A day in the classroom with Youth Design Academy (3/3)

We kicked off our final class with an outdoor game in effort to collaborate and discover our commonalities. We split into teams to compete in organizing ourselves into a line based on certain topics.

Our lesson this week was about physical design. Paolo lead the class through a series of examples that included fashion design, consumer electronics and consumer products. Paolo prompted students to share their ideas about how these types of products could be designed to be inclusive for people with physical disabilities. Together we looked at examples of prosthetics, tools for the visually impaired and a spoon for folks suffering from Parkinson’s.

For our first activity, students were prompted to improve everyday products like glasses, backpacks and umbrellas using a rapid sketching exercise. We asked each group to create 100 collective sketches based on the product they were assigned. This exercise was intended to explore high quantities of ideas over a single, first idea, a common design practice that encourages creativity.

Before the build-your-own taco lunch, we played a quick game of Famous People. In this game students had to guess the name of the celebrity or character taped to their forehead using clues from their classmates.

For the community activity each student picked a random product card and a “user” card with an image of an animal. The assignment was to create a version of that product for the intended animal. This activity helped students understand the physical product design process for users that are different from them.

We wrapped up with our final class survey and class photos. We’re looking forward to seeing you, your family and your students at next Saturday’s reception!