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IT: Thinking by Design Pathways to Prosperity Network

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THINKING BY DESIGN

Essential Question: How Do You Think Like a Designer?

Learning Targets:

Students will:

Identify a design problem whose solution could benefit people.

Use a variety of media to develop and deepen understanding of a topic or idea.

Collaborate with a team to implement the design thinking process.

Relate the design of an app to the need it addresses.

Analyze the features of apps to determine the criteria for quality.

Lesson Overview

This lesson begins with students learning about design thinking and completing an exercise that

uses this approach to define problems and come up with innovative solutions. First, the young

professionals get into design groups to work in teams. The teams will then use their background

knowledge on a familiar mobile app to walk through the stages of design thinking, which they

will then use in the creation of their own apps.


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Lesson Agenda

Opening Design Teams (10 min)

Work Time What Is Design Thinking? (20 min)

Thinking by Design (20 min)

Closure Closing the Loop (5 min)

Materials

Young Professional student packet

Projector and speakers

Thinking by Design: chart paper, post-it notes, sharpies or markers

Video and images to project

FACILITATION NOTES

Design Thinking. This lesson introduces the concept of Design Thinking, an approach used to

define challenging problems and come up with innovative solutions. Preview the video in

advance to learn more about this process and how it is used:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7sEoEvT8l8. Be sure to differentiate for English Language

Learners by providing scaffolding in the Anchor Chart where necessary.

Thinking by Design. The video introduces a simplified version of the five-step design thinking

process developed by the D-School at Stanford: Ideate> Prototype> Test. As a processing

activity, young programmers will reference the Zombies, run! app to participate in the simplified

design thinking process.

1) Ideate: What real-world problems or needs does the app address?

2) Prototype: What does the app look like? What is the user experience?

3) Test: How does the app address real-world problems or needs? Is it working? Show your

evidence.

Applying their background knowledge can help the YPs understand this unfamiliar process more

deeply. Given the YPs have studied the Zombies, run! app in previous lessons, they should be

more familiar with it. In case students missed past lessons, consider using a more popular app

for reference (i.e. Pokémon, go!).

IN ADVANCE

Review the <Four Corners Initiative> protocol included in the body of this lesson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7sEoEvT8l8


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Preview: What is Design Thinking? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7sEoEvT8l8).

Label headers on chart paper for each stage of Design Thinking (Ideate, Prototype,

Test), per design team.

Vocabulary

Content Tier II

design thinking, ideate, prototype, user

experience, test

problem, solution, innovative, principle

Opening (10 min)

Design Teams

Here at IT Ops headquarters, we work as teams. When people with different strengths and

approaches work together on the same problem or the same design, the resulting app is

more likely to succeed. For this reason, we strive to build teams that are intellectually

diverse. Your responses to the following prompts will help you find your Design Team, in

which you will collaborate closely with classmates who responded differently.

1. Follow the <Four Corners Initiative>. Ask students the following questions to

prompt their movement to the corner that represents their answer. Read one

question, invite students to choose their category, and then provide time for students

to share with each other and the whole group to explain their choices. Then repeat

for the second question.

o I like to assign roles and responsibilities when working in a group.

o I enjoy working on and solving jigsaw puzzles and mazes.

o I tend to take notes and organize tasks when assignments have multiple

parts.

o Writing is one of my strengths.

o I enjoy sharing out and communicating information to different groups of

people.

2. After everyone has arrived in the corner that represents their opinions, they may talk

together about why they made their choices.

This quick

initiative will

allow students

to begin thinking

about the

strengths they

will bring to their

team. Consider

teaching the

Additive and

Subtractive

Behaviors

lesson in the

Collaboration

unit prior to this

in order to have

students

thinking about

their

contributions to

the team in

advance.



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3. Create Design Teams by matching one student from each corner of the room: have the

students in each corner count-off and group together by 1’s and 2’s. If the corners aren’t

well-balanced, you can ask students who were on the fence about one of their answers

to shift their position.

