Is the final product more important than the design and production process?

COMM140 Task 2 - Blog Post 2 (REVISED) - Week 2 Driving Question

This is a revised version of Blog Post 2 - based on Peer Feedback outlined in my Review and Reflection Blog Post.

What is a design process?

A design process is a systematic series of steps followed in order to design, plan and produce a product to achieve a particular outcome or goal. Through this process, ideas are produced, assessed and refined in order to reach goals posed within a design brief. The 5 stages of the design process include:

• Investigation and definition - exploring and investigating needs, opportunities and information while taking the goals and purposes, stakeholder needs and operation of technologies into consideration. The impact and implications of the product on individuals, local society, and global environments must be taken into consideration (ACARA, 2020).

• Generation and design - The development and communication of ideas and needs for a range of audiences are used to make choices, consider alternatives and construct various design ideas. Critical and creative thinking strategies are used to generate, evaluate and document ideas to meet needs or opportunities that have been identified by the design brief (ACARA, 2020).

• Production and implementation - A variety of skills and techniques are utilised in order to construct a product. Knowledge of technological materials, characteristics, and properties are utilised to ensure suitability for use. Production skills are developed in order to select and use materials, systems, components, tools and equipment appropriately (ACARA, 2020).

• Evaluation - the quality and effectiveness of the design and product are evaluated. The implications and consequences of actions and decision-making are also considered in order to determine the effectiveness of the end product (ACARA, 2020).

• Collaboration and Management - the development of communication skills and the importance of team work/effective collaborating skills are enhanced while process, role negotiation and responsibilities, and compromisation of decisions are highlighted (ACARA, 2020).

Having a design process allows production to be more efficient and transparent. It acknowledges the conception, preparation, innovation and evaluation that is put into, and not typically recognised by, the final product.

Reflection

Through my research about the design processes and products, I discovered a quote by Pieter Toth (2018) that really resinated with me.

That’s the funny thing about destinations, they only seem like the end at the time, as you look forward.  When you look back, they are much more like stepping stones across a stream, only a small part, a single step in the journey.  That thought leads to the age-old question, what is more important, the journey or the destination?

Various resources use the example of the iceberg, that the product is the visible tip while the process is what lies under the waterline - it cannot be seen but supports the product. The Australian Curriculum reflects this position, highlighting the importance of the "skills needed to create designed solutions by investigating and defining, designing, producing and implementing, evaluating, and collaborating and managing" (ACARA, 2020) digital technologies and the development / impact / understanding of the relationship between technologies and society.

Personally, I struggled through year 11 and 12. Having to deal with the pressure from my parents and teachers to succeed and do well, juggling school, friends, relationships, extra curricular activities and commitments, while investigating and designing the person I wanted to be for the rest of my life - was hard for me. In 2018, I suddenly became ill with an unknown medical condition and had to take 6 months off of school as I was in and out of hospital. On my return to school in 2019, I was elected as the Spirituality Captain of my college which required even more community service and added a few extra hours a week to my workload, all while trying to catch up on the content I missed throughout year 11, including the conceptualisation and implementation of alternative tasks and pathways.

In the end, all my hard work paid off. I was offered an early acceptance into ACU as apart of their Community Achievers Program - an initiative to provide students who are active within their communities early admission into their undergraduate course of choice, as well as be provided with leadership and development opportunities throughout the duration of their course.

In order to shape myself into the well educated, reliable, trustworthy, resilient student I am today, I have had to face many challenges and bounce back from them stronger than I had previously been. While I have achieved my goal of graduating high school and attending university, the structure of the design and production process is consistently revised throughout my day to day life - setting new goals and following the pathways to achieve them.

References

Toth, P. (2018). Process versus Product: The Knowledge Building Connection. Retrieved from: https://thelearningexchange.ca/process-versus-product-knowledge-building-connection/#:~:text=A%20process%20is%20a%20series,artifact%20created%20through%20that%20process.

ACARA (2020) The Australian Curriculum: Design and Technologies (F–10). Retrieved from: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/technologies/design-and-technologies/structure/