MYP Design Presenting the Finished Solution Notes

Presenting Is the Last Step of Making

1. The final strand of criterion C asks you to present the solution as a whole, so a build is not finished until it has been shown properly.
2. In your ePortfolio, the solution exists as photographs, a video or a link, because nobody reading it will ever hold the object.
3. Most MYP solutions are a prototype, a working version made to be tested, and saying so sets fair expectations for anyone judging it.
4. Show the thing you actually made, with its real finish and its real tool marks, rather than the CAD render of what you hoped to make.
5. Presenting comes before evaluating, since Evaluating judges a solution the reader can already see clearly.

Six Shots Cover Almost Any Product

1. A full view on a plain background with the whole object in frame and no bench clutter behind it.
2. A scale shot with a 30 cm ruler or a hand beside the piece, so nobody has to guess the size.
3. Two or three detail shots of the parts that took the most skill, like the finger joints or the chamfer on the front edge.
4. A shot from a second angle, because a single straight-on view flattens depth and hides the back.
5. An in-use shot with the solution doing its job, such as the phone sitting in the dock with the charging cable through the slot.
6. Any moving part photographed in both positions, so a lid appears open in one image and closed in the next.

Make the Images Carry Size and Material

1. Size only reads when something familiar shares the frame, so a ruler, a hand or a mug does the whole job.
2. Give each image a caption with the real dimensions and material, for example "260 x 180 x 90 mm, 12 mm birch plywood, oiled".
3. Crop in tight on the surface for one shot, because grain, weave or print quality disappear in a full view.
4. Leave the filters alone, since a recoloured photograph misrepresents the finish you spent three lessons getting right.
5. Use the same background and light for the whole set, which makes six images read as one solution instead of six objects.

Digital Solutions Are Demonstrated, Not Photographed

1. A screen recording shows a digital product doing what it does, which no still image can manage.
2. Record at the size a real user would see, so an app goes in a phone frame and a site in a window around 1280 px wide.
3. Move the cursor slowly and rest on each screen for about two seconds, because fast clicking is impossible to follow.
4. Caption or narrate what is happening and name the specification point each feature meets as you show it.
5. Keep the demonstration under two minutes by showing one whole task from start to finish rather than every screen you built.
6. Add stills of the main screens as well, so the evidence survives if the video will not play on someone else's machine.

Show the Client Using It

1. The strongest presentation shows the client using the solution for the purpose named in your design brief.
2. Shoot it in the real setting, such as the tool rack mounted on the wall of the workshop it was made for.
3. Capture the moment the client performs the task, not the client standing still holding the object.
4. Ask permission before you photograph or film anyone and check they are happy for it to appear in your ePortfolio.
5. Write down one line of what the client said while using it, which feeds straight into your evaluation.
6. A clip of the client fumbling with one part is honest evidence and usually more useful than a perfectly smooth demonstration.

How a Good Build Gets Presented Badly

1. Photographs taken on a workshop bench with tools and offcuts in frame make a finished piece look half done.
2. One angle only leaves a reader unable to judge proportion, depth or how the parts join.
3. With no scale in any image, a 60 mm keyring and a 600 mm shelf look identical on screen.
4. A silent video with no captions leaves the viewer unsure what they are supposed to be watching.
5. Photographing only the good side reads as hiding something, and honest images give you more to work with when you evaluate.