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1 | > **DRAFT** — under teacher review. |
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| 3 | # Activity — Design a Hot Cross Bun Matrix |
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| 4 | ||||||||
| 5 | The Hamilton and Alexandra College · Year 12 · 2026 |
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7 | The fastest way to learn how to *design* an evaluation matrix — and then decide **which elements of the winning design need to be developed further** — is to build one for something real and edible. CHOICE rates hot cross buns with the same discipline it rates headphones; in this activity, so will you. By the end you'll have designed, run, defended a matrix *and* produced a "further develop" list — the exact deliverable for **C4-2** and **Unit 4 Outcome 1**. |
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| 9 | [CHOICE's actual hot cross buns review-and-compare](https://www.choice.com.au/food-and-drink/bread-cereal-and-grains/bread/review-and-compare/hot-cross-buns) is the reference matrix you're learning from. |
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| 11 | {{Video|src=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7m04xW0fzk}} |
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| 12 | ||||||||
| 13 | **🎯 Watch first:** notice the panel scores against *agreed criteria*. Your job today is to decide those criteria — and defend them. |
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| 14 | ||||||||
| 15 | --- |
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| 16 | ||||||||
| 17 | ## The challenge |
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| 18 | ||||||||
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19 | We have **two or three brands** of hot cross buns. Working as a review panel, you will: |
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| 21 | 1. Design an evaluation matrix. |
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| 22 | 2. Use it to crown a winner. |
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| 23 | 3. **Decide which elements of the winning bun design need to be developed further** — including elements your matrix did *not* score. |
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| 24 | ||||||||
| 25 | That third step is the headline skill for [C4-2](/sd/C04/C4-2%20Checkpoint%20-%20Evaluation%20Matrix). It's the harder one — and the one most students skip. |
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26 | |||||||
| 27 | --- |
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| 28 | ||||||||
| 29 | ## Step 1 — Make the design decisions *before you taste* |
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31 | Criteria come **first**, never invented afterwards to crown the bun you happened to like. Working from the [seven design decisions](/sd/C04/Designing%20an%20Evaluation%20Matrix), agree on: |
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32 | |||||||
| 33 | - **Who you're recommending for** — the persona drives everything. "Best bun" is meaningless; "best bun *for a family's Easter breakfast*" tells you what to measure. |
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| 34 | - **Your criteria** — the handful that decide it for that person. |
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| 35 | - **How each is measured** — a blind panel rating, or something objective like price-per-bun or counting fruit pieces. |
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| 36 | - **Weights, justified** — where your point of view lives. |
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37 | - **A scale** (use 0–5). |
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| 38 | - **What you deliberately exclude, and why** — *flag these now; they come back in Step 4.* |
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39 | |||||||
| 40 | A worked design for the persona *"a family buying for Easter breakfast"*: |
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| 41 | ||||||||
| 42 | | Criterion | Weight | How you'll measure it | |
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| 43 | |---|---|---| |
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| 44 | | Taste | 35% | Blind panel rating, 0–5 | |
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| 45 | | Texture & freshness | 20% | Blind panel rating | |
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| 46 | | Fruit & spice | 20% | Blind panel rating | |
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| 47 | | Value | 15% | Price per bun → converted to a 0–5 score | |
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| 48 | | Appearance | 10% | Rating | |
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| 49 | ||||||||
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50 | *Deliberately excluded:* packaging — it doesn't change how the bun eats, so it can't help one brand beat another on the matrix. (Hold on to this — Step 4 picks it back up.) |
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51 | |||||||
| 52 | --- |
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| 53 | ||||||||
| 54 | ## Step 2 — Taste blind, score independently |
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| 55 | ||||||||
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56 | Two habits that are real evaluation skills, not just fairness: |
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57 | |||||||
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58 | - **Blind it.** Label the brands A, B, C with the names hidden. If you can see the brand, the brand scores it for you. |
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| 59 | - **Score alone first, then compare.** If everyone just agrees with whoever speaks loudest, you've measured confidence, not buns. |
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60 | |||||||
| 61 | Apply your weights to each brand's scores to get a **weighted total**. |
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| 62 | ||||||||
| 63 | --- |
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| 64 | ||||||||
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65 | ## Step 3 — Crown the winner |
