Design Squad Maker
An app to support maker spaces
The Maker Space at New York Hall of Science
At GBH Kids, I was the lead UX + Visual Designer on an exciting project in partnership with the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI). Our team was tasked with creating an app that could support in-person design workshops hosted at the museum’s Maker Space. This app is also available to the public via the App Store, as well as other Maker Spaces around the nation.
The goal of the app is to support budding designers + engineers throughout various stages of the Design Process:
Finding a problem to solve
Brainstorming + sketching ideas
Building a prototype
Testing a prototype
Iterating on a design to make it better
Creating an experience that felt intuitive, valuable, and didn’t get in the way of hands-on making
Creating the user experience for this app was a fun challenge. Because the process of designing + building prototypes involves lots of hands-on activity, we needed to make sure the app felt like it was enriching the physical experience, not getting in the the way of it. I landed on a modular approach that includes a few key features (note-taking, drawing, photo-taking and checklist tools) and allows kids to utilize these same few tools in different ways throughout the design process.
A handmade look and feel
As the Visual Designer on this project, I wanted the app to capture the imperfect, handmade quality of the kids’ physical creations. That’s why the buttons + typography look like they were cut from paper, and the backgrounds look like they were made of cardboard + wood.
