The big idea: A designer answers to three groups. Almost every decision reaches all three at once, and they rarely point the same way.
Who the designer answers to
- The client who is paying
- The community that lives with the product
- The environment that supplies and absorbs it
One decision traced to all three, three times — a negative case, a positive one, and one that is better per unit and worse across a year.
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| Decision | Community impact | Environmental impact |
|---|---|---|
| Headphone earcup welded shut instead of screwed | A £2 cable fault scraps a £180 product, and no repair shop can open it | Magnets, copper and a battery discarded for one wire |
| Kettle handle widened and angled for two-handed pouring | Users with weak grip can make a hot drink unaided | Fewer scalds, and fewer replacements from dropped kettles |
| Drinks bottle wall thinned by 18% | It crushes in a bag, so more are bought as replacements | Less material per bottle, more material overall |
| Dropped kerbs added at every crossing | Wheelchairs, prams, suitcases and trolleys all cross easily | Neutral — but it lasts decades and serves everybody |
Judge over the LIFE, not at the factory gate: The thinner bottle is an improvement per unit and a loss across a year.
An impact is assessed over the whole life of the product and across the population that uses it. Any other comparison can be made to say whatever you want.
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Responsibility is not a feeling; it is a set of questions asked before a decision is fixed. Asked afterwards, they are an apology.
Four questions to ask before a decision is fixed
Who else lives with this?
The repairer, the user with less strength, the cleaner, the person sorting it at end of life. None of them is in the room.
For how long?
A week, a warranty, or the thirty years the material lasts in the ground. The timescale changes the answer completely.
What would change it?
Four screws instead of a weld. Three millimetres more handle. A slightly thicker wall. Most improvements are small and cheap at this stage.
Can I say why?
A decision you can defend is a responsible one. A decision you never noticed making is the one that causes the damage.
The client conflict is the interesting one: A client wants it cheaper and thinner; the community wants it repairable; the environment wants it to last.
A good answer does not pretend these agree. It names the conflict, states what was chosen, and gives the reason — which is exactly what evaluate and justify ask for.
How this is tested — outlining how design decisions have had significant positive or negative impacts. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 — multiple choice
- Identify which group a stated impact falls on.
- Pick the decision responsible for a described outcome.
Paper 2 — analysing a product
- Outline the impacts of a named product's design decisions.
- Evaluate a decision against the client, community and environment.
The trap: Writing that designers "should be responsible". The marks are for a specific DECISION and the specific consequence somebody else lives with.
Headphones are assembled by ultrasonically welding the earcups shut rather than using screws. Outline the impacts of this decision on the client, the community and the environment.
Model answer plan
See the answer broken into clear points, with guidance on how each point earns marks.