MYP Design Evaluating Ideas Against the Specification Notes

The Matrix Turns Preference Into Evidence

1. An evaluation matrix is a table with your specification points down the side and your design ideas across the top.
2. Each cell holds a score for how well that idea meets that point, and the columns add up to a total for each idea.
3. The grid does something a paragraph cannot, which is force every idea to be judged on every point instead of only where it shines.
4. It also leaves a trace, so a reader can follow your reasoning rather than take your word for the winner.

Why A Written Comparison Alone Is Not Enough

1. Prose lets you quietly skip the point your favourite idea fails.
2. A grid has a visible empty cell if you skip it, which is exactly the pressure you want.
3. The strongest folders do both, using the grid for the comparison and two or three sentences underneath to explain the scores that surprised you.

Building The Grid: Points Down, Ideas Across

1. List every specification point as a row, keeping the numbers you gave them when you wrote the specification.
2. Give each idea its own column, headed with the name you used on the idea page rather than a number.
3. Pick one scale and use it everywhere, and 1 to 5 works well with 1 meaning fails completely and 5 meaning fully meets.
4. Write the scale meanings under the table so a reader knows what a 3 actually represents.
5. For pass or fail points such as a safety rule, use a tick or a cross, since half meeting a choking hazard rule means nothing.
6. Fill the grid row by row across all the ideas, because judging one point on three ideas at once is far more consistent than scoring a whole idea in one go.

Honest Scoring Means Your Favourite Loses Rows

1. If one idea scores 5 on every row, you have scored your preference rather than the ideas.
2. Every real design gives something up, so a matrix with no low scores anywhere is a matrix nobody believes.
3. Justify every 1 and every 5 with a short reason, such as "5 because the mass estimate came to 610 g against a 800 g limit".
4. Score against the target in the specification, not against the other ideas, so a point met by all three gets a 5 in all three columns.
5. Where you genuinely do not know, write untested rather than guessing a 3, then say how you will find out.
6. Ask your client or a classmate to score two rows on their own, then compare their numbers with yours.

Weighting Says Which Points Matter Most

1. Specification points are not equally important, since a safety rule outranks a colour preference.
2. Weighting gives each point a multiplier, commonly 1 for nice to have, 2 for important and 3 for essential.
3. Multiply the score by the weight in every cell, then total the weighted column underneath the plain one.
4. Agree the weights with your client before you score anything, and record that conversation with a date.
5. Weighting can flip the winner, which is why you keep the unweighted totals visible as well.

Read The Rows, Not Just The Totals

1. The total picks a winner, but the individual rows tell you what to fix next.
2. A row where every idea scores 2 usually means the specification point is unrealistic rather than that all your ideas are bad.
3. A row where one idea scores 5 and the rest score 1 points at a feature worth transplanting into the winner.
4. Two totals within a point or two of each other mean the matrix has decided nothing, so add a row or run a test before choosing.
5. Note the strongest feature of each losing idea, because those are the first things you borrow when you develop the chosen design.

What The Matrix Is Evidence Of

1. It is evidence that your choice came from your research, since every row traces to a specification point which traces to a finding.
2. It is evidence of honesty, because low scores against your own ideas show judgement instead of salesmanship.
3. It is evidence of a genuine range, because three columns that score very differently prove the ideas were really different.
4. Present it on one page with both totals visible and the scale explained underneath.
5. Then write the justification, which is where those numbers turn into a decision.