How do I decide Unit; Criterion D: Evaluating

Your challenge is to design detailed and relevant testing methods, which generate data, to measure the success of the solution. 

Critically evaluate the success of the solution against the design specification. 

Explain how the solution could be improved in future 

and explain the impact of the solution on the client/target audience.

Example.

Criterion D: Evaluating

Strand (i) Design detailed and relevant testing methods that generate data to measure the success of the solution.

By the end of year 4 you should be able to

Design a wide range of effective tests to evaluate the solution against the requirements of the design specification (including expert appraisal, user trials, field testing and user observation)

In strand 1 of criterion D the command terms is "design".  In this context design means to produce a plan.  So basically you need to make a plan for how you will evaluate each of your design specifications (from strand 1 of criterion B).  Designers will use a range of testing methods to evaluate different aspects of a product.  The main testing methods used are....

​

User trip/User trial 

Questionnaires

Product Comparison

Analysis of Data

Product Testing

(choose two for this unit)1. Observation.

Example.

Peer.

Design Specifications	1 Very Poor	2 Poor	3 Fair	4 Good	5 Very good	Comments
Animation will have five characters					√
Animation will have black and white background				√
Animation will have six props				√
First scene will be in classroom					√
Second scene will be at the tuck shop				√
Mr. Charles will drop on the ground			√
Students will be talked to after the incident				√
Toatal score	29/35

Client/ Target Audience

Design Specifications	1  Very Poor	2 Poor	3 Fair	4 Good	5 Very Good	Comments
Animation will have five characters					√
Animation will have black and white background				√
Animation will have six props			√
First scene will be in classroom					√
Second scene will be at the tuck shop					√
Mr. Charles will drop on the ground				√
Students will be talked to after the incident				√
Toatal score	30/35

Testing methods 

An effective and authentic measure of a design solution means that you tested against every aspect of the design specification. These tests can be classified as follows:

User observation (Table above)

• The user is presented with the solution and is set a task to achieve with little or no guidance. The user’s interaction with the solution is observed and recorded.

User trials (client / target audience) - Interview.

• The user is presented with the solution and guided on how to use it. The user is asked questions as he or she interacts with the solution or is given a survey to complete. User trials may include focus groups.

• The design of interview or survey questions needs to be targeted to draw out responses that assess the solution against the specification.

Expert appraisal (Expert) - questionnaire
A person considered an expert in the use of similar products is presented with the solution, given time to interact with the solution and then interviewed on aspects of its success. The expert has particular knowledge and skills that allow him or her to make judgments on the success of the solution. The expert may be the client.

Field trial ( client) - Observation

• A field trial is a test of the performance of a solution under the conditions and situation in which it will be used. For example, an interactive information point (developed in HTML) for a museum exhibit may be tested by the exhibit visitors in the museum, structured as a user trial or user observation.

Performance testing

• The performance of a solution is tested under the conditions in which it would normally be used. Quantitative data is collected through a variety of tests such as:

1. destructive tests assessing impact strength or flammability
2. cyclic tests
3. measurement of physical properties such as weight and size
4. timed tests for web pages to load
5. ease of navigation through an interactive story, game or website.

                    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Collecting data:
 Both types of data collected through testing are considered primary sources of data.

Qualitative data deals with quality and is data gathered as descriptions. This data tends to be subjective and can be converted to a numerical value, eg “I like the overall shape of the solution, it fits my hand well, I would give it a 9 out of 10 for comfort” or “The layout of the webpage looks intuitive, it looks easy to navigate and the use of negative space makes it clear. I would rate the clarity of the page as 8 out of 10.”
Tests that can be used to obtain qualitative data include:

• using a questionnaire to find out if the target audience likes the look of a product
• surveying students to find out which parts of a video game they found too easy and which were too difficult
• interviewing an expert after he or she has interacted with a solution
• performing a user trial by giving a toy to children to play with and observing reactions.

