DECO3800/7380 Design Computing Studio 3 - Proposal 2025 Semester 1
Assignment 3 (Individual) Weight : [4 (DECO3800) | 3 (DECO7380)]
Due 11 June 2025 15:00 AEST
Learning Objectives: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6
3. Studio Portfolio
Collecting and reflecting on your work
Introduction
The main individual item of assessment for Studio 3 - Proposal is your portfolio. In Studio 3 where we do not have a final examination, this assessment item plays a similar role to a final exam, where you are required to demonstrate what you have learned across the whole course. The way it is assessed, however, is quite different.
"Successful problem solving requires finding the right solution to the right problem. We fail more often because we solve the wrong problem than because we get the wrong solution to the right problem." ~ Russell L. Ackoff
The main purpose of a portfolio in a design course is for you to gather together examples and evidence of the work that you have done throughout the course. Traditionally, portfolios are collections of work that individuals can share with prospective employers or potential collaborators to showcase examples of the work that they have done. In a course like DECO3800, the work you contribute to your team's outcome will be heavily influenced by your own skills and background, as well as by the nature of the project you have worked on. The contents of your portfolio might therefore include design work related to any number of things, including: project inspirations from existing products or services; user research to learn more about the context of use; sketches and schematics relating to data structures; visual designs of interface elements; reports on technology spikes; code snippets to explore functionality, etc.
A studio portfolio will show off not only what work you have done, but also what you learned as a result of doing it. This reflective and critical component is important so that you can demonstrate deeper learning. Your reflections will feature in this studio portfolio through you providing a commentary on the work that you have chosen to feature.
The record that you have kept in your Design Journal throughout the semester will be an important source of information for your portfolio. You are encouraged to include content from journal entries where appropriate to reinforce the work you are reporting on and the context it was developed, but you can and should re-write content for the purpose of presenting it as part of your portfolio.
Task Description:
The Portfolio is the main individual assessment for Studio 3 - Proposal. It is delivered at the end-point of your semester's work and is both an opportunity for you to collect together the work that you have done as well as to demonstrate what you have learned this semester in the context of your team's project. To do this well, you will need to reflect on the work you have done, while maintaining a focus on what you have contributed to the content and process of your team's project.
In terms of overall assessment for the course, the portfolio plays a similar role to the final exam in a more traditional content-based course. Like a final exam, it is intended to assess your learning as an individual across the whole course. Unlike a course with a final exam, the content you will focus on will be specific to your individual project. In the portfolio, therefore, your task is to demonstrate what you have learned in the specific context of your project—both in terms of the content you focused on, and the process you followed.
The specific content that you choose to include in your portfolio will be entirely up to you, but will most likely consist of a combination of topics that are focused on the problem or challenge your team identified, the solution you have designed, the methods and processes that you followed, and your work process. All of this needs to be presented clearly so that the audience can understand what you personally have contributed to the team's project and learned as a result of this. You should focus on quality over quantity. For a given topic, it is much more preferable to focus on a high quality and detailed description of a smaller number of works, rather than presenting a longer sequence of works at a more superficial level of detail. Remember that working on a team-based project involves activity that is focused on content and process. If a significant aspect of your contribution to the project has been more process- focused (e.g. project management, conflict resolution, leadership) then this also appropriate to include, but it would need to have been a significant contribution to be worth focusing on and you would need to do more than just report on what you did for it to be worthwhile.
Required content
Your portfolio will be delivered via the Studio 3 Wiki site. You are free to arrange your pages on the wiki to best fit how you want to structure your portfolio to communicate about your work. Your portfolio should be structured as a collection of pages where it is clear to the reader how to navigate through them bearing in mind your intended audience includes potential employers or future funders of your work. The following is a structure for you to follow, but it is ultimately your choice precisely how to organise your content so that these requirements are met.
1. Main portfolio page, including
• Your name and the title of the portfolio
• A single overview paragraph that is an 'abstract' for the whole portfolio, introducing yourself and the work presented in the portfolio including a summary of the main contributions and/or outcomes presented in the portfolio
• An image that is relevant to the contents
• Navigation links to the content of the portfolio on other pages
2. A page for each collection of work within your portfolio
Each page should be focused on one aspect of your work and should include
• A title that describes the topic/focus of the page
• The focus could be either content or process-based, but process topics should be
restricted to those where you are writing and reflecting about the them from a scholarly perspective (e.g. a specific design method you applied, or a conflict resolution strategy that you followed).
• Description of the topic
• This will probably be a combination of text and image, depending on the topic
• Your contribution
• It is OK to include content that was produced collaboratively by your team, but in these cases you should make it completely clear what your contribution to the work was.
Including teammates work would be unusual, but where used should be appropriately cited and acknowledged.
• Make sure you include specific examples of the work you are reporting on. It is typically not enough to simply write about your contribution--you should include examples of the work itself so that the reader can see evidence of your work.
• Commentary/reflection
• You should include some critical reflection about the work on the page. For example, how significant is it as a part of the project? What learning did you gain or reinforce as a result of working on this? (remember, a significant aspect of learning in studio is gained from taking knowledge you have learned in previous contexts and applying it in a new situation, understanding it more deeply as a result). What is the quality of the work—how could it be improved, would you do it differently if you were to do a similar project again in the future? How would you do it differently and why?