Learning about UX from high school students.

Atlas Workshops

The Premise

• Atlas Workshops offers educational travel to groups of 8-16 high school students.

• This trip’s focus was “designing smart cities.” Every student signed up interested in learning.

• The trip follows the steps of the design process, instead of a traditional curriculum.

• My job: to help design the curriculum and lead the design process.

I Learned…

• The language we use is CONFUSING!– What is “usability?” Isn’t everything, technically, usable?– If it’s a design “process” why aren’t there specific steps?

• We have to un-learn the idea that working together is cheating.

• Everyone wants to find the “right answer.”

• More on my site - http://marli.us/news/

Trip Highlights

• Me: “Someone tell me, what is information architecture?”Student: “Misery.”

• On Day 6, the students became the tour guides. They explained to us things we didn’t remember having taught them.

Takeaways

• The UX/design thinking process is a successful method for learning about a subject and creating an end project.

• High school students and web clients alike need brainstorming activities and facilitation to make educated decisions.

• Travel with other curious individuals is more educational than all the webinars and classrooms in the world.

Learn More

• More write-ups on my blog, http://www.marli.us/news

• Information on Atlas Workshops (including how to sign up your kids for educational trips) at http://www.atlasworkshops.com