Quantitative data deals with quantity and is gathered as definite values, typically a numerical value. This data is objective and can be measured, eg “All information in the database has to be a maximum of 3 clicks away” or “The overall cost of the materials can be no more than €45.”
Tests that can be used to obtain quantitative data include:

• timing users who are tasked with finding a particular piece of information on a website
• measuring a product to ensure it is the correct size and within weight limits
• beta-testing interactive media to find bugs
• running performance tests to determine the strength of a product
• checking the capacity of a storage device
• counting the number of hits on a website over a set period of time.                                                                            

                       

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Strand (ii) Critically evaluate the success of the solution against the design specification

By the end of year 4 you should be able to:

• carry out a wide range of effective tests to generate qualitative and quantitative data
• explain the accuracy of the data gathered throughout testing
• present the analysis of the data in a clear and concise way
• evaluate the success of the solution against the requirements of the design specification
• explain weaknesses and limitations of the solution based on the analysis of data collected throughout objective and subjective testing against the requirements of the design specification

When critically evaluating the success of a solution, you must objectively judge the solution against the specifications. This objective evaluation comes from analysing the data gathered by carrying out the tests designed.

You must analyse this data and make conclusions that identify strengths (4-5) and weaknesses (1-3) of the solution, along with opportunities for further development.

Evaluation of the product against the design specifications for an App:

The first specification was that the application will be named “Basketball Dribble and Shoot” because I am trying to solve my client’s problem in basketball and specifically in dribbling and shooting. The product (app) passed the first specification because the name of the app was the same as intended just that I added a hyphen after the word Basketball to make it sound clearer.

The second specification was that my app will have a logo on the home page of the app and the logo will be a basketball. The product (app) passed the second specification. I chose to have a basketball as the logo on the home page simply because I was making an app regarding basketball as a sport and so, I thought that having a basketball as the logo on the home page will be good. Also, I downloaded a good quality (HD) image of the basketball so that it looks clear and not blurry. 

The third specification was that all the information on each of the pages of the app will be in Arial but different sizes of the font due to the headings and sub-headings. The product (app) passed the third specification because as intended, all the information on the application is in font style Arial but the headings are in capital and in different sizes.

The fourth specification was that my app will have 4 pages in total; the home page, a page titled “dribbling”, a page titled “shooting” and the about page. The product (app) passed the fourth specification because my application has 4 pages in total and each of the pages are named as intended. Also, the names of the 4 pages of the app appear at the bottom of every page and the user can go to any of the 4 pages when the user clicks on the icon at the bottom. 

The fifth specification was that my client (the user) will be able to use the app on the Appy Pie market place without downloading it. The product (app) passed the fifth specification because the app can be used online on the Appy Pie Market place without downloading the app. Also, the app can be downloaded easily and the app is compatible with Apple as well as Android. I chose to make my app to be compatible with Apple and Android because my client (Carlos D’Sa) has an iPhone and he also has an Android phone. 

The sixth specification was that in my app, there will be detailed explanations on the two main pages (dribbling page and shooting page) so that the client understands how to perform the respective moves. The product (app) passed the sixth specification as the two main pages that are the dribbling and shooting page are the pages that have most of the information. The information on these 2 pages is detailed so that the client (user) understands how to perform the move. Also, the information is not too complex so that the client can easily read, understand and interpret the information. 

The seventh specification was that my app will have videos that will help explain how to dribble and shoot on their respective pages. Unfortunately, my app didn’t have any videos showing how to dribble or shoot on their respective pages but however, the information in my app is derived from professional basketball coaches and also, the information in my app is extracted from some of the videos that I watched myself while I was going through the journey of creating the app.

The eighth specification was regarding the color. The specification was that the home page of my app will have a light blue background, the dribbling page of my app will have a red background, the shooting page of my app will have a light green background and the about page of my app will have an orange background. Although, the app builder software (Appy Pie) didn’t allow me to have a different background image for every page and instead, the software (Appy Pie) only allowed me to have 1 permanent background image for all the pages on the app. Therefore, I chose a background image that had all the four colors that the client asked for (blue, red, orange and green) and set it as the background image for all the pages on the app. 

