CAREER DAY DESIGN WORKSHOP
Segue Institute for Learning, Central Falls, Rhode Island
I was invited to speak at Segue Institute for Learning, a charter school in Central Falls, RI, about the career path of a designer. I spoke about the different areas of design and how I grew into the designer I am today, though the main focus of the presentation revolved around user experience design and product design.
Knowing that many of the students were passionate about technology, specifically handheld devices, I decided to run a design exercise where groups of students were able to conceptualize a mobile app during each of the four sessions throughout the day.
I began explaining the user experience design process, and how to harness design-thinking when brainstorming a new app.
During the design exercise I was able to get the students into a user-centered design mindset. Throughout the exercise they considered the following questions...
After running this exercise with 100 students and watching them present their mobile app ideas to their classmates, it was clear that they understood how to design with the user in mind. Each group was able to defend the choices they had made for their app concept, and were able to clearly articulate exactly what their app was intended to do, and who it was designed for.
