HSC Design and Technology flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Design brief

A short statement of the problem to be solved, including the target user, key constraints and intended outcome. It frames all later research and idea generation.

Design specification

A numbered list of measurable criteria a product must satisfy, derived from the brief and research. Each criterion can be tested during evaluation.

Morphological chart

A grid listing sub-functions against possible solutions for each. Combining options across rows generates many complete design concepts quickly and systematically.

Iterative prototyping

Building successive models, each testing the riskiest unknown, so failures are found cheaply before tooling costs are committed. Later prototypes increase in fidelity.

Formative evaluation

Ongoing testing during development that feeds corrections back into the design. It contrasts with summative evaluation, which judges the finished product against the specification.

Anthropometric data

Measurements of human body dimensions and ranges across a population. Designers use percentiles to size products for reach, clearance and comfort.

Life cycle assessment

A method summing environmental impacts across raw material extraction, manufacture, distribution, use and disposal. It identifies which stage dominates total impact.

Cradle to cradle

A design model where end-of-life materials become inputs for new products. It requires design for disassembly and avoidance of mixed or contaminated materials.

Embodied energy

The total energy consumed in extracting, processing and manufacturing a product, before use. It differs from operational energy used during the product's working life.

Planned obsolescence

Deliberately limiting a product's useful life through function, technology or style, so consumers replace it. Right-to-repair laws are a regulatory response.

Design for disassembly

Designing joints, fasteners and material choices so a product can be taken apart for repair, reuse or recycling. It usually favours mechanical fasteners over adhesives.

Technology push

Innovation driven by a new technical capability, then seeking a market. It contrasts with market pull, where an identified user need drives development.

Thermoplastic

A polymer that softens reversibly when heated and can be remelted and reshaped. This makes it recyclable, unlike thermosets, which cross-link permanently.

Thermoset polymer

A polymer whose chains cross-link irreversibly during curing. It cannot be remelted, so recycling is limited to grinding and reuse as filler.

Toughness versus hardness

Toughness is the energy a material absorbs before fracture; hardness is resistance to surface indentation. A hard material can be brittle and low in toughness.

Injection moulding

A process where molten thermoplastic is forced into a closed steel mould and cooled. High tooling cost is offset by fast, repeatable, high-volume production.

Batch production

Making a limited quantity of identical items, then switching. It balances tooling cost against flexibility, sitting between one-off and mass production.

Quality assurance

Process controls built into production so defects are prevented rather than detected. It differs from quality control, which inspects and rejects finished output.

Tolerance

The permitted variation from a nominal dimension. It must be stated on drawings so parts assemble reliably without unnecessary precision and cost.

Composite material

Two or more materials combined so properties exceed either alone, such as glass fibre in resin. The fibre carries load; the matrix binds and protects it.

Folio evidence

Annotated records showing what was done, why, and what decision followed at each design stage. Unannotated images do not demonstrate design reasoning.

Gantt chart

A bar chart scheduling project tasks against time, showing duration, sequence and overlap. It helps monitor progress against milestones in a design project.

Risk assessment

A record of each hazard with its likelihood, severity and control measure. It must be updated whenever materials, tools or processes change during production.

Summative evaluation

A final judgement of the completed product against each specification criterion, plus reflection on the design process and what would be changed.

Design justification

The reasoning linking a design decision to research evidence and specification criteria. It converts a description of what was made into an argument for why.

Patent

A legal right protecting a novel, useful and non-obvious invention, typically for twenty years. It excludes others from making or selling the invention.

Incremental innovation

Small improvements to an existing product or process. It contrasts with radical innovation, which introduces a fundamentally new concept or market.

Disruptive innovation

A simpler, cheaper offering that initially serves overlooked customers, then improves until it displaces established competitors in the mainstream market.

Additive manufacturing

Building parts layer by layer from digital models. It removes tooling costs and enables mass customisation and internal lattice structures.

Smart material

A material whose properties change in response to a stimulus such as heat, stress or light. Examples include shape-memory alloys and piezoelectrics.

Topology optimisation

An AI-assisted generative design method that removes material from low-stress regions, producing lightweight structures shaped by load paths rather than intuition.

Technology adoption curve

A model describing uptake from innovators and early adopters through the majority to laggards. The gap before the majority causes many product launches to fail.