4. For the remainder of this session, students should sit with their Design Teams.

Work Time

What is Design Thinking? (20 min)

Now that you know your team members, let’s dive into the design thinking process. As young

programmers, we are working to solve problems that may have no easy answer. Design

thinking can help us think “outside the box”—that is, to think unconventionally and creatively

about problems and resources.

Design thinking is defined by Wikipedia as “design-specific cognitive activities that designers

apply during the process of designing.[1]” In the following videos, we will learn why design

thinking is an important skill to cultivate.

1. Show the video, What Is Design Thinking?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7sEoEvT8l8.

2. Have students follow along using their <Design Thinking Anchor Chart>.

3. Ask: What are the five main stages of Design Thinking? What happens at each stage?

4. Invite students to pair-share their thinking. Use equity sticks to solicit responses.

Design Thinking is now a widely used process, not just for engineers, but for all kinds of

professions! It’s a creative way to define problems and create innovative solutions. We are

going to use the simplified version of this process to explore the different real world problems or

needs addressed by popular mobile apps (project the <Design Cycle> image).

Thinking by Design (25 min)

Think back to the Zombies, Run! app. Using your background knowledge from previous lessons,

let’s walk through the stages of design thinking to navigate the app’s creative design.

IDEATE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_thinking#cite_note-1



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As we learned from the video, the Ideate phase of design thinking involves brainstorming new

ideas to solve problems, without including already existing solutions. In your design teams, you

will brainstorm answers to the following question, using the Zombies, run! app for reference.

1. Project the <Ideate> image with the question: What real-world problems or needs does

the app address?

2. Distribute post-it notes and the piece of chart paper labeled Ideate to design teams.

3. Explain that design teams will have five minutes to brainstorm answers to the question,

write them on their post-it notes, and post them on the chart paper.

4. Establish group norms and ensure they are followed throughout (i.e. every YP must

contribute at least one idea, read each idea aloud as they post it on the chart paper

so their team can hear, all ideas should be taken seriously and treated with respect,

etc.).

5. Circulate and guide the YPs to fruitful brainstorm as needed.

Debrief

1. After the five minutes are up, repeat the question: What real-world problems or

needs does the app address?

2. Use equity sticks to solicit responses from design teams. Listen for: Getting people

to exercise more, helping people train for a 5k, preparing people for the zombie

apocalypse, etc. (All ideas should be accepted!)

3. Check for understanding: What was the purpose of using the ideate process to

brainstorm? How might you use this as a team to develop your own real-world

problems to address with a mobile app?

4. Provide think time for design teams to discuss, then use equity sticks to ask one

member of each team to share out responses. Listen for: The ideate process allows

everyone to contribute their ideas and results in the gathering of many different kinds

of ideas. We can use this process to help brainstorm ideas for the problems we’d like to

solve when building our own mobile apps.

PROTOTYPE

What did we learn about the Prototype phase of Design Thinking from the video? (Listen for:

Prototyping involves developing simple models to test new ideas.) In this phase, we will be

analyzing the prototype of the Zombies, run! app, used to test a new idea for training people for

a 5k run. What does the model app look like? What is the user experience?

1. Project the <Prototype> image with the questions: What does the app look like? What

is the user experience?

2. Distribute post-it notes and the piece of chart paper labeled Prototype to design teams.

Encourage a

growth mindset

as the YPs work

to create

innovative

solutions.

Normalize

struggle in

design thinking,

and emphasize

that successful

solutions often

come after

many trials and

iterations. Ask:

What was

successful

during the

design process?

What could be

improved next

time?


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3. Explain that design teams will have five minutes to brainstorm answers to the questions,

draw and/or write them on their post-it notes, and post them on the chart paper.

4. Encourage the YPs to use the <Ask Three Before Me> protocol to help them draw

and/or describe the prototype app: They may look back to the screenshot images on

their handouts/notes from previous lessons, look up screenshots on the Apple Store

website, or explore the app on their own mobile devices/tablets.


contribute at least one drawing/description, present/read each aloud as they post it on

the chart paper so their team can hear, all answers should be taken seriously and

treated with respect, etc.).

6. Circulate and guide the YPs to gather as many answers to the questions as possible.

Debrief

1. After the five minutes are up, repeat the questions: What does the app look like? What

is the user experience?

