideas that may seem strange are worth exploring and that the 'common-sense' solution is not always the right one.

 

 

3. Look at the pictures and describe these products and their designs using adjectives and useful phrases from the boxes:

 

elegant functional futuristic handmade innovative retro stylish simple mass-produced traditional up-to-date streamlined ergonomic durable easy to use
Visual appeal	It looks like (a design from the 2010s)
Material	It has a metal/wooden/golden (top/side/base)
Features	It has several (qualities / special features).... It has a unique feature... One of its weak/strong points is...(that it is very difficult/easy to use because...)
Use	It is designed for (opening/keeping)... It is used for.......

 

 

 

 

 

4. Listen to two designers talking about ideas for a new product and answer the questions (Recording 1.7):

1. What product are they discussing?

2. Who is the product aimed at?

3. What materials are they going to use?

4. When do they want to launch the product?

 

5. Look at the sentences from the conversation. Translate them into Russian paying attention to modal verbs:

1. The chair could be useful for all kinds of people.

2. We can’t use steel.

3. We should make it in just three colours.

4. It must be cheap if we want it to be competitive.

5. It doesn’t have to be very different.

6. It has to be safe as the regulations are very strict now.

7. We could launch it just before the summer.

8. We really mustn’t miss this opportunity.

 

6. Complete the sentences with appropriate modal verbs:

1. This chair ______ be good for small children.

2. To my mind, we ______ increase its humidity range.

3. The device _______ be able to function in harsh conditions.

4. Plastic ________not be used as we need a safer material.

5. The product _________ to meet EU safety standards as they are essential.

6. We _________not produce this equipment as it turned out to be very harmful.

 

7. Form adjectives or nouns from the words in the box:

Materials	NOUN concrete, steel, brick, glass, plastic, wood, cement, gypsum, stone (artificial), metal, plywood, leather, aluminium	ADJECTIVE
Dimensions		long, wide, deep, high, dense
Shape	triangle, rectangle, circle, sphere, square, cube

8. Complete the description of a robotic vacuum cleaner with appropriate words from Exercise 7:

A robotic automatic vacuum cleaner is made up from a compact ____vacuum mounted on a _____robot chassis. Some models can be fitted with squeegees for cleaning hard floors and laminates. The hardware consists of a pair of motors connected in an H-Bridge circuit. This method of control allows on the spot turning and tank style turning. A microprocessor co-ordinates the sensors and motors which allows the robot to navigate the room.

The "eyes" of the robot are ______and usually represent a combination of micro switch bump sensors that stop the machine when it touches an object and ultrasound sensors which help the robot to judge distances.

Modern robots are also fitted with infra-red or photo cell sensors on the underside which prevents the unit from rolling off edges such as stairs and mezzanines.

Most devices will return to a docking station to charge and empty the dirt collected from a room. Batteries are commonly nickel ____ hydride batteries, though _____ capacity lithium polymer batteries are becoming more common.

 

9. Look at the pictures. Work in small groups, suggest ideas about making these products using modal verbs and discuss them taking into consideration the following points which are an integral part of a product overview (design specification):

1. description

2. performance

3. ergonomics (adapting a machine or job to the user so that it is comfortable, safe and efficient to use)

4. dimensions

5. weight

6. safety