Test against design specificationsSample

Specifications	Yes/No	How is it met?
Must have at least 3 sections for putting different types of writing utensils	5/5	There are three sections for putting different types of writing utensils: one big section and two small sections
Must have enough space for storing at least 20 pencils	5/5	One of the small sections of my product can store 40 pencils
Must have 1 drawer for storing erasers that can store at least 3 small erasers	5/5	My drawer can stored 4 erasers
The design theme must be aesthetically pleasing to a female teenager around 14 to 16 years old. The color theme will be plain solid color	3/5	According to the survey results, 6 people said the design is excellent and 5 said it is good. Some say that the product is too plain
The depth of each section must be at least 11 cm drop	5/5	The long section is 11cm deep and the small ones are 14cm deep
Must be made out of wood	5/5	The product is made of plywood
Must be joined well using glues and screws/nails	5/5	The product is joined using latex glue and nails (from nail gun)
Must be completed within the time given (the create part)	5/5	The product is completed within the given time below

                                      Recording the results of tests against the design specifications example

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Strand (iii). Explain how the solution could be improved

By the end of year 4 students should be able to:

Explain, in detail, how the identified weaknesses and limitations of the solution could be improved in the product.

How can students identify how the solution could be improved?Through the objective evaluation of your solution, you should have identified weaknesses in your solutions. These weaknesses provide opportunities for further development and allow you to consider how you would refine your solution further.

Students can suggest these improvements in many forms, including:

• written text—paragraphs or tables
• diagrams and charts
• annotated photographs/screenshots of the prototype
• sketches

Strengths	Weakeness	Improvements
Tastes of the dishes The taste of both the dishes were excellent according to all of my target audiences. The pasta had a creamy flavour with juicy mushrooms, mock chicken which adds to the texture and soft spinach which balances out the dish. The salad had a wide range of vegetables which when eaten provide a crunchy experience for our tasters, but when combined with the sour of the lemon and thickness of the feta cheese, it tastes very sublime. Nutrients in the dishesThe nutrients in the dish ranged from protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals to dairy products. Even though the dish was for a vegetarian, it provided a sufficient amount of nutrition which is what an athlete needs in order to perform. Organization and Time-managementWe organized the cooking fairly and equally so that we could be efficient when cooking the dishes as well as have time to clean up as we go. This really benefitted us at the end because we finished just on time, even though we encountered a few problems during the end. When we faced any problems, we immediately fixed them and got on with the cooking to save time and also finish on time.	Appearance and texture of the pasta dish The appearance and texture of the pasta was not that great as we would have liked it to be. The design clearly wanted our pasta to be surrounding the sauce, but a minor mistake made us change the appearance so I am disappointed. The texture, consequently, was also ruined due to our poor quality sauce which was too thick. We were hoping to fix that mistake from the first time, but unfortunately, it did not work out the second time either. Cooking errors We did not identify some things correctly such as when the water was actually boiling because we accidentally put the pasta in non-boiling water so we need to be more focussed to fix that.	If I had a chance to redo this dish, I would definitely have done this twice and used the first time as a learning experience to fix all my mistakes and not repeat them again such as the thickness of the pasta cream sauce. I will also try and practice basic skills such as boiling at home beforehand so I can perform it correctly in school. I think I just need to cook more to get more experience with these sort of things which will lead to a perfect dish. Since pasta is eaten quite often, maybe next I would try and create my own dish that will excite my target audience a bit and give them something different to what they usually have.

              Write in a detailed paragraph or detailed table                                                        

Strand (iv) Explain the impact of the solution on the client/target audience

By the end of year 4 students should be able to:

explain the impact of the solution on the client or target audience

To identify or predict the impact that a solution will have on a client or target audience, you must refer to the original problem, the design brief, the specification and the evaluation. You should use these aspects to draw conclusions about how well the design brief has been met. These conclusions may be presented in written form, as a list or as a table.The following questions may help you to explain the impact of the solution on the client or target audience.

• To what extent has the client’s or target audience’s problem been solved?
• How does this solution improve the client’s or target audience’s situation?
• To what extent has the design brief been met?
• Are there any negative effects this solution could have?

How do I decide Unit; Criterion C: Creating Solution

How do I decide Unit; Criterion C: Creating Solution

Follow the checklist below as you work on the creation of your solution

• The Plan:
• I have constructed a logical plan (a step-by-step procedure) for the creation of the solution.  (sufficient for peers to be able to follow)
• I have stated the resources that will be needed.
• I have completed a timeline / Gantt chart
• The Creation Process:
  • I have demonstrated excellent technical skills when making the solution.
  • I have fully justified changes made to the chosen design and plan when making the solution.
• Process Journal: 

                        I have maintained a process journal through the entire creation process.

