Design, 14–17 years — 20 topics · MyLeoNes™ Kuks
20 design topics written for 14–17 years — not a older text simplified. In teaching order, each a deck of five cards: the idea, why it exists, a worked example, the common trap and where you meet it.
Design · 14–17 years
The design brief
A design begins by turning a vague wish into a clear problem, audience and set of limits.
Designing for real people
Good design starts by learning what people actually do, need and struggle with, rather than guessing from the designer’s own experience.
Prototyping and testing
A prototype is a quick, incomplete version used to learn before the final thing is expensive or difficult to change.
Iteration and trade-offs
Design improves through repeated cycles of making, testing and changing, while balancing goals that may pull in different directions.
Designing systems
A product is rarely alone: it sits in a network of parts, people, rules and resources. Systems thinking helps you notice how changing one part can change everything around it.
Visual hierarchy
Visual hierarchy guides the eye through a message. Size, contrast, spacing, colour and position tell people what to notice first, what comes next and what can wait.
Materials and manufacturing
A design is also a decision about how something will be made. Material properties, tools, skills, cost and production volume all affect which form is possible and whether the result works in real life.
Life-cycle design
A product has a life before, during and after use. Life-cycle design asks where its materials come from, how much energy it needs, how long it lasts and what happens when its first user is finished with it.
Design constraints
Good design is not limitless choice. It works within clear limits such as time, cost, size, safety or available materials.
Affordances and signifiers
A well-designed object gives clues about what people can do with it. Its shape, labels, colour or movement can make the next action obvious without a long explanation.
Accessible and inclusive design
Inclusive design notices barriers that exclude people and removes them where possible. It aims for products and spaces that work for a wide range of bodies, senses, languages and circumstances.
Ethics and unintended consequences in design
Design changes what people can do, notice and choose. Ethical design asks who benefits, who may be harmed, and what effects appear after the product leaves the designer’s hands.
Typography and meaning
How the shape, spacing and arrangement of letters change what a message feels like and how easily it can be read.
Colour relationships
How colours influence one another, create mood and help people notice or understand parts of a design.
Visual identity
How a set of repeated visual choices lets people recognise an organisation, event or product across different places.
Ownership and licensing in design
How copyright, permission and licences affect the images, fonts, sounds and designs that can be used or changed.
Composition and balance
How the arrangement of parts makes a design feel stable, tense or clear.
Information architecture
How to organise content so people can find what they need and understand where they are.
Data visualisation
How visual form can reveal patterns in numbers without pretending the data says more than it does.
Design critique
How to examine a design, explain its effects and give feedback that can lead to a better decision.
In this section
Keep exploring
Other languages
Loading MyLeoNes™…