Children discussed non-design issues

DataArt Design Studio held a master class on interface design for children of colleagues. Every designer knows how important it is to think in work from the perspective of the end user, but how to prepare a master class for a company of children from 6 to 15 years old?

We started with a simple one, because even children understand that the information should be orderly, and that it would be inconvenient if the cocktails in the restaurant menu were mixed with borscht. It also turned out that children know at least 20 ways to motivate sheep to use new gates and do a good job with city navigation.


')
With the help of fun slides and tasks, children learned about many important things: how to conduct usability testing and what is information architecture, that there are no trifles in the work of the designer, and it is the details that make the products successful.

For two hours, first-graders, on a par with teenagers, were solving serious designer cases, meticulously drawing out the interfaces, completely clarifying the models of smartphones on the templates proposed by the leading ones, and excitedly shouting out the answers to the questions before they were asked.



On fonts, proportions and the golden section, the initiative was intercepted by teenagers. “Fonts come with serifs, grotesques and decorative ...” - “But what about monospaced ones?” The young man objected and closed the question with the topic of the next master class.

Listen to one of the participants:

Ivan Rozov, 9 years old

“If I were a designer, I’d add a video screen function to my smartphone’s interface so that it would be convenient not only to take screenshots, but also to make videos right during the game and make all sorts of instructions for use. And at the master class I liked to invent my road signs - I came up with the sign “Beware, aliens” and “It is forbidden to fry kebabs” ... It’s very interesting to work as a designer. You solve interesting problems, design interfaces, draw whatever you like. I actually like the designers of everything — the clothes, the space, and the interfaces — everything except advertising. ”



But what our designers think:

Alisa Blinova

“I was most worried that all our stories and questions would turn into sad monologues. I always asked to simplify everything and explain to each child every tricky word like “usability” or “information architecture”, but it turned out that these words were not at all difficult (although how was that?). Moreover, the children pulled their hands and wanted to say something all the time even before they were asked questions - this led me to complete delight. There was no silence at all! ”

Anastasia Rezhepp

“Of course, it was not easy for us to come up with questions that might interest both six and fifteen year olds. But as a result, we simply received completely different answers to the same questions. Where the smallest shouted "you need to open the door with telepathy!", The older ones offered to "conduct a survey to check the user's reaction to the door." On the question of the warmth of the color, someone introduced us to the adult discussion altogether, saying that “the color that is darker in RGB will also be warmer”. On the other hand, what could we expect - these are children of IT people! ”