• I have explained the tools and techniques used in the process of creation.
• I have included evidence in the creation phase that I have followed my time plan.
• I have reflected any changes I made to my plan during the creation phase.
• I have included screen shots and other photographic evidences of the key phases of creation.
• I have kept notes in my process journal about how well I worked, problems encountered, and use of time - to be used in the evaluation.
• The Final Project: I have presented the solution as a whole, either in electronic form, or through photographs of the solution from different angles, showing details.
• Evaluate: I have evaluated and reflected on my performance in the this stage.
• Challenges and successes
• Areas of concerns
• The strengths and weaknesses.
• Observations on how this stage could have been improved.
• General reflections 

Requirements for each strand 

(i) Construct a logical plan that describes the efficient use of time and 

resources, sufficient for peers to be able to follow to create the solution. 

pages 1- 2

By the end of year 4 you should be able to:

• construct a series of logical steps to create the solution, using charts, diagrams and text that include aspects of quality control and quality assurance
• construct a plan to create the solution that makes effective use of resources and time
• construct a clear and concise plan that peers will be able to follow to create the solution

(ii) Demonstrate excellent technical skill when making the solution

At the end of year 4 you should be able to:

• develop manipulative skills to effectively use a wide range of tools, techniques and equipment
• use a wide range of tools and equipment proficiently to create high-quality solutions
• ensure a safe working environment for themselves and others

(iii) Follow the plan to create the solution, which functions as intended

By the end of year 4 you should be able to:

• independently follow the plan to produce the solution, which functions as intended
• manage time effectively to produce the solution to the deadline stated in the plan

 ( strand 2 and 3. At-least 6 Pages)

(iv) Fully justify changes made to the chosen design and plan when making the solution

By the end of year 4 you should be able to: Pages 2 or 3 pages

• justify, through the use of drawings/diagrams, any changes made to the design while making the solution and how they affected the plan

Criterion B: Developing Ideas

Criterion B: Developing Ideas

At the end of year 5, students should be able to:

i. develop design specifications, which clearly states the success criteria for the design of a solution

ii. develop a range of feasible design ideas, which can be correctly interpreted by others

iii. present the chosen design and justify its selection

iv. develop accurate and detailed planning drawings/diagrams and outline the requirements for the creation of the chosen solution.


Strand i)

i)   develop design specifications, which clearly states the success criteria for the design of a solution

-      The design specs should be measurable with a clear way on how the specs will be tested.

-      The specification should be directly connected to your design brief. 

Example: Game Product

Specification	Test
Game will be less than 1 MB in size	Install it in a computer  the size in properties
Played by two players (Multiplayer game)	Allow two players to play simultaneously
The game 3 levels that will advance in complexity.	Play the game at each level time the duration it takes to complete a level and record the complexities.

Maximum of 2 pages

Strand ii) 

ii) develop a range of feasible design ideas, which can be correctly interpreted by others

- Develop a range of good quality designs and measure each of them against the design specs.

- Your description for each design should be detailed and clear and use captions on images or diagrams which are not clear.

- Annotate  the designs with sufficient detail to explain how they meet the requirements of the design specification and to explain design thinking

Sketches
https://sketchboard.io/

https://sketch.io/sketchpad/

Examples of Designs

Maximum of  7 pages

Strand iii)

iii.           present the chosen design and justify its selection

         -      State the chosen design.

         -      Provide detailed justification why the design was chosen.

         -      Suggest possible improvements to the chosen design. 

         -      If possible show the chosen design with the improvements included as a final design.

Maximum of  2 pages 

Strand iv)
iv.           develop accurate and detailed planning drawings/diagrams and outline the requirements for the creation of the chosen solution.
          
          The above can be achieved using either of the following tools
           a) Table of requirements.
b)  Flowchart
c)  Site Map

 This should not be confused with the designs developed and justified. This is the process detailing the requirement for the creation of the chosen solution.  

