Product design GCSE – The design history of mobile phones

What's included?

PDF lesson plan

Key Stage

KS4

Age

Years 10-11

Subjects

Design & Technology

Phones are the perfect product to get students exploring design and development during product design GCSE lessons…

You can teach these activities, related to the design and development of the mobile phone, as a short session or extend them into a much longer range of practical projects.

Students will gain an understanding of how phones have developed due to technology push and market pull.

They’ll also look at how we can use ergonomics and anthropometric data to ensure phones are comfortable to use for extended periods of time.

This can be further extended into a range of practical modelling tasks.

Why teach this?

Most students have or have access to a mobile phone. This makes it an excellent product to analyse and consider possible developments.

Product design GCSE curriculum links

This lesson offers links to both the engineering and design and technology GCSE specifications, including:

user-centred design
technology push and market pull
the emergence of new technologies
planned obsolescence
interpreting and using data

Starter activity

Give students a selection of images, or even a set of actual mobile phones, that range from the earliest designs to the most modern handsets.

Ask students to arrange these in chronological order by date of release. Once they are happy with their order, ask learners to suggest what has changed between models, or between a series of models.

They should be able to identify that the phones reduced in size, until touch screen technology was developed, and then they started to increase in size again.

Dave Ramsey is assistant headteacher at BMAT STEM Academy in Harlow where he teaches engineering and 3D design and is responsible for teaching and learning and engagement with employers.