IA2 project - the format, weighting and requirements of the second internal assessment, how it applies designing with empathy across the explore and develop phases, what a strong design folio evidences, and how every resolved feature must trace back to an identified user need

What this dot point is asking

QCAA's IA2 is the project aligned to Unit 3 designing with empathy - the highest-weighted internal assessment at 30 percent. This page explains what the project requires, how it applies empathy across the explore and develop phases, and what a strong design folio looks like. The project is where human-centred design is shown at full length, so the marks reward depth of empathy research, breadth of ideation, and a resolved proposal whose every feature traces to a real user need.

The answer

What IA2 is

IA2 is the design project for Unit 3, where human-centred design is practised in full. Where the IA1 challenge is contained and time-limited, the project is extended - you have the room to do thorough empathy research, generate and test a real breadth of ideas, and resolve a justified proposal. It is worth 30 percent of the subject result, the most of any instrument, so it carries the heaviest weight in the internal mark.

Applying empathy across explore and develop

The project is built on designing with empathy. In the explore phase you gather empathy data on an identified person through interview, observation and immersion, analyse it to surface needs, wants and opportunities, and write a design brief that describes a human-centred design problem with design criteria. In the develop phase you devise ideas in response to that problem, visualise them, prototype at low fidelity, and test with the user. The project then moves toward a resolved proposal. The whole arc keeps the human-centred priority - needs above other influences - at the front.

What a strong folio evidences

The design folio is the assessed artefact, and it must show the journey, not just the destination. A strong folio evidences:

• Real empathy data - interview notes, observation records and an immersion reflection, from an actual person, not assumed.
• Clean analysis - findings synthesised into evidenced needs, often via a persona and empathy map.
• A brief and criteria - a clear human-centred design problem and specific, measurable criteria drawn from the needs.
• Genuine ideation breadth - a range of distinct concepts using named strategies, visualised with annotated sketches.
• Prototyping and testing - low-fidelity prototypes tested with the user, with the results documented.
• A resolved proposal - refined, visualised, and justified criterion by criterion.

Tracing features to needs

The single most important quality in a strong IA2 is traceability. Every feature of the resolved design should connect back to an identified user need, and the folio should make that line visible. When a marker reads it, they check the chain: this person needs X (evidenced here), so the criterion is Y, so the design does Z. A feature with no need behind it is either unjustified or a sign the designer drifted toward what interested them rather than the user.

The justification as climax

The project ends in evaluation and justification. You judge the resolved proposal against each criterion, with evidence from testing, and justify how the design meets the user's needs. Because the criteria came from evidenced needs, meeting them is the same as serving the person - which is the whole purpose of human-centred design. This justification is where the top-band marks sit, so it deserves the most care.

Worked example