Engaging Students in the Design Process

Last Friday we were privileged to have students and faculty from the Little Black Pearl, Options Laboratory High School join us for a hands on workshop and prototyping session. The ID team introduced the students to the concept of human-centered design through an immersive design experience. The first activity of the day was self-guided "research" tour through the DuSable Museum of African American History. During the tour, the LBP students collected data about their experiences of the museum and its exhibits. The students took note of the content presented at the museum as well as the way in which the content was displayed. After completing the tour, we broke the students into teams of two for the second activity "Designing a Visit to DuSable." In pairs, the students acted as both design researchers and design participants as they shared the information they collected on their tour. The LBP students then worked individually to design an improved DuSable visit for their partner by brainstorming, sketching and finally building prototypes of the ideas.

The experience ended with a presentation of the ideas the LBP students designed. It was a great day! We learned a lot from the LBP student's insightful research and concepts and we hope that the students had a great time learning (and participating in) the human-centered design process. Also, in attendance at Friday's workshop was Lisa Montgomery, Director of IIT's Student Center for Diversity and Inclusion and Amanda Williams, Adjunct Faculty at IIT's School of Architecture. Lisa and Amanda were active participants in the workshop, coming up with some great interactive ideas to improve DuSable's student experience. We look forward to collaborating more with them both in the future.