DESIGN CONSULTATIONS Essential Question: How … L15.pdfcoming up ahead: think about an app description, the wireframe, and all the other materials you have used to design your app

IT: Design Consultations

Pathways to Prosperity Network 1

DESIGN CONSULTATIONS

Essential Question: How Do I Make My App “Real”?

Learning Targets:

Students will:

Identify and articulate strengths and selling points of their applications

Gain an understanding of the next steps needed to finish their final projects

Make data-driven decisions about the app design.

Lesson Overview

The flow of the lesson is designed to facilitate the continual reflection on criteria of quality in app

design. The foundation of this lesson is reflection and revision from peer feedback gleaned

during the usability testing and research exercises in lessons past. During the work time portion

of the lesson, you will be providing a writer’s workshop-style conference for teams, called a

Design Consultation. When students are not being consulted, they will be working on a coding

activity.



Lesson Agenda

Opening o Status of the Class (10 min)

Work Time o Coding Features (20 min)

o Design Consultations (30 min)

Closure o Red Light, Green Light (5 min)

Materials

Young Professional student packet

Consultation schedule (for teacher)

Design Consultation Graphic Organizer (for teacher to take notes during consultations)

Red, yellow, and green objects (i.e. popsicle sticks, poker chips, cards, etc.)

FACILITATION NOTES

Set Up: Design Consultations during work time are similar in structure to the consultations of a

writing workshop. The role to adopt in these consultations is that of a coach, not just an

information provider. Conferencing is the source of individualized instruction.

Format: To structure the 10-minute consultation sessions, follow the suggested protocol and

take notes on the Design Consultation Graphic Organizer. The steps to the protocol are as

follows:

1) Allow the teams to introduce their app and the summary of their feedback, as

well as their focus question that grounds the consultation session.

2) You then ask clarifying questions, as suggested on the graphic organizer.

3) Use the graphic organizer prompts in the table to address their focus question.

4) Provide time for a debrief of the feedback, during which teams respond to your

comments.

Protocols: The consultations might only last 5-8 minutes, but allot 10 minutes to include

transitions. Between consultancies, stand up and walk around the room, checking in on work

and reminding students to stay on task.



When students are not in a consultation: This consultation process requires teams to work

productively together with minimal supervision as you are busy with the individual consultations.

Before a team's consultation appointment, they should be working on reviewing their feedback

and composing their focus question, and after their consultation they should begin working on

their next steps. If teams finish reviewing their feedback and composing their focus questions

long before their turn for a consultation, you can encourage them to look ahead to the tutorial

they might need to complete their app feature and begin coding it.

Status of the Class: This exercise is used to quickly gauge student progress on activities.

Unlike the workshop versions, you will only need one sheet of paper. The process might be

bumpy at first, but will prove to be quite efficient with practice. You will use this exercise to

decide if you need to make changes to your consultation schedule.

Whip around protocol: This protocol is used when a one- or two-word answer can show

understanding, self- or group assessment, or readiness for a task. Ask students to respond to a

standard prompt one at a time, in rapid succession around the room.

IN ADVANCE

Prepare a draft of a consulting schedule. Be prepared to modify if it appears certain

groups want more time before consulting.

Familiarize yourself with the Design Consultation and Red Light, Green Light protocols.

Vocabulary

Content Tier II

flowchart, consultation, infinite loop,

algorithm

redesign, user-friendly, iterate, refine



Opening (5 min)

Status of the Class (5 min)

At this point, we now need to devote some design lab time to the creation of our apps. All teams

will begin revising the paper prototypes you have created so far, and consider the pieces

coming up ahead: think about an app description, the wireframe, and all the other materials you

have used to design your app. Today we will be making design consultation appointments to

discuss your options as a team for the completion of your final presentations.

First, let’s use the status of the class to report out. How are you feeling about your apps? Who is

ready for feedback? Who needs more time?

1. Reference your <Status of the Class> sheet.

2. Ask students to gather with their groups and discuss: Have you identified the areas

where you need the most feedback? On a scale of 1-10, how ready do you feel to have

a consultation? Have students agree on one number and the item that they are

struggling with most (or is least prepared).

3. Explain when a group is called, they are to say their “readiness” number, and the item

they would like to spend more time on.

4. Mark down the number and item for each group on the appropriate line.

5. Monitor what groups have lower numbers, and give them more time to prep before

consulting.

Work Time (50 min)

Coding Features (20 min)

Let’s think about the features of your apps from the last class. What features of your app will require code? What terminology might you need to know to begin to program those features? What tutorials will your team need to complete in order to learn this type of code? We will begin to think about these pieces before your consultations. During consultation times, groups will continue to work on this activity or begin to code while I meet with groups. It will be important for teams to stay focused during this time, so I can support each team in preparing for their next steps.

1. Tell the teams to brainstorm and list which features of their apps will require code based

on the reflective activities prior.



2. Distribute the <Features-to-Code Matching Chart>. Encourage YPs to reference the

<App Inventor Features Glossary> (SEE: Lesson 13) to help fill in the blanks.

3. Ask: “Which feature of your app is the most important?” Invite YPs to turn and talk

within their teams to share which feature they found to be most important. Teams should

work together to select at no more than three features.

4. Explain to teams that they will now go to a computer and begin to look at tutorials from

the MIT App Inventor website. Request that YPs find 1-2 tutorials that will allow them to

learn the coding process for that feature. Have YPs bookmark or write down how to find

the tutorial again. (Note: Begin consultations a few minutes into the online portion of this

activity.)

