MYP Design Explaining Improvements to the Solution Notes

Every Improvement Traces Back to a Result

1. A design improvement is a change you can justify by pointing at a test result or a user comment, not a change you happen to fancy.
2. The shape is always the same: this evidence, therefore this change, and this is why it would fix the problem.
3. Improvements with no evidence read as wishes, so "add Bluetooth" with nothing behind it earns nothing.
4. Your weakest specification verdicts are the first place to look, since every partly met or not met point is an improvement waiting.
5. A point that passed can still produce an improvement if a user found it awkward, because feedback counts as evidence too.

Say Exactly What You Would Change

1. Name the part, the change and the amount, for example thicken the hinge tab from 3 mm to 5 mm plywood.
2. "Make it stronger" fails the test that two different people should carry out your instruction the same way.
3. Say what you would use instead: a different material, a different joint, a longer screw, a tap target of 44 pixels rather than 20.
4. Explain the mechanism, so a thicker tab spreads the load over more glue area and is less likely to snap at the corner.
5. Say how you would check the change worked, which is usually the same test that found the problem.
6. Where a change costs more or takes longer, say so, because the client's budget and deadline are part of the specification.

Product Improvements Change the Thing Itself

1. A product improvement alters materials, dimensions, joints, colours, layout or code.
2. Function fixes come first, since a product that does not do its job cannot be rescued by a nicer finish.
3. Ergonomic changes come from watching people handle it, such as widening a grip from 25 mm to 32 mm after three users held it by the edge.
4. Aesthetic changes still need evidence, so quote the user who said the orange looked like a warning sign.
5. Sustainability changes count as improvements: fewer parts, one material so the whole thing can be recycled, or a nesting layout that leaves smaller offcuts.
6. The same rule holds for digital work, so write "increase body text from 12 px to 16 px because 3 of 5 users leaned in to read it".

Process Improvements Change How You Worked

1. A process improvement is about your working method rather than the product, and it belongs in its own paragraph.
2. Look back at your plan from criterion C and ask which tasks ran over, which were skipped, and where the timeline broke.
3. Testing earlier is the most common honest one, since a fault found at prototype stage costs an afternoon and the same fault found at the end costs the project.
4. Skill gaps go here too, such as spending one lesson practising on the laser cutter before cutting the final 3 mm acrylic.
5. Client contact often needs fixing, because one meeting at the start is rarely enough to keep a specification accurate.
6. Keep the two lists apart, so a reader going through your product improvements does not trip over "I should have started earlier".

Rank Them, Because You Cannot Do Everything

1. Sort improvements by how far they move the solution towards the specification, not by how easy they would be.
2. Mark each as quick, medium or major, so the client can see what a realistic second version would include.
3. Say which one you would do first if you had one more week, and give the reason.
4. Some improvements fight each other, since thicker plywood makes the box stronger and heavier, and you should say which you would accept.
5. Note any change you could not make at school, such as injection moulding, and give the workshop alternative next to it.

Writing It So the Link Is Obvious

1. Keep each improvement short and in the same order every time: evidence, change, reason, retest.
2. Refer to the test or the quotation by its number instead of retelling the whole story.
3. A labelled sketch or an annotated photograph of the proposed change communicates faster than a paragraph does.
4. Written this way, the improvements section reads as the next turn of the design cycle, which is what it is.