Evaluating your design work and its practical results will tell you how well you did, and how you can improve your practice. If you are designing for yourself, it is a way of reviewing how far you have got and helping to identify the next steps for your project.

Key methods include:

• PMI
• Dartboard
• Questionnaires and surveys
• Group discussion

'PMI'

This stands for Plus, Minus and Interesting. It is an evaluation tool that enables you or your group to give a balanced evaluation of an issue or project. All points are accepted and can be contradictory - 'detailed' may be seen by some as a plus and by others as a minus, but both are accepted and this can highlight areas that may benefit from further thinking. By providing 'rules' for thinking, Edward De Bono has made thinking an activity that can be highly cooperative and productive within even the most diverse of groups. When used alongside Mind Mapping, as pioneered by Wolf White, it can have amazing results and lead to much more productive, creative and cooperative meetings.