Criterion A: Empathize
- Habeeb Yusuf
- Oct 23, 2025
- 11 min read
Updated: Nov 11, 2025
Overview
Marks out of: 9
Approximate A4 page count: 9
Approximate word count: 900
Page Contents
Aims
This criterion assesses the student’s ability to:
A1: analyse a primary persona appropriate to the redesign of the product
A2: present a storyboard based on the observations of a primary persona using a product for a specific task
A3: analyse existing products and the successes and weaknesses of key features.
A1: The primary persona and intended user profile
Pages: 2, Words: 400
Prerequisite
Before you start this task, you need to already have a problem and/or target user in mind. It would be advantagous if this problem is directly or indirectly related to you, your context or if you have access to the target user, so that you can conduct primary research. Some examples of problems are displayed in the table below:
# | Example Problems | Example Target User | Possible Solution (existing product to be redesigned) |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | University students and remote workers struggle with cluttered desks and lack of integrated charging solutions for multiple devices. | University students and young professionals who use laptops, tablets, and phones daily in small home or dorm spaces. | Modular Desk Organiser with Wireless Charging |
2 | Prolonged laptop use leads to neck and back strain due to poor posture. | Office workers and students who spend long hours studying or working remotely on laptops. | Adjustable Ergonomic Laptop Stand |
3 | People living in apartments often lack space or sunlight to grow fresh herbs efficiently. | Urban residents who want to grow herbs or small plants indoors with minimal effort. | Smart Hydroponic Herb Planter |
4 | Hikers and travellers face challenges accessing clean drinking water while on the move. | Outdoor enthusiasts and eco-conscious travellers seeking portable, reusable hydration solutions. | Collapsible Water Filtration Bottle |
5 | People living in noisy cities find it difficult to sleep due to background noise and discomfort from traditional earphones. | Urban residents or travellers seeking comfortable, wireless audio devices for sleeping or meditation. | Noise-Cancelling Sleep Headband |
6 | Students and professionals who need adjustable lighting based on task type, time of day, or eye strain levels. | Standard lamps provide fixed lighting intensity that doesn’t adapt to ambient conditions or user needs. | Adaptive Learning Lamp |
7 | In humid climates or small apartments, drying clothes takes too long and consumes space. | Apartment dwellers or students in tropical regions (e.g., Southeast Asia) without access to dryers. | Compact Portable Clothes Dryer |
8 | Wheelchair users face difficulties positioning devices at ergonomic angles for work, study, or entertainment. | Wheelchair users who frequently use laptops or tablets and require flexible mounting solutions. | Multi-Position Laptop/Tablet Holder for Wheelchair Users |
9 | Travellers and commuters often need different types of bags for work, gym, and travel. | Commuters and students who want a single backpack adaptable to multiple daily uses. | Modular Backpack System |
10 | Elderly individuals or patients on multiple medications often forget or confuse dosage times. | Elderly people or individuals with chronic illnesses who require medication reminders and organisation. | Smart Medication Dispenser |
Note that the problem you have should be realistic, and lead to an acheivable product solution. For example, if you say that the problem is global warming, and you have the intention of creating a product that can turn water into oil, this is clearly not acheivable within the remit of your IA. You only have the materials and resources available to you in DT, so ensure your problem is viable. Possible design ideas and considerations include:
There are many other areas of inspiration from which students can draw, including individual developmental challenges, community needs or projects, and global issues made local. Some ideas are included in the table above. These are suggestions to help students explore possible design contexts; however, students are not limited to this selection of design ideas.
You can also use the SCAMPER Method to help you think about existing products, and how you might redesign them. Use AI to brainstorm ideas! For example, a great prompt could be:
AI Prompt to use: I’m a Design Technology student in the IBDP programme, and I need to generate creative and realistic design ideas for my project. Please give me 10 possible product ideas that I could redesign or improve, each with 1) a product name, 2) a problem it solves, and 3) a target user. My design context is: [insert context here]. The ideas should be suitable for a school workshop, use materials such as [insert materials] and classroom CAD/CAM functions, such as 3D printing, laser cutting, vacuum forming, and ensure that the ideas have enough complexity for prototyping and testing. Please make the problems achievable in a resistant materials DT workshop in an international secondary school, and ensure each idea clearly links the problem, user, and solution.
Summary of Criteria A1
You are required to research and understand their primary persona — the main intended user of a product — by investigating their demographics, abilities, behaviours, motivations, needs, and environment. This involves conducting qualitative and quantitative research, such as interviews, surveys, and observations, to empathize with the user and gain insights into how they interact with an existing or proposed product. The goal is to develop a deep understanding of the user’s context and requirements to inform and guide the design process effectively.