Site Map

Flowchart Sketching software
https://www.digikey.com/schemeit/project/

Site Map Builders
https://www.gloomaps.com/

Maximum of 4 pages

Resouce blog

http://robc84.wixsite.com/bisdesign/copy-of-crit-b-4

How to Sort Data in Excel Spreadsheets (The Right Way)

So, you get handed an Excel spreadsheet with thousands of rows inside of it, and you realize the data is all out of order. You might need to sort it based on the names inside of a column, or by sorting data from large to small.

On the surface, sorting data is a simple task in Excel, and the app certainly makes simple sorting easy. However, there's much more power in how you can sort and reorder the data in your worksheets. Here are three Excel data sorting techniques you'll learn in this tutorial:

1. Sort data simply with just a couple of clicks.

A Simple Sort in Excel

Sorting can be a very simple, two-click process to reorganize the data in your spreadsheet. Let's learn how.

In an Excel workbook, start off by clicking in a cell of the column you want to sort. Now, make sure that you're on the Home tab of Excel's ribbon, and find the Sort and Filter button on the far right side of it.

The Sort & Filter button lives on the far right side of the Home tab on the ribbon.

Notice that in the sort options, you can sort text "A to Z", or "Z to A." These simple options will alphabetically sort the Excel data either direction, depending on the option you choose.

When you are sorting data in Excel, the entire row is being sorted. Essentially, the column you select will be the "key" that Excel uses that to decide how to sort the data, but each row is a record that should stay grouped together.

Depending on the data you've selected, you can sort alphabetically or numerically. If your column has numerical values, you can sort from smallest to largest amounts, while text data will sort based on alphabetical order.

In the example above, the sort options have changed because I've selected a column with numbers.

It really is this easy to perform a basic sort. Simply click inside of a column of data, choose a sort option, and Excel will reorder the data inside a spreadsheet.

Advanced Excel Data Sorting

So far, a simple sort has allowed us to sort for a single type of data. What if we want to consider two types of data in our sorting?

What if we wanted to...

• Sort alphabetically by the state, and then by the county in a spreadsheet.
• Sort alphabetically by the name of a client, and then by each type of project we did for them.
• Sort our clients in a list alphabetically, and then by amount for each individual project, from largest to smallest.

The answer to all of these is an advanced sort, where you can set multiple levels of sorting data. Let's walk through that last example using the sample data.

To get started, click somewhere inside of your data and find the Sort & Filter option, and then choose Custom Sort.

Access advanced sorting options by choosing Sort & Filter > Custom Sort.

On this window, we can add multiple levels of sorting. Start off by clicking on the dropdown option next to Sort by and choose a column that you want to sort by.

In my case, I'll choose Client from the dropdown menu, and leave the the Sort On set to Values, and Order set to A to Z. In plain English, this will sort the Excel spreadsheet based on alphabetical order.

Now, let's click on Add Level. This will create a new row in the sort options and allows us to add a second level of organization.

I can now choose Amount billed from the second dropdown. The combination of these two rules will start by sorting based on the client name, and then by the amount billed on each project.

You could continue to add as many levels as you want to this advanced sorting window. The sequence of the rows matters; you can move a row up to sort first by the amount billed, for example, and then by client.

Once we press OK, Excel will sort the spreadsheet based upon the rules we've built in this window.

Using functions and nested functions in Excel formulas

Functions are predefined formulas that perform calculations by using specific values, called arguments, in a particular order, or structure. Functions can be used to perform simple or complex calculations. You can find all of Excel's functions on the Formulas tab on the Ribbon:

IF FUNCTION IN EXCEL.

The IF function is one of the most popular and useful functions in Excel. You use an IF statement to ask Excel to test a condition and to return one value if the condition is met, and another value if the condition is not met.

The IF function is one of Excel's logical functions that evaluates a certain condition and returns the value you specify if the condition is TRUE, and another value if the condition is FALSE.

The syntax for Excel IF is as follows:

IF(logical_test, [value_if_true], [value_if_false])

As you see, the IF function has 3 arguments, but only the first one is obligatory, the other two are optional.

