A remote bootcamp for up and coming designers
In the midst of the pandemic’s uncertain job market, Elephant set up a two month bootcamp for 10 college students and recent grads to learn product design and to build their portfolio. Our teaching core consisted of strategists, UX designers, visual designers, and prototypers who were each given a couple weeks to teach about their respective disciplines. I was tasked with co-creating and instructing the UX portion of the curriculum.
Roles
UX Design instructor
Scope
Product design bootcamp
Fundamental lessons
Using a Keynote presentation, we introduced the basic principles of design thinking, ideating, and wireframing. The main thing we wanted our students to take away was that good design serves people by understanding their behavioral and emotional needs. Whether it’s concepting a big idea or designing an interface, the focus should always come back to the user.
Remote workshops
Due to the nature of the pandemic, we had to find ways to virtually workshop with the class. We used Figma to organize a virtual classroom where we held various activities such as affinity mapping, dot-voting, and wireframing.
Design challenges
In addition to the lessons, we gave our students design challenges to apply their knowledge and build their portfolio. The class was split up into three teams, each with a unique project to work on. The briefs consisted of making an app for Trader Joe’s, a virtual collaboration board for designers, and a gameified platform to teach kids about nutrition.