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66 | |||||||
| 67 | - **Explain** which bun proceeds, citing at least two criteria and their scores. |
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68 | - **Justify** by **naming the rival**: what does your winner give up compared with the runner-up, and why is that trade-off worth it for your persona? |
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69 | |||||||
| 70 | --- |
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| 71 | ||||||||
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72 | ## Step 4 — Decide what to develop further |
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| 73 | ||||||||
| 74 | You now know *which* bun wins. The harder question — **the C4-2 deliverable** — is: *which elements of that winning design need detailed design work next?* |
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| 75 | ||||||||
| 76 | The matrix on its own doesn't answer that. Look in **two** places: |
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| 78 | **(a) Where your winner scored weakest.** If your winner beats the rivals overall but only got a 3 on *texture*, that is a development priority. The detailed-design task isn't "is the texture good enough?" — it's "*how* will we improve texture in the next version?" |
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| 79 | ||||||||
| 80 | **(b) Requirements the matrix didn't score.** This is the bit students miss. The matrix scores criteria *the persona uses to choose between options* — taste, value, freshness. But your project has requirements that don't decide *one bun over another*, and so don't earn a matrix row, yet absolutely affect the final product. **Packaging** is the classic case: |
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82 | > The requirement *"attract more customers to consider buying it"* is real — but packaging doesn't change how the bun eats, so it stays out of the matrix. It still has to be designed properly. It belongs on your "develop further" list anyway. |
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| 83 | ||||||||
| 84 | A quick test for any candidate element: |
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| 86 | > *"If two designs tied on this, would it show up in the matrix?"* If **no**, but it still has to be **designed properly**, it goes on your develop-further list. |
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| 87 | ||||||||
| 88 | **Now produce three things to develop further** — at least one from **(a)**, at least one from **(b)**. |
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| 89 | ||||||||
| 90 | > [!NOTE] |
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| 91 | > In C4-2 this is the headline output. The matrix names the winning *idea*; the deliverable is which **elements** of that idea become detailed designs. Packaging-not-in-matrix is your worked example of source (b). |
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92 | |||||||
| 93 | --- |
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| 94 | ||||||||
| 95 | ## Your scoring sheet |
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| 96 | ||||||||
| 97 | | Criterion (weight) | Method | Brand A | Brand B | Brand C | |
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| 98 | |---|---|---|---|---| |
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| 99 | | | | | | | |
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| 100 | | | | | | | |
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| 101 | | | | | | | |
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| 102 | | **Weighted total / 5** | | | | | |
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| 103 | ||||||||
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104 | **To develop further:** |
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| 106 | 1. *(from (a) — a matrix-scored criterion the winner is weakest on)* |
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| 107 | 2. *(from (b) — a requirement the matrix didn't score, e.g. packaging)* |
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| 108 | 3. *(your call — either source)* |
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| 109 | ||||||||
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110 | --- |
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| 111 | ||||||||
| 112 | ## Why this matters |
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114 | The buns are a stand-in. The design decisions are **identical** when you evaluate your own software design ideas in [C4-2](/sd/C04/C4-2%20Checkpoint%20-%20Evaluation%20Matrix). The matrix tells you which idea proceeds; the develop-further list tells you what your detailed design has to *do*. Both come out of this one activity. |
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115 | |||||||
| 116 | --- |
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| 117 | ||||||||
| 118 | ## See also |
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| 119 | ||||||||
| 120 | - [Designing an Evaluation Matrix](/sd/C04/Designing%20an%20Evaluation%20Matrix) — the seven design decisions in full |
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121 | - [CHOICE Headphones — Spotting Efficiency and Effectiveness](/sd/C04/CHOICE%20Headphones%20-%20Spotting%20Efficiency%20and%20Effectiveness) — the same matrix discipline applied to a software-flavour example |
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122 | - [C4-2 Checkpoint — Your Evaluation Matrix](/sd/C04/C4-2%20Checkpoint%20-%20Evaluation%20Matrix) · [Efficiency vs Effectiveness](/sd/C04/Efficiency%20vs%20Effectiveness) |
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123 | - Reference: [CHOICE hot cross buns review-and-compare](https://www.choice.com.au/food-and-drink/bread-cereal-and-grains/bread/review-and-compare/hot-cross-buns) |
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124 | |||||||
| 125 | --- |
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| 126 | ||||||||
| 127 | ← Back to [C04 Home](/sd/C04/C04-home) · [VCE Software Development Hub](/sd/VCE%20Software%20Development%20Hub) |
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