Well, well, well, Jack Frost was indeed your friend last week ladies and gentleman, allowing you a few extra days grace to complete your research section. This should now be done and dusted and today we are moving on. I will be popping round during today's lesson to look at your research section and offering you some advice on how it may be improved.

So whats next???

Well, first of all we need to look at specifications. The specification should tell the examiner, in detail, exactly what your product will do and what your product will have. You may want to
write about the following points in your specification;

• Function- What does your product need to do?
• Size- Are there any restrictions? Can you specify the size at this stage?
• Weight- Is this important? How will the user carry it?
• Durability- How long will the product last? Will it be exposed to any conditions that may affect its performance?
• Aesthetics- Does it need to match a particular style? Consider colour, form, proportion, pattern and texture
• Materials- What materials will be used? Do they need to have any specific characteristics, such as being water proof or easy to clean?
• Safety- The British Standards Institute produces guidelines for many products. http://www.bsi.org.uk/education
• Cost- Is there a limit to your budget? Does your product need to compete with other similar products?
• Manufacture- Does your product need to use any specific processes? What scale of production are you expecting your product to be manufactured on?
• Packaging- Does your product need to be flat packed in order to transport? Do you need to include assembly instructions for its use? Does your product need to be protected?

During the lesson I will also be talking about sketching. This is going to be the introduction to you starting your initial ideas. Once your specification is written then you can begin these. Remember the examiners are looking for "Comprehensive, imaginative and feasible ideas".

The deadline for this next section is the 28th January 2010 (End of Simos lesson two weeks on Thursday.

That's all for now......