Course Material
Unit 4 introduces the broader social impacts of computing. Through a series of design challenges, you will learn how to better understand the needs of others while developing a solution to a problem.
- Complete the Survey so I can assess your computer skills
- Please listen to the Design Thinking/Empathy Podcast.
- Story to introduce how design can help. Now I See
Lesson 1
This unit will be devoted to group problem solving and developing products for other users, students will begin investigating the design of various teapots. In this lesson the students will analyze each teapot, attempting to identify how specific user needs have affected the teapots design. By considering these design choices, and attempting to match each teapot with a potential user, students can begin to see how taking a user-centered approach to designing products (both physical and digital) can make those products more useful and usable. To conclude the activity, students are asked to propose some changes to one of the teapots that would make it more useful or usable.
Purpose
Students will enter this unit with an understanding of the problem solving process from prior units.
The problem solving process used throughout CS Discoveries is:
Unit 4 Lesson 1-
This unit will be devoted to group problem solving and developing products for other users, students will begin investigating the design of various teapots. In this lesson the students will analyze each teapot, attempting to identify how specific user needs have affected the teapots design. By considering these design choices, and attempting to match each teapot with a potential user, students can begin to see how taking a user-centered approach to designing products (both physical and digital) can make those products more useful and usable. To conclude the activity, students are asked to propose some changes to one of the teapots that would make it more useful or usable.
Purpose
Students will enter this unit with an understanding of the problem solving process from prior units.
The problem solving process used throughout CS Discoveries is:
- Define
- Prepare
- Try
- Reflect
Unit 4 Lesson 1-
- Objectives:
- Students will be able to:
- Critically evaluate an object for how well its design meets a given set of needs
- Identify empathy for the user as an important component of the design process
- Activity Guide for Lesson 1
- Complete the Edupuzzle.com -Enter this class code account: ocladka
- Students will be able to:
Lesson 2
Designers need to understand their users’ needs in order to create useful products. This lesson encourages students to think about how to design for another person by role-playing as someone else using a user profile and reacting as that user to a series of products. Each student is assigned a user profile describing a person, which they then use to choose appropriate products, critique product design, and suggest improvements to design.
Purpose
This lesson builds on the previous by asking students to not only consider that there is a user that products are designed for, but also empathize with those potential users. Throughout this unit, students will work to apply the problem solving process from Unit 1 to problems for other people. Empathy is a key element of this kind of user-centered design and a difficult skill for students at this age to master.
Unit 4 Lesson 2
Designers need to understand their users’ needs in order to create useful products. This lesson encourages students to think about how to design for another person by role-playing as someone else using a user profile and reacting as that user to a series of products. Each student is assigned a user profile describing a person, which they then use to choose appropriate products, critique product design, and suggest improvements to design.
Purpose
This lesson builds on the previous by asking students to not only consider that there is a user that products are designed for, but also empathize with those potential users. Throughout this unit, students will work to apply the problem solving process from Unit 1 to problems for other people. Empathy is a key element of this kind of user-centered design and a difficult skill for students at this age to master.
Unit 4 Lesson 2
- Objectives
- Students will be able to:
- Critique a design through the perspective of a user profile.
- Design improvements to a product based on a user profile.
- Students will be able to:
Lesson 3
This lesson guides students through an abbreviated version of the design process they will be seeing throughout this unit. Students first brainstorm a list of potential users of smart clothing. As a class, they then group these ideas into broad categories and each group will choose one category of user. Groups repeat this process to brainstorm needs or concerns of their user, eventually categorizing these needs and choosing one to focus on. Finally, students design a piece of smart clothing, using the specific needs and concerns they brainstormed to guide their decision making. At the end of the class students quickly share their decision-making process and get feedback on how well their product addresses the user need they selected.
Purpose
This micro activity is the first of three design projects in this unit. It is a fast-paced introduction to the user-centered design process, intended to give students an experience with user-centered design that they can build on in later projects. Certain shortcuts like speculating as to their user's needs rather than confirming them directly will be corrected as they complete more developed versions of this design process. In this lesson the primary goal is to establish that design decisions will be made with the user's needs in mind. The practice of categorizing lots of disparate ideas to help make decisions will also reappear later in the unit.
Unit 4 Lesson 3
This lesson guides students through an abbreviated version of the design process they will be seeing throughout this unit. Students first brainstorm a list of potential users of smart clothing. As a class, they then group these ideas into broad categories and each group will choose one category of user. Groups repeat this process to brainstorm needs or concerns of their user, eventually categorizing these needs and choosing one to focus on. Finally, students design a piece of smart clothing, using the specific needs and concerns they brainstormed to guide their decision making. At the end of the class students quickly share their decision-making process and get feedback on how well their product addresses the user need they selected.
Purpose
This micro activity is the first of three design projects in this unit. It is a fast-paced introduction to the user-centered design process, intended to give students an experience with user-centered design that they can build on in later projects. Certain shortcuts like speculating as to their user's needs rather than confirming them directly will be corrected as they complete more developed versions of this design process. In this lesson the primary goal is to establish that design decisions will be made with the user's needs in mind. The practice of categorizing lots of disparate ideas to help make decisions will also reappear later in the unit.
Unit 4 Lesson 3
- Objectives
- Students will be able to:
- Generate multiple strategies for meeting user needs.
- Organize ideas and strategies into meaningful categories.
- Analyze and select the most appropriate strategies to meet user needs.
- Video of Lesson 3
- Complete the Activity Guide
- Students will be able to:
Material Links
- Power Points and Activities for each Lesson of Code.org Unit 4 Lesson 1-3
- Unit 4 Lesson 1-
- Activity Guide for Lesson 1
- Complete the Edupuzzle.com -Enter this class code account: ocladka
- Unit 4 Lesson 2
- Unit 4 Lesson 3
- Unit 4 Lesson 1-
All rights reserved © 2019 Gina Pepperman.
Created for ITD 645 Project at the University of Southern Mississippi -July 2019
Site last updated: July 8, 2019
Created for ITD 645 Project at the University of Southern Mississippi -July 2019
Site last updated: July 8, 2019