Event report on the “Summer Vacation Design Workshop” to develop thinking and creative skills

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On August 3 (Sat) and 4 (Sun), 2024, a workshop was held for TDC SOFT Inc. employees and their children to familiarize them with UX design through crafts and to test the effectiveness of the “UX Design Starter Kit” developed by TDC SOFT. The following is a report on the workshop, in which participants tackled crafts from the “user’s perspective,” which is different from ordinary crafts.

background

TDC SOFT Inc. is a system integration company, but in the course of our work, we have come to believe that “the world will come to a point in the future where everyone will need the power of design.

Therefore, the CX&UX Design Promotion Department, the organizer of this workshop, has developed the “UX Design Starter Kit,” a worksheet that enables non-designers to practice a series of UX design processes, with the mission of “making design the next normal thing for everyone. We have conducted effectiveness tests for non-designer adults and university students and have confirmed that it is effective, but in order to make design the norm for all, we thought it was necessary to expose even younger children to design from an early age.

Therefore, we held a workshop for elementary school students to experience design using the UX Design Starter Kit, creating an opportunity for design education and parent-child communication.

What is the UX Design Starter Kit?

The UX Design Starter Kit was developed to enable non-designers to think the same way as designers, so that they can create products and services from the user’s perspective. The kit includes 9 worksheets and manuals for each of the 6 processes of UX design, as well as a checklist that enables designers to check the quality of the content themselves. The worksheets can be selected and discarded according to the theme of the project, allowing the user to work on the design process in the most appropriate way.

Since the participants of the Summer Vacation Design Workshop were elementary school students, we tried to avoid the impression that the workshop was difficult or boring by using a colorful color scheme, using words that are child-friendly, and writing furigana for all kanji characters to make it fun to work on.

Lecturers

The lecturer was Nodoka Kuwana from the CX&UX Design Promotion Department.

CX & UX Design Promotion Department, Design & Technology Consulting Division, Digital Technology Headquarters
HCD-Net Certified Human Centered Design Specialist
Nodoka Kuwana

HCD-Net Certified Human-Centered Design Specialist is a certification system for HCD specialists conducted by the Human-Centered Design Promotion Organization. Human-Centered Design is a standard established in “ISO 9241-210” and “JIS Z 8530:2021” and based on “Ergonomics – Human-Centered Design of Interactive Systems”, the Human-Centered Design Promotion Organization certifies individuals with the competence to practice “Human-Centered Design” as specialists

After joining the company in 2019, he gained development experience in an agile development PJ for services for elementary and junior high school education, and joined the UX design business in 2022. She provides UX design services for transportation, education, and local government, and serves as an in-house training instructor.

Workshop Outline

Summer Vacation Design Workshop

Date ： 2024/8/3(Sat)4(Sun) 10:00~15:00 (Choose one day)
Organizer ： TDC SOFT Inc.
Target ： Children of TDC SOFT Inc. employees (1st~6th grade)

Flow of the day

A total of 15 children participated in the two-day event and experienced the following processes in the UX design process. 8/4 (Sunday), Mr. Wakatsuki and Mr. Takeda from Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company also volunteered to participate, giving advice to the children and helping them with their crafts.

Output example (Y, age 9)

We conducted an interview on the theme of “tidying up,” and discovered that the mother had a challenge: “I want Y-san to tidy up on his own. So, I came up with the idea of deciding what to organize for the day in the form of a timetable, something I am usually used to seeing.

If I couldn’t keep it, I banned the game!” The design of the game table was designed in such a way as to penalize the mothers for their failure to follow the rules.

results of implementation

After evaluation from three perspectives (management, parents, and children themselves), we rated the design practices of elementary school students using the starter kit as generally feasible.

Evaluation from the management's point of view

Evaluation from a Parent's Perspective

Children's own evaluation

This was done by means of a test with a total of four questions that asked about the design mind and process. The results showed that regardless of age, the children were able to understand the order of mind and process. In particular, all 15 children answered correctly the two process questions, and commented that they “understood that the first thing to do in design is to know what the problem is” and “understood that there is an order to design.

Participant's Voice

We received the following comments from children and parents who participated in the workshop.

child (someone else's)

  • It is very difficult to respond perfectly to the needs of others. (Age 11)

  • It was fun to think about how to make it work and go through trial and error. (12 years old)

  • I learned that the first thing to do in design is to know what is troubling you. (Age 9)

  • I learned that design has compassion for people. (Age 11)

guardian

  • As soon as he arrived home, he used it and further improved it based on what was difficult to use and the work of his friends.

  • The level of production was higher than usual because the design was considered problem-solvable.

  • Crafts that are usually created from one’s own perspective were made with ease of use in mind this time, and I could sense the desire to improve and create something better without being satisfied.

  • I learned new discoveries by making them from different perspectives.

Please contact TDC SOFT Inc. for design education!

Through this summer vacation design workshop, we provided an opportunity for children to experience the fun and satisfaction of creating things from the user’s perspective.

TDC SOFT Inc. is committed to solving a variety of issues in addition to the following challenges and concerns.

  • We want our employees to acquire the ability to proactively and collaboratively identify and solve problems.

  • We want to develop human resources who can play an active role in the future.

  • We want to develop human resources who can respond flexibly to issues and problems.

We also provide a number of training services for human resource development, so please feel free to contact us for more information!