About the task
The student must research the primary persona’s characteristics, context, preferences, motivations and requirements to gain insights into their needs. This research should include but is not limited to:
demographic considerations such as age, education, ethnicity, access challenges, family status, and occupation
abilities and skills
behaviour patterns and attitudes
goals, concerns, needs and opportunities
the primary persona’s physical, social and technological environment.
The individual or group directly using a product and serving as the ultimate consumers or service users of the solution is an intended user, and may also be categorized as a primary persona. In the identifying and redesign of an existing product, the student should thoroughly understand the needs and experiences of the intended user(s).
This involves undertaking qualitative and quantitative research into their needs, motivations, behaviours and experiences to empathize with them and the existing product on which they depend in order to fulfil a specific task analysis. To do this, a student may:
conduct interviews
distribute surveys
make observations
use other appropriate research approaches or methodologies
How to create a persona?
"Persona" refers to a representation of an end-user, based on primary and secondary research and data, that describes a specific intended user’s or users’ demographic characteristics, behaviours, preferences, needs and motivation (this list is not exhaustive). Personae are used in design processes to better understand and empathize with the potential user(s) of a product, service or a system.
The process of creating personae involves several key steps. First, you observe and collect data on the intended user’s or users’ demographics, preferences, challenges and motivations. Then, you analyse this information to identify patterns and insights. Finally, you use these insights to craft detailed and realistic profiles of individuals representing distinct segments of the target audience.
The primary purpose of using personae in design technology is to inform and guide the decision-making within the design ideation process. Designers use personae to ensure that the end product is user-focused and tailored to the needs and preferences of the intended user(s). By considering these perspectives through characters, designers can make more user-centric design choices regarding features, functionality, aesthetics and overall user experience.
Personae are not just tools for understanding users, they are powerful catalysts for alignment and collaboration. They help designers avoid making assumptions about users and instead rely on concrete research data insights. More importantly, they serve as a common design language, aligning everyone involved in the ideation process around a shared understanding of the intended user(s). This collaborative aspect of personae makes the user-centric approach so effective, leading to the creation of user-focused products.
This (link here) is a great resource to learn more about writing a Persona.
Content to include in Criteria A1
To split this across two pages, the first page (Persona Profile) should focus on understanding the purpose and scope of the research, explaining that students must investigate and empathize with their primary persona by exploring their demographics, skills, behaviours, motivations, and environment. The second page (Persona Investigation) should then focus on the research process and application, outlining how students gather this information through interviews, surveys, and observations, and how these insights are used to define user needs and guide the design process. This structure creates a logical flow—from understanding what to research on the first page, to how and why it informs design on the second.
A Persona Profile Prompt is provided below to support you in writing your Persona Profile. Do NOT copy text from AI / LLM's, but rather use it for idea generation purposes only:
AI Prompt to use: I am a Year 12 IBDP Design Technology student working on my Internal Assessment. Based on the information I provide below, please create a detailed and realistic Primary Persona Profile that represents the main intended user of my design. The persona should include: demographics (age, education, occupation, family, and location); abilities and skills (what the user is capable of doing and their level of expertise or experience related to the problem); behaviour patterns and daily routines (how the user typically behaves, their habits, and how they spend their day); attitudes and motivations (their mindset, beliefs, and reasons for behaving in certain ways); goals, frustrations, and needs (what they want to achieve, what challenges they face, and what solutions they seek); and their physical, social, and technological environment (where they live or work, who they interact with, and what technologies they use regularly). Do not mention any potential products or product analysis in here, just talk about the problem, target user and persona only. The persona should be written in the third person, feel authentic and research-informed, but do not create any unsubstantiated facts and be substantial, using a combination of bullet points and paragraph texts. My Problem Outline is: [insert here]. My Target User Outline is: [insert here].
An example of a completed Criteria A1
This is an example of an IA for a neck brace for individuals with neck injuries. Note that this example was created by adapting an IA submitted by a student that took the old IB DT specification, so it should be used with caution.
What to evidence?
A2: The storyboard
Pages: 3, Words: Nil, annotations only
Storyboards are created as a result of the student’s qualitative and quantitative research into the primary persona or intended user(s). They are used to communicate visually the sequential stages of the intended user(s) completing a task analysis with an identified product and the challenges they encounter. A storyboard can help students map out opportunities to redesign a product to provide a solution.
A scenario is an imagined sequence of events in the daily life of a persona based on assumptions or real-life observations by researchers and designers. Trying to simulate “actual” user experiences can generate new insights for a designer. Designers can consider best, worst and average case scenarios that provide a physical and/or social context for each persona they have developed. While personae tell us who the user is, scenarios tell us what they do. They are descriptions of how the users may interact with a product or system. Each scenario (sometimes called user story or storyboard) represents one type of user performing steps to achieve a specific goal. A good user story tells the designer:
When the user interacts with the product or system.
