Characteristics of technological outcomes

Key ideas

Realisation

A technological outcome a fully realised product or system someone has created for a particular purpose using technological practice. Once it has been set in place, no further design input is required for it to function.

“Fully realised” means the outcome has moved beyond concept, plan, or model. It now exists and functions as designed in the made world, and it is fit for purpose in every respect, including aesthetic.

This definition enables technological outcomes to be distinguished from natural objects (such as trees and rocks) and from other outcomes of human activity (such as art works, language, knowledge, social structures, and organisational systems).

Products versus systems

Technological outcomes can be categorised as products and systems. Distinguishing between the two is not always straightforward. Often the distinction depends on how you look at the outcome concerned.

For example, you could describe a cell phone as a technological system, comprising interconnected components that work together to achieve a purpose. However, you could also describe the same phone as a technological product, focusing on the materials used in its manufacture and not on the many interconnected components inside it.

Socio-technological environments

A key feature of technological products and systems is that they are intimately connected to other entities (natural objects, people) and systems (political, social, cultural).

When technological outcomes combine with the natural and social world, the result is described as a socio-technological environment. 

Socio-technological environments include communication networks, hospitals, transport systems, waste disposal, recreational parks, factories, and power plants. For example, the cellular network comprises a range of technological products and systems (cell phones, towers, data-logging computers, transmitting circuits, receiver circuits) alongside non-technological systems (legal, political, financial, energy) and entities (people, geographical features).

One outcome, two natures

All technological outcomes have a physical and functional nature.

An outcome’s physical nature is what it is made of and looks like. Its functional nature is what it can do. Understanding the relationship between the two is a good starting point for understanding a technological outcome as a whole.

Technologists recognise that, whatever the technological outcome they are seeking to develop, a number of different physical natures may be possible.

To help you understand the concept of various physical natures, consider the example of making a drinking vessel. If the aim is to design an outcome that will function as a drinking vessel, technologists might explore a range of shapes and materials.

Technologists will determine the vessel’s physical nature by making a series of decisions designed to provide the most fit-for-purpose outcome.

They will consider:

• if the drinking vessel be held or sit on a table
• the needs of the target users
• the contexts of us
• the materials and manufacturing options available.

However, if the aim is to design a technological outcome that uses particular materials or components, technologists might explore their performance possibilities to identify possible functions.

Thus, requirements for the functional nature of a technological outcome will always limit options for the physical nature, and vice versa.

Understanding the relationship between the two natures of a proposed technological outcome is a useful tool. Such knowledge allows technologists to make fit-for-purpose decisions.

and when analysing existing outcomes and the influences on their development (for example, available knowledge, skills, equipment and materials).

Exploration of the physical and functional natures of a proposed technological outcome can suggest possible long-term implications and future adaptations or innovations. In the case of an existing technological outcome whose purpose is unknown, its physical nature may provide clues to its function.

Design elements

Design elements provide another useful tool for analysing and interpreting an existing technological outcome.

Elements that relate to the outcome's physical nature (its form) include colour, movement, pattern and rhythm, proportion, balance, harmony, contrast, and style.

Elements that relate to the outcome's functional nature include such strength, durability, safety and stability, efficiency, reliability, nutritional value, user-friendliness, and ergonomic fit relate to the outcome’s functional nature.

By looking at these elements as a whole, the technologist can see how physical and functional elements have been used to reach a fit-for-purpose outcome.

The priority of design elements vary depending on the intent of the designer, their knowledge of materials, their professional and personal beliefs, and the sociocultural context.

Intended and alternative functions

Technological outcomes can also be described in terms of intended and alternative functions.

An outcome’s intended or proper function is the use for which it was designed, its socially accepted, normal use. This is the use that drove its development, gave it its physical and functional natures, and allowed it to be evaluated as fit for purpose.

Alternative functions evolve when people find that an outcome can be successfully used in a way or ways that the technologist did not intend. People not only find new uses for technological outcomes but also modify the physical natures of these.

People may also pressure the technologist to redesign the original outcome so that it performs better than the alternative function. When an alternative function becomes accepted as normal, it takes over the proper function label.

This process demonstrates one way in which end users, technological outcomes, and technologists interact.

Malfunction

The term malfunction describes a technological outcome that fails to fulfil its intended function.

Malfunction is single-event failure. It is different from a gradual loss of function over time due to general wear and tear.

In addition, malfunction differs from “designed failure”, where a product or system component is deliberately engineered to stop working after so many uses. Market forces, maintaining employment, material developments, changing fashions, social norms, and public opinion influence the ethics of this practice.

Examples of malfunction tells us reasons for the gradual loss of functioning.

• Wear and tear.
• Designed failure.
• The complexity of the interface between:
  • design
  • materials
  • end users 
  • instructions
  • operational parameters
  • environments.

Operational parameters are the boundaries and conditions within which an outcome is designed to function (see Technological systems).