5. Explain that teams will use this tutorial to code at least one of their app’s features.

Teams should use the <App Inventor Feature Glossary> to help support their search

for the right tutorial, and they should assign new team roles:

o Taskmaster: Ensures the team remains on task at all times and focuses on the

need-idea chosen to prototype.

o Organizer: Helps the team organize their thoughts into a logical story that makes

sense for the app description.

o Scribe: Takes notes throughout the brainstorm process and scribes the draft

paragraph of the app description with input from the team.

o Communicator: Ensures the draft description is ready for presentation and

communicates the app description to the class.

o Reflector: Will observe group dynamics and Young Professionals behavior.

6. Have each team share out their ideas and tutorials with the class.

Red Light, Green Light (during worktime)

After our deep redesign work today, I need to get a sense of your level of confidence in your

upcoming work. How prepared do you feel about accomplishing the next steps of your design

goals?

1. Explain that as you hold up an object, design teams should raise their hands based on

how prepared they feel to accomplish next steps.

o Red object: The team does not feel prepared and needs more guidance in order

to move forward.

o Yellow object: The team feels prepared to move forward with some next steps,

but still has a few clarifying questions that need answering.



o Green object: The team feels prepared to move forward with all next steps.

2. As the YPs raise their hands, take note of how prepared each team feels.

3. Be prepared to use this feedback to help guide groups to accomplishing their design

goals in the next lesson.

Design Consultations (30 min)

At this point, we now need to devote some design lab time to the creation of our apps. All teams

will begin revising the paper prototypes you have created so far: the app description, the wire

frame, and the coding flowchart. You will make a design consultation appointment with me

to discuss your options as a team for the completion of your final Ignite presentations.

1. Post the <Consultation Schedule> sign-up sheet.

2. Explain to students that a consultation is a meeting with an expert to discuss a

topic or issue in their work.

3. Distribute the <Next Steps Note-Catcher>.

4. Explain to students the steps of the consultation process:

o Each team will need to use their peer feedback notes to pose a Focus

Question.

What adjustments do we need to make to our code to make our

app’s feature as user-friendly as possible?

What is a similar app on the market, and how might yours be

better?

o The YPs should write the focus question on the <Next Steps Note-

Catcher>.

5. Explain to teams that they should begin working on their revisions of the paper

prototypes while they wait for their appointment time, and to behave as Young

Professionals.

6. Meet with teams in 10-minute intervals, using the <Design Consultation Graphic

Organizer>.

o Allow the teams to introduce their app and the summary of their feedback, as

well as their focus question that grounds the consultation session.

Timing for

consultations is

dependent on class

size: if you have ten

design teams, you

are going to need

more than an hour to

conduct a ten-minute

consultation with

each team. Classes

with many teams may

need to extend these

consultations over

multiple class

sessions, possibly by

having the

consultations

continue in the

background of the

group work time

activities in the

previous and

subsequent lessons.



o Ask clarifying questions, as suggested on the graphic organizer.

o Use the graphic organizer prompts in the table to address their focus question.

o Provide time to debrief each team’s feedback, during which teams respond to

your comments.

o Share with teams the following choices for next steps:

A. Revise paper prototypes (app description, wire frame, coding flowchart);

B. Work on specific tutorials to code their app’s feature;

C. Work on programming the app’s feature in App Inventor;

D. Begin putting together the final presentation using the <Presentation

Slidedeck> that must include:

i. App description;

ii. Wireframe of at least 3 different pages/screenshots of the app;

iii. Final code of at least one of the app’s features;

iv. Additional images/visuals that relate to the app’s story and the need

or problem it addresses.

Closure (5 min)

Closing reflection (5 min)

We will end today by participating in a reflection activity to hear about how teams felt about their

consultations, and how each team demonstrated Young Professionals behavior. The team

Communicator and Reflector will be asked to share out to the class.

1. Follow the <Whip Around> protocol.

2. Ask the team Communicator to reflect and share on team progress.

3. Ask the team Reflector to share out 1-5 examples of how their team modeled effective

Young Professional Behavior.



Name: Date:

DESIGN CONSULTATIONS: How Do We Proceed with Our Apps?

Today’s Learning Objectives:

I can:

Identify and articulate strengths and selling points of their applications

Gain an understanding of the next steps needed to finish their final projects

Make data-driven decisions about the app design.

The flow of the lesson is designed to facilitate the reflection on criteria of quality in app design.

First, my team will organize the various features of our app using a coding flowchart. During the

work time portion of the lesson, the teacher will be providing a writer’s workshop-style

conference for my team, called a Design Consultation, where we will receive feedback on our

app descriptions, wire frames, and coding flowcharts in order to refine our final products.

Today’s Activities:

Coding Features

Design Consultations

Red Light, Green Light



Features-to-Code Matching Chart



Next Steps Note-Catcher

Consultation Focus Question:

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

What are your next steps for revision of the design? Choose from below and assign to a team

member:

A. Revise paper prototypes (app description, wire frame, coding flowchart);

B. Work on specific tutorials to code their app’s feature;

C. Work on programming the app’s feature in App Inventor;

D. Begin putting together the Ignite presentation, 20 slides that must include:

i. App description;

ii. Wire frame of at least 3 different pages/screenshots of the app;

iii. Coding flowchart;

iv. Final code of at least one of the app’s feature;

v. Additional images/visuals that relate to the app’s story and the need or

problem it addresses.

Team Member Work to Be Completed by Team Member before the Next Lab Session



Presentation Slide Deck









Facilitator Documents:

Design Consultation Schedule Time (15-minutes

apart) Design Team Name Focus Question



Design Consultation Graphic Organizer

Guiding Questions for Consultations:

Use these questions to facilitate the conversations you have with teams about their design work

and peer feedback from the coding flowcharts.

What is working?

Where are you struggling?

What surprised you about your peer feedback?

How will you resolve the issues pointed out in the feedback?

What ideas do you have?

Team Name Challenges Ideas for Revision Next Steps



Team Name Challenges Ideas for Revision Next Steps