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How to get kids interested in design?

6 points by squarks ↗ HN
There already are efforts to get kid involved in programming, but what about design? It seems a little harder for kids to even understand what design is and that you can make a career out it, compared to programming. But for a lot of kids I think design is a better match for them than programming. Anyone have any success getting kids interested and started in design? Any resources that help?

7 comments

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jaakk
Hey, that's a really interesting discussion. The easiest way to get kids involved and interested in design is probably through play. When the whole learning experience is made easy and playful enough, one can start teaching fast and build more complicated assignments on top of that knowledge later on. My experience is based on building a 3D modeling platform to get children interested in design (https://3dc.io). What we found is that once you get the kids modeling and collaborating with each other in a fun and engaging way, it's possible to successfully teach them problem solving in wider contexts (even design thinking) already in the primary school. They key seems to be making the learning experience gradual, fun and accessible.
michaelflux
It depends a lot on the age of the kids of course, but as @jaakk said, play. It's hard to get kids to be interested in something if you're just sitting them down and trying to explain it to them. Get hands on. For the purpose of this answer I'm going to assume you mean "design" in the general sense of the word, not just web design.

Show them how design is responsible for every day things that they're already using. Take them to an industrial design museum, perhaps a conference that focuses on 3D printing so they can see with their own eyes how everyday things are created from scratch. Next time you drive past a stop sign, ask them why they think it's red - that alone opens up doors to discussions about everything from psychology to evolution.

squarks
Yes I do mean design in general. The book titled "The Design of Everyday Things" is pretty good IMO, but probably would only interest an older child. Maybe some of the work is to just point out that creating things people use requires making decisions and that whole process is "design."
eerikkivistik
I've found that a goal combined with play seems to be effective. People like learning if it is a way to build something they want to build. So maybe try finding something that the child wants to build and then get to design through that?
DanBC
Start early: make art supplies and art toys easily available.

Talk about it - talk about how it's easy to use this app because the designers made it easy to use, or it's hard to use this app because the designers made it hard to use. When reading books talk about the images and the fonts. (For example, Sam and Dave Dig A Hole has lovely drawings, large print, and a clean simple font with high contrast. Farther has a weird font in a low contrast.)

Involve them in decisions about decoration and room layout. Introduce simple design and art concepts early, and help them spot patterns. "Colour wheels" are simple enough, so you could buy a bunch of paint and do some potato printing with complementary colours, and clashing colours.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sam-Dave-Dig-Hole-Barnett/dp/140636...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/FArTHER-Grahame-Baