By the end of this topic, you should be able to...
identify appropriate materials based on cost, availability and sustainability.
Guiding Question
How do material properties and classifications aid material selection for a specified manufacturing process or product?
💡 Did You Know? You've designed the perfect product—lightweight, durable, beautiful—then your manufacturer delivers the news: "That material costs $80 per kilogram, has a six-month lead time, and isn't recyclable." Welcome to reality.
Why Consider Additional Factors?
No matter how well a material performs technically or aesthetically, your design is worthless if it can't be made, afforded, or justified ethically. Cost determines whether your product reaches the mass market or remains a prototype. Availability dictates whether production happens on schedule or stalls for months waiting for supply chains to recover (ask any automotive company about the 2021 semiconductor shortage).
Sustainability increasingly decides whether consumers—and regulators—accept your product at all, as carbon taxes, extended producer responsibility laws, and conscious purchasing reshape the design landscape. These aren't "extra considerations" tacked onto material selection; they're core constraints that separate student projects from products that actually ship.
Real designers don't just ask "Will this work?"—they ask "Can we source it? Can we afford it? Can we defend it?"
Case in Point
IKEA's iconic BILLY bookshelf uses particleboard (wood chips bonded with resin) instead of solid wood—not because it performs better, but because it's 40% cheaper, abundantly available from sustainably managed forests, and reduces waste by using offcuts other manufacturers discard. This material choice, combined with flat-pack design, allowed IKEA to sell over 100 million units while maintaining both profit margins and environmental credibility.
Learning Goals
In this topic, you'll learn how to navigate the trade-offs between ideal and practical, building material selection strategies that balance performance with economic reality and environmental responsibility—the hallmark of professional design thinking.
Linking Questions
Which factors of ergonomics influence the choice of a material? (A1.1)
How can user-centred research methods influence the selection of a material? (A2.1)
To what extent does material selection rely on the desired manufacturing techniques? (A4.1)
How do designers prioritize material selection as part of the design process? (B2.1)
Which aspects of material selection do designers have to consider to take a product beyond usability? (C1.3)
How does the selection of a material influence whether a product can meet the requirements of design for sustainability or design for a circular economy? (C2.1, C2.2)
How does the choice of design for manufacture strategies affect the requirements for material selection? (C4.1)
To what extent are material selection and production systems interlinked? (B3.1, B4.1)