Granulation is an important process within many well-developed industries such as pharmaceutical, food and fertilizer production, but also with increasing application outside these 'traditional' fields. This paper examines how granulation could be used to 'improve' the use of a material, by the study of the granulation of zinc oxide powder with a proprietary binder, to produce granules for the ceramics industry. The paper is all example of applied product design, with the aim of producing strong granules with sufficiently low binder content so as to be functional within the ceramic industry. Within the paper, primary materials are initially characterized allowing for all appreciation of the problems. Subsequently a granulation method is chosen and experiments proceed in examination of granule size with different binder contents and mixing times. Thermal treatment experiments are conducted to see the mass lost from the granules with varying drying time durations. Finally, strength tests conclude the project in a final examination of granule properties. The ultimate conclusion from the project is that the strength of the agglomerates produced is a linear function of increasing thermal treatment temperature. Overall the project acted to expose undergraduate students to both product design and particle technology research at a crucial point within their career development.