2. Use equity sticks to solicit responses from design teams. Descriptions/drawings will

vary. Look for descriptions/drawings of the app’s pages and the user’s experience in

using the app to train for a 5k run. (All answers should be accepted!)

3. Check for understanding: What was the purpose of using the prototype process to

describe the app and its user’s experience? How might you use this as a team to

develop your own mobile app prototypes?


member of each team to share out responses. Listen for: The prototype process allows

everyone to contribute many ideas for developing and testing models of apps that can

address real-world problems or needs. We can use this process to select and develop a

prototype of our own mobile app that addresses our chosen real-world problem or need.

TEST

The final phase of the simplified Design Thinking process involves testing the prototype. As we

think through the testing phase of the Zombies, run! app, we have to jump into the minds of the

designers: How do you think the app’s creators figured out if the app was working?

1. Project the <Test> image with the questions: How does the app address real-world

problems or needs? Is it working? Show your evidence.

2. Distribute post-it notes and the piece of chart paper labeled Test to design teams.

3. Explain that design teams will have five minutes to brainstorm answers to the questions,

write them on their post-it notes, and post them on the chart paper.

4. Encourage the YPs to use the <Ask Three Before Me> protocol again to help them find

their evidence: They may look back to the app’s Kickstarter page from previous lessons,


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search for updated statistics about the app (is it popular?) online or at the Apple Store

website, or explore the app’s functionality on their own mobile devices/tablets.


contribute at least one piece of evidence, read each aloud as they post it on the chart

paper so their team can hear, all answers should be taken seriously and treated with

respect, etc.).

6. Circulate and guide the YPs to gather as many pieces of evidence as possible.

Debrief

1. After the five minutes are up, repeat the questions: How does the app address real-

world problems or needs? Is it working? Show your evidence.

2. Use equity sticks to solicit responses from design teams. Listen for: The app addresses

the need of training for a 5k run or addresses the real-world problem of getting more

people to exercise. Evidence will vary. Look for statistics on the app’s popularity and

reflections on its usability. (All answers should be accepted!)

3. Check for understanding: What is the purpose of the testing phase? How might you

use this as a team to test your own mobile app prototypes?


member of each team to share out responses. Listen for: The test phase provides a

way for designers to figure out if their prototypes are working. We can use this process

to test the prototype apps we develop and make changes as necessary to any parts that

are not working.

Closure (5 min)

Closing the Loop

Think back to the Opening Activity and the strengths you bring to working in a team. Now that

you have practiced the simplified stages of Design Thinking, you will brainstorm which stage

relates best to your strengths.

o Ask: Which stage of Design Thinking (Ideate, Prototype, Test) plays to your

strengths as a team member?

1. Provide time for students to discuss within their design teams which stage of Design

Thinking can benefit most from their strengths as a team member.

2. Based on responses, encourage teams to select a team leader of each stage who will

help facilitate the group as they use this process in developing their mobile apps.


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3. Invite team leaders to present which stage of Design Thinking they plan to facilitate and

how it plays to their strengths as a team member.

Name:

Date:

THINKING BY DESIGN: What Is Design Thinking?

Today’s Learning Objectives:

I can:

Identify a design problem whose solution could benefit people.

Use a variety of media to develop and deepen understanding of a topic or idea.

Effectively engage in collaborative discussions with my peers.

Relate the design of an app to the need it addresses.

Analyze the features of apps to determine the criteria for quality.


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This lesson begins with learning about design thinking and completing an exercise that uses this

approach to define problems and come up with innovative solutions. First, I will get into my

design team. My team will then use our background knowledge on a familiar mobile app to walk

through the stages of design thinking, which we will then use in the creation of our own apps.

Today’s Activities:

Design Teams

What is Design Thinking?

Thinking by Design

Closing the Loop

Design Thinking Anchor Chart


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Facilitator Documents:

Design Thinking

Design Cycle


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Ideate

What real-world problems or needs does the app address?

Prototype

What does the app look like? What is the user experience?


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Test

How does the app address real-world problems or needs? Is it working? Show your

evidence.