Research your portfolio audience
Use your existing work to explain the need, fill research gaps and write a focused brief.
For this lesson
Use your existing work to explain the need, fill research gaps and write a focused brief.
Finish the current lesson first. During the holiday, spend about 30 minutes gathering the missing user evidence and examples. Bring a draft to the first lesson after the holiday; use the teacher check to finish it.
Work through the sheet
Write in the editable handout or on the printed sheet. Add labelled sketches, screenshots or extra pages when you need them.
- 01
Explain the need
Use your portfolio analysis, user interviews, prototype sprint, Portfolio V2 and its completed handout. Name your audience: a specific viewer of your work, such as a student collaborator or a school project reviewer. A visitor needs evidence of what you made and your role, not just an attractive home page or generic descriptions. Explain one specific difficulty and why it matters. Give a real visitor a task such as finding a project and explaining your contribution. Observe without coaching. Record their route, an exact comment and one unmet need. Reuse relevant interview evidence, with its original date.
Keep: A specific user need and one dated observation or actual user comment.
- 02
Plan your research
Write three research questions and rank them. Say how you will answer each and why the first matters most. Useful starting questions: Which project evidence helps this viewer make a decision? Can they tell your role from the project page? What prevents them moving between overview and detail?
Keep: Three numbered questions with priority, method and source.
- 03
Explain design choices
Use three portfolios with different ways of presenting projects and case studies; reuse relevant examples you already collected. Record the creator or organisation, link and access date for each. Compare the Home → Projects → Project → Return journey, hierarchy, case-study evidence and accessibility. Discuss trade-offs: a visually dramatic page may hide the route or the student’s actual contribution.
Keep: A short comparison with specific evidence from each example.
- 04
Write your design brief
Use your user evidence and example analysis. Write a concise brief with the audience, need, proposed outcome and main constraints. Start with: My intended viewer needs to decide ___. Evidence from ___ showed ___. My next portfolio version will make ___ clearer by ___.
Keep: One evidence-based paragraph; identify the sources it uses.
Grading rubric · 8 points
Four evidence rows, each worth 0, 1 or 2 points. Total 8. This is a classroom practice score for the named A or B strands, not a complete MYP criterion achievement level. A row earns zero when no relevant evidence is shown.
| Evidence | 1 point | 2 points |
|---|---|---|
| Explain the need | Names a user or a difficulty but the connection is unclear. | Connects a specific user, a clear difficulty and a reason the solution is needed. |
| Plan your research | Lists questions or methods but does not connect them or explain priority. | Connects three relevant questions to methods/sources and explains the highest priority. |
| Explain design choices | Mostly describes appearance or features without explaining their effect. | Explains how specific choices help or hinder the intended user; supports the comparisons. |
| Write your design brief | Names a product and audience but gives little research support or direction. | Combines the user need and relevant findings into a clear, realistic project direction. |
What to submit
Submit the completed worksheet and the matching new portfolio version with its linked files, alongside the completed handout to the specific Toddle assignment for this task. For research-only work, include the current project version and the research evidence; a new visual version is needed when you change the design.
Record the tool, what you asked, what you kept or changed, and how you checked it. If you did not use AI, write “No AI used”. Never invent sources, interviews or results.
Open Toddle →Related assignments
- Research your portfolio audience
Finish the current lesson first. During the holiday, spend about 30 minutes gathering the missing user evidence and examples. Bring a draft to the first lesson after the holiday; use the teacher check to finish it.
Assignment on the calendar →
Submit in Toddle. The assignment instructions above specify what to hand in.