Why the user interacts with the product or system.
What the user wishes to achieve through interacting with the product or system.
Creating a storyboard
Constructing a storyboard in design technology involves creating a visual narrative that communicates an existing product. This is a step-by-step guide on how to construct a storyboard:
Define the purpose
Clearly articulate the purpose of the storyboard. Understand what aspect of the existing product you want to understand, whether it is the UI (User Interface), UX (User Experience), functionality or a specific design style or process.
Identify key steps
Determine the critical points that need visual representation to convey the design function, form, process or style effectively (this list is not exhaustive).
Storyboard structure
Establish a structured layout for the storyboard. Typically, each digital or sketched frame represents aspects of the whole existing product or elements of the product. Consider how each frame will illustrate and connect to tell a cohesive story to assist in the writing of the problem statement.
Interactive observational images
Present a range of digital images, sketches or drawings to visualize aspects of an existing product. However, for an authentic storyboard, it is advised to observe the interaction of a product in motion and select still images with annotations that provide additional context, focusing on materials used, form, positive and negative functionalities, aesthetics, ergonomics, manufacturing, construction or any relevant information (this list is not exhaustive).
Consider end-user journey analysis
Consider incorporating the user journey into the storyboard, showcasing the UI and UX. This analysis enables scrutiny of what makes existing product designs a success or failure.
Digital tools or traditional mediums
Choose whether to create your storyboard digitally using design software or with traditional hand-drawn methods. Select the approach that aligns with your preferences and the project requirements.
Include technical details
Depending on the complexity of the existing product, include annotations of the technical details, specifications or engineering aspects in the storyboard frames.
Test and refine
Test the storyboard with the identified end-user(s) or peers to validate its effectiveness in conveying the design narrative. Use the feedback to make further improvements to the storyboard.
Content to include
You should create storyboards based on the insights you’ve gathered from your qualitative and quantitative research about your primary persona or intended user(s). Your storyboard should visually show the step-by-step process of how the user interacts with an existing product to complete a specific task, including any challenges or frustrations they experience along the way. By illustrating these stages, you can clearly identify pain points and opportunities for improvement, which will help you decide how to redesign the product to better meet the user’s needs and improve their overall experience.
A Storyboard (User Scanario) Prompt is provided below to support you in planning your storyboard. Do NOT copy text from AI / LLM's, but rather use it for idea generation purposes only:
AI Prompt to use: I am a Year 12 IBDP Design Technology student working on my Internal Assessment. Based on the information I provide below, please create a detailed description of a storyboard (user scenario) that represents how my primary persona (target user) interacts with an existing product to achieve a goal related to my problem context. The scenario should describe, step by step, what the user is doing, thinking, and feeling as they use the product, but without giving any details or indication to a portential solution or product, as this is for the user investigation only to get a more insights into the problem, NOT for brainstorming potential solutions — including when, why, and how they would interact with the problem. It should highlight the user’s goals, motivations, frustrations, and challenges, and show opportunities for improvement (without specifying a new or redesign of a product). The description should be detailed enough that each step can later be illustrated visually in storyboard frames. Use a realistic, empathetic tone and focus on the user’s real-life experience rather than technical details. My Problem Outline is: [insert here]. My Target User (Persona) Outline is: [insert here].
Examples
What to evidence?
A3: Existing products
Pages: 4, Words: 400
Students should conduct functional analysis of existing, similar products. In cases where a product is not available for testing and analysis, a digital product may be used, excluding the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX).
This analysis enables students to scrutinize what makes existing product designs a success or failure. A student may make a comparative model that includes:
the success of a range of products’ form and functionality
materials and components
aesthetics and ergonomic features
manufacturing and construction techniques
environmental and safety considerations.
ACCESSFM
Students should analyse products with annotations that explain the key findings from research into existing products. Identify the successes and weaknesses of the key features. Consider the design aspects (ACCESSSFMM), these include:
material selection (properties)
form, size and also size/range of adjustability
joining methods
aesthetics
safety
function
Content to include
Students are required to conduct a hands-on functional analysis of existing products wherever possible. This means they should physically test and evaluate real products to understand how they work, how effectively they perform their intended function, and what contributes to their success or failure. If access to a real product is not possible, students may instead analyse a detailed model or digital representation of an existing product—excluding the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) elements (meaning you can't just test the user interface of an app, for example). The aim is to gain practical insight into the product’s form and functionality, materials and components, aesthetics and ergonomics, manufacturing methods, and environmental or safety considerations, allowing for an informed comparison and evaluation of different designs.
Examples
What to evidence?
Markscheme for Criteria A
Comments