• logical_test - a value or logical expression that can be either TRUE or FALSE. Required.In this argument, you can specify a text value, date, number, or any comparison operator.
  For example, your logical test can be expressed as or B1="sold", B1<12/1/2014, B1=10 or B1>10.
• value_if_true - the value to return when the logical test evaluates to TRUE, i.e. if the condition is met. Optional.
  For example, the following formula will return the text "Good" if a value in cell B1 is greater than 10: =IF(B1>10, "Good")
• value_if_false - the value to be returned if the logical test evaluates to FALSE, i.e. if the condition is not met. 

Using the IF function in Excel - formula examples

Now that you are familiar with the Excel IF function's syntax, let's look at some formula examples and learn how to use IF as a worksheet function in Excel.

Excel IF statement for numbers: greater than, less than, equal to

The use of the IF function with numeric values is based on using different comparison operators to express your conditions. You will find the full list of logical operators illustrated with formula examples in the table below.

Condition	Operator	Formula Example	Description
Greater than	>	=IF(A2>5, "OK",)	If the number in cell A2 is greater than 5, the formula returns "OK"; otherwise 0 is returned.
Less than	<	=IF(A2<5, "OK", "")	If the number in cell A2 is less than 5, the formula returns "OK"; an empty string otherwise.
Equal to	=	=IF(A2=5, "OK", "Wrong number")	If the number in cell A2 is equal to 5, the formula returns "OK"; otherwise the function displays "Wrong number".
Not equal to	<>	=IF(A2<>5, "Wrong number", "OK")	If the number in cell A2 is not equal to 5, the formula returns "Wrong number "; otherwise - "OK".
Greater than or equal to	>=	=IF(A2>=5, "OK", "Poor")	If the number in cell A2 is greater than or equal to 5, the formula returns "OK"; otherwise - "Poor".
Less than or equal to	<=	=IF(A2<=5, "OK", "")	If the number in cell A2 is less than or equal to 5, the formula returns "OK"; an empty string otherwise.

Excel IF function examples for text values

Generally, you write an Excel if statement with text using either "equal to" or "not equal to" operator, as demonstrated in a couple of IF examples that follow.

Example 1. Case-insensitive IF formula for text values

Like the overwhelming majority of Excel functions, IF is case-insensitive by default. What it means for you is that logical tests for text values do not recognize case in usual IF formulas.

For example, the following IF formula returns either "Yes" or "No" based on the "Delivery Status" (column C):

=IF(C2="delivered", "No", "Yes")

Translated into the plain English, the formula tells Excel to return "No" if a cell in column C contains the word "Delivered", otherwise return "Yes". At that, it does not really matter how you type the word "Delivered" in the logical_test argument - "delivered", "Delivered", or "DELIVERED". Nor does it matter whether the word "Delivered" is in lowercase or uppercase in the source table, as illustrated in the screenshot below.

READ MORE ON IF FUNCTION CLICK HERE

CELL RANGE, CELL REFERENCING (RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE CELL REFERENCING)

CELL RANGE, CELL REFERENCING (RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE CELL REFERENCING)

Cell Range

While references often refer to individual cells – such as A1, they can also refer to a group or RANGE of cells.

Ranges are identified by the cell references of the cells in the upper left and lower right corners of the range.

The two cell references used for a range are separated by a colon ( : ) which tells Excel or Google Sheets to include all the cells between these start and end points

e.g =sum( D3:D10)

Relative, Absolute, and Mixed Cell References

The three types of references that can be used in Excel and Google Sheets are easily identified by the presence or absence of dollar signs ($) within the cell reference:

• Relative cell references Used to copy formulas into other cells and contain no dollar signs, as shown in the formula in row 2, = A2+A4.
• This means the formulas will follow similar operation while being used. Such operations can cause errors in the calculations.
• Absolute cell references  used to copy formulas into other cells without causing errors and changes. They use dollar signs to each letter or number in a reference, as shown in the formula in row 4, =$A$2+$A$4.
• Mixed cell references have dollar signs attached to either the letter or the number in a reference but not both, as shown in the formula in row 5, =$A2+A$4.
• SEE THIS LINK

Copying Formulas and Different Cell References

Another advantage of using cell references in formulas is that they make it easier to copy formulas from one location to another in a worksheet or workbook.