Product analysis and evaluation practice questions.

A prototype table lamp meets seven of the eight points of its specification but fails the point requiring the base to resist tipping when the lamp is tilted through 15 degrees. What is the appropriate next step in an iterative design process?

• Rewrite the tipping point so that the existing prototype passes it
• Report the design as successful because seven of the eight points are met
• Modify the base and retest the tipping point on the new prototype
• Return to the design brief and start again from a new set of concepts

Answer: Modify the base and retest the tipping point on the new prototype

An evaluation feeds the next iteration: the failed point names the feature to change, and only a retest of that same criterion shows whether the change worked. Relaxing a criterion to fit the prototype removes the reason the specification was written.

A specification point for a torch reads: the casing must survive a 1 m drop onto concrete in at least nine out of ten samples. In testing, three of the ten samples cracked. Which line reports this point correctly in the evaluation?

• Not met: only seven of the ten samples survived the 1 m drop
• Met: the majority of the samples survived the drop onto concrete
• Not met: the drop height should be reduced to 0.5 m and repeated
• Not decided: users must first report how often a torch is dropped

Answer: Not met: only seven of the ten samples survived the 1 m drop

The point states both a target and the sample condition, so the verdict follows arithmetically: seven survivors are below the nine required. A criterion is judged exactly as written, and altering the test or waiting for opinions replaces the evidence instead of reporting it.

Before writing the specification for a new hand-held vacuum cleaner, a team buys the three best-selling rival models and tests each one for run time, noise level, dust pick-up and mass using an identical procedure. What is the main purpose of this comparative analysis?

• To decide which competitor product should be copied
• To confirm that the client's budget is realistic
• To measure how quickly each competitor product wears out in service
• To set benchmark target values for the new specification

Answer: To set benchmark target values for the new specification

Testing rivals under one procedure turns their performance into numbers, and those numbers become the measurable targets the new product must beat. Benchmarking informs the specification; it is not imitation and it says nothing about durability unless the products are run to failure.

A team is writing the evaluation section of a report on a rechargeable garden light. The specification states that the light must give at least four hours of illumination after a winter day of charging. Which statement provides measured evidence that this specification point was not met?

• Users said the light seemed to fade quite early
• The light ran for 2 h 40 min in the January test
• The light looks attractive beside the path at night
• The team felt that four hours was an ambitious target

Answer: The light ran for 2 h 40 min in the January test

A criterion written as a number is only settled by a measurement compared with that number, so the January run time of 2 h 40 min is the single line that carries evidence. Impressions, preferences and the team's own view of the target may prompt a test but cannot report its outcome.

A folding pushchair must be shown to meet the pinch-point and locking clauses of a published safety standard before it can be put on sale. Which evaluation activity provides that evidence?

• A user trial with twenty parents in a park
• A focus group discussion about pushchair safety
• An online questionnaire sent to previous customers
• An expert appraisal against the standard

Answer: An expert appraisal against the standard

Conformity with a written standard is judged clause by clause by a qualified assessor using the test methods the standard prescribes. Trials, focus groups and questionnaires collect preferences and cannot demonstrate compliance.

A prototype parcel scanner is taken to three depots and used by the delivery crews for a fortnight, in the dirt, cold and time pressure of ordinary shifts, rather than being assessed on a bench. What is this form of testing called?

• Bench testing
• Accelerated life testing
• Field testing
• Destructive testing

Answer: Field testing

Field testing places the product in the conditions of real use, so it exposes failures that a controlled laboratory removes. Accelerated life testing compresses years of wear into days but stays in the laboratory, and destructive testing runs a sample deliberately to failure.