The Student Room Group

DT NEA - design fixation

I am currently working on the AQA DT NEA for the topic products to help around the home.

I have made a mindmap with these problems which includes cutlery management, pet care, laundry baskets and charging areas.
I have decided on making my product on charging areas, then I met up with my client and made some pretty specific questions about charging like 'what is a problem you find while charging devices?' the answer is something about it being too messy.

Then my design brief, specifications and comparing products are both based on charging products
My 6 designs are also different products to help with charging (some are similar some aren't).

I have spoken with my DT teacher and she said I was too fixated on my topic - I should make designs, specifications, briefs and comparing products of more products that ISN'T just about charging, but could be about general things that are too messy around the house.

An example is one of my specifications: 'It must include mostly wired charging and fewer wireless charging plugs.'
This seems TOO specific towards that topic of charging, do I need to change it up to like the general idea, e.g. 'The client wants something to organise messy things'?

Do I need to kind of turn around and redo most of my NEA to stop this design fixation?

Thank you, I really appreciate your help :smile:

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Original post
by mosesm015
I am currently working on the AQA DT NEA for the topic products to help around the home.
I have made a mindmap with these problems which includes cutlery management, pet care, laundry baskets and charging areas.
I have decided on making my product on charging areas, then I met up with my client and made some pretty specific questions about charging like 'what is a problem you find while charging devices?' the answer is something about it being too messy.
Then my design brief, specifications and comparing products are both based on charging products
My 6 designs are also different products to help with charging (some are similar some aren't).
I have spoken with my DT teacher and she said I was too fixated on my topic - I should make designs, specifications, briefs and comparing products of more products that ISN'T just about charging, but could be about general things that are too messy around the house.
An example is one of my specifications: 'It must include mostly wired charging and fewer wireless charging plugs.'
This seems TOO specific towards that topic of charging, do I need to change it up to like the general idea, e.g. 'The client wants something to organise messy things'?
Do I need to kind of turn around and redo most of my NEA to stop this design fixation?
Thank you, I really appreciate your help :smile:

Hi, I'm sorry to hear that you are stressed about your NEA. I don't think that this sounds like design fixation and you need to redo stuff - but when designing just make sure that some of your designs could tidy other stuff up as well as the chargers. In the end, so long as the designs are unique and it fits the primary user and stakeholder needs, you're sorted.

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