What We Can All Learn from a 9-Year-Old App Designer
An invite from an Eco-Warrior
I received something magnificent in the post — a hand-written letter from my 9-year-old Godchild, asking me to build her an app for an idea she had. Passionate about the environment, she wanted to encourage others to become an eco-warrior. How could I say no?!
She envisaged an app full of useful things that you could do at home to reduce single-use plastic and landfill waste and to produce less CO2. She also wanted people to send in their tips as a way to encourage other eco-warriors to adopt eco-friendly habits.
There can be an element of mystery for anyone that has not worked on a software product before. I saw this as an opportunity to guide her through how apps are designed and developed.
Here I share my experience of working on this project and highlight some of the things I learnt about working with stakeholders along the way.
Giving the stakeholder an active role
The best way to learn is to be involved in the project from beginning to end. By playing a part in putting the app together, beyond the initial idea, my Godchild would feel more of a sense of ownership and pride.
Building excitement
The first thing I did was to write back and give her the good news that she had a new job in the App Design Team and that she will be responsible for designing the app. My role was to work with her as a Developer to write the code.
Beyond the letter, I wanted to offer a gesture that would make it feel ‘official’ and that her idea was taken seriously. I kept thinking of heartwarming stories from the Internet where young children are made honorary Fire-Fighters after a visit to a Fire Station; they would get a certificate with their name and new job title handed to them in a small ceremony.
An office is not a Fire Station, so I opted for a lanyard that displayed her name and job title and bundled it in with the letter. Then I received this message from her Mum:
Provide an appropriate level of guidance and support
I could have said “What does the app look like? ” and asked my Godchild to produce a design. Doing this may have given her complete freedom to design anything, but there was a risk that what she designed, would not have been feasible to build, or not completed to her level of expectation. To avoid disappointment, I needed to put some constraint on what I needed her to produce.
Co-Designing
I put together a simple user flow that followed ‘common’ app conventions, at a high-level. Providing her with a list of screens that would be in the app, I asked her to design what should go on each screen.
Bringing focus
Working this way gave her creative freedom to design each screen while ensuring that she maintained a focus on what was needed for the user and reducing the risk of designs ballooning in scope.
Providing her with the opportunity to sit down and draw what she wanted also gave her the structure she needed to communicate more about the intent of the app. This approach was my way of making sure her voice was heard, having ownership over the product and also gave me direction as a Developer.
Putting it all together
My role as a developer on this project was to bring the idea to life, so I felt it was important to have parity between the design and the final outcome. I arranged the UI components on each screen to match the design and, as it was going to be an Android app for mobile devices, I used a Material Design React Native library.
My Godchild was happy for me to produce the colour scheme, choose fonts, etc. so I took some design liberties towards the end to finish things off.
THE RESULT:
Objective to Outcome
Had this been a commercial project with a budget behind it, personas, a marketing strategy, etc. I would have considered this being a Minimum Testable Product that would go through rounds of usability testing and refinement before releasing it.
The goal for this project was to provide a learning experience with something tangible to share with schoolmates, so this felt like an appropriate point to conclude the project and deliver the app!
The response I got when I delivered the news that it was live in the store was fantastic. The work that went into this project had paid off and, most importantly, the “UK’s youngest App Designer” (in her own words) was over the moon.
Key Learnings
This project got me thinking about how I wanted stakeholders and other team members to feel when working on a project.
- Make it fun — We are responsible for creating the best experience for the intended user. We are also responsible for making the process fun and enjoyable for everyone involved.
- Go on a Journey — We should always plan projects with opportunities to include stakeholders in ways that move the project along and that provide enjoyable and memorable experiences.
- Play together — Experiment with workshop activities, as these are a great way to bring a team together and to provide the space to immerse themselves in creative thinking.
