IB MYP Design ePortfolio: A Preparation Checklist for Every Design Cycle Stage

The full syllabus guide explains that the ePortfolio is assessed as a complete design folder, and that documenting the process – not just presenting a finished prototype – is where most of the marks actually sit. These notes turn that principle into a practical, stage-by-stage preparation checklist, alongside the subject overview and assessment revision notes already on the site.

Why preparation for this subject is about documentation habits, not last-minute revision

Because MYP Design has no written on-screen examination, “exam preparation” here means building documentation habits throughout every project across the course, not cramming content in the weeks before an assessment. A student who documents thoroughly as they work needs comparatively little last-minute preparation; a student who has only kept a finished prototype and thin notes cannot reconstruct strong criterion A-B evidence retroactively, since criteria A and B are specifically about the inquiry and specification process that led to the solution, not the solution itself.

Stage 1: Inquiring and analysing (Criterion A) – what to capture as you go

• A clear statement of the design problem, written in your own words, not copied from a brief.
• Evidence of research into the problem – notes, sources, or data that informed your understanding, not just a research topic named without evidence of what you found.
• A design brief you have written yourself, summarising what a successful solution needs to achieve.

Stage 2: Developing ideas (Criterion B) – what to capture as you go

• A written specification with clear, testable success criteria (not vague aspirations like “looks good,” but specific, checkable requirements).
• More than one considered design idea, with visible reasoning for why you selected your final direction over the alternatives – a single idea presented as though it were the only option considered under-evidences this criterion.
• Planning documentation (materials, steps, timeline) sufficient for someone else to understand how you intended to build your solution.

Stage 3: Creating the solution (Criterion C) – what to capture as you go

• Evidence that you followed your plan – and, honestly, evidence of where you deviated from it and why, since real design work rarely goes exactly to plan and documenting adjustments is itself part of the process being assessed.
• Progress photos or records at meaningful stages of construction, not only a single photo of the finished prototype.
• A record of any problems encountered during creation and how you addressed them.

Stage 4: Evaluating (Criterion D) – what to capture as you go

• A designed test plan, created before or during testing, that states what you are checking against your specification’s success criteria.
• Real test results, including results that show the solution falling short in some way – an objective evaluation that only reports success is not evaluating, and criterion D specifically rewards honest identification of limitations.
• A clear statement of the solution’s impact on its intended client or target audience, connected back to the original design problem from Stage 1.

The single most common ePortfolio mistake

Submitting a polished final product supported by thin process documentation. Because the ePortfolio is assessed as a complete folder across all four criteria, a rougher prototype backed by genuinely thorough inquiry, specification, creation-process and evaluation documentation typically scores higher than a beautiful finished product with weak evidence for how it was reached. Build the habit of documenting as an ongoing project journal, not a retrospective report written after the product is already finished.

How to approach it

Treat every project across the course as ePortfolio practice, not just the final one submitted for moderation – the documentation habits (photographing work in progress, recording honest test results, justifying design choices in writing) need to already be automatic by the time your assessed project begins. Since ePortfolios are marked by your own classroom teacher and then externally moderated by the IB from a school sample, ask your teacher for feedback on your documentation habits during earlier, lower-stakes projects, not only on your final assessed one.

Self-test

1. Why can’t strong criterion A/B evidence be reconstructed after a project is finished?
2. What is the difference between presenting one design idea and evidencing criterion B properly?
3. Why should you document problems and deviations during Stage 3, rather than only presenting a finished result?
4. Why does an evaluation that only reports success under-perform against criterion D?
5. What is the single most common mistake described above, and why does it lower a mark despite a good final product?

Answers: 1. Because criteria A and B are specifically about the inquiry, research and specification process that led to the solution, which can only be evidenced by documentation created during that process, not recreated afterward from memory. 2. Criterion B requires more than one considered idea with visible reasoning for why the final direction was selected over alternatives, not just one idea presented as the only option. 3. Because real design work rarely goes exactly to plan, and documenting adjustments and how problems were addressed is itself part of the creating-the-solution process being assessed. 4. Because criterion D specifically rewards honest, objective evaluation including limitations, not just a report that the solution worked. 5. Submitting a polished final product with thin process documentation; it lowers the mark because criteria A-C are assessed on documented process, not the finished product’s quality alone, so strong final work with weak documentation genuinely under-evidences three-quarters of the assessment.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Design, from 2014, (c) 2015 – the same source already cited by the full syllabus guide, which first described the design cycle’s four stages and the ePortfolio format.