Assessment in education is often seen as only the grading or final evaluation of a completed task performed by the student. Assessment and feedback opportunities can easily be overlooked as design and process are inseparable. How can it be monitored other than with assessment? This paper aims to outline the importance of integration between assessment and the design process, as assessment has various possibilities and varieties, just as the design process consists of a complex sequence of investigations.

It is difficult to separate the two. The paper will firstly outline each and then illustrate the integration with the use of examples of Interior Design student work that is supplemented with a survey of students in the School of Architecture at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth. The survey was conducted in the form of an anonymous questionnaire with structured questions that allowed for commentary. It included 40 junior and 40 senior students.

This paper expresses the approach of disciplines within the built environment that includes Interior Design, Architecture and Architectural Technology, but will illustrate general strategies which are central to all design disciplines.