Ironhack Student Evaluation Rubric

Adán Ávila

Description
Every time a student presents their work, Teachers or TA's will give the student a score that
corresponds to their current level of expertise in each Ability Area.

Levels of Expertise
*Ironhack aims to produce students in the blue range of expertise.

Level Description
Master This person has a deep practical and theoretical grounding in the
concepts, to the point that they can make an original contribution
that advances the field of Design.
Expert This person demonstrates a deep and extensive understanding of
the concepts, as well as a solid understanding of how and when
to apply them to achieve optimal results for clients.
Leader This person understands the concepts to the point that they could
constructively and reliably critique the work of others.
Practitioner This person has a solid practical understanding of the concepts
and applies them consistently in their work.
Junior This person has a solid understanding of core concepts, a
growing understanding of broader concepts, and takes the
initiative to continue developing their skills outside of direct
guidance or a classroom setting.
Apprentice This person has a basic understanding of core concepts and
shows a willingness to learn under direct guidance or in a
classroom setting.
Beginner This person shows an awareness of core concepts, but does not
necessarily understand or apply them.

Ability Areas
Area
Communicating Ideas
Grounded Decision Making
Lean Efficiency
Visual Sense
Concepts in each Ability Area
*Core concepts listed in orange.
Communicating Ideas
Concept
Audience Awareness
Explaining in Simple Terms/
Synthesis
Representing Ideas Visually
Storytelling
Grounded Decision Making
Concept
Conscientiousness
Description
Presenting, defending, and modifying one's ideas and work in a Apprentice
way that is understandable, memorable, and relevant to the
current audience.
Making design decisions based on a thorough understanding of Junior
the user, the business context or constraints, the principles of
design, and iterative evaluations of the design artefact from user
data.
Working in a way that generates and validates usable and Junior
relevant information or design artefacts with the minimum
possible investment of time, money, and other limited resources.
Creating design artefacts in accordance with generally accepted Apprentice
principles of visual design and UI best practices.
Description
Presenting ideas in a way that is relevant and interesting to the Apprentice
current audience.
Presenting ideas succinctly in a way that minimizes the use of Apprentice
unnecessary jargon.
Presenting ideas effectively in a way that does not heavily rely on Apprentice
the audience's ability to rapidly read text off a slide.
Communicating ideas narratively and logically in a way that Apprentice
connects with the audience and conveys relevant information
regarding the decisions made.
Description
Acting and making decisions based on an empathetic and Junior
validated understanding of how it will affect the user, key
stakeholders, and the "big picture" of human society and the
environment.
Ideating under Constraints Generating innovative ideas that address the design challenges Apprentice
identified using the resources at one's disposal.
Iterative/ Experimental Creating and testing design artefacts in a way that allows for Junior
Thinking reliable data about them to be collected and analyzed for effective
decision making.
Reflection and Analysis Going "below the surface" to understand the context and identify Junior
root causes of the problem or the data collected from research.

Lean Efficiency
Concept Description
Agile Thinking Working iteratively and changing course as new data emerge, Apprentice
rather than making decisions out of inertia or to follow a fixed plan
that no longer makes sense.
Assessing Viability Acting and making decisions based on an accurate Apprentice
understanding of the time/budget constraints of a project.
Willingness to Fail Seeing and presenting "failure" as part of the iterative design Apprentice
process. Focus on lessons learned rather than assigning blame
or avoiding responsibility.
Working Lean Working in a way that tests core assumptions as early, cheaply, Junior
and reliably as possible at each iteration of the project, design
artefact, or stage to avoid potentially costly errors later on.

Visual Sense
Concept Description
Atomic Design Creating and using visual elements efficiently. Junior
UI Design Principles Applying the principles (e.g. Gestalt) to the design of an artefact. Junior
(Accessibility, contrast, color, text, layout, etc.)
Programmability Creating and using UI elements that are able to be connected to Apprentice
code.
Use of tools Proficiency in the different tools and programs used (Sketch, Apprentice
Flinto, UXPin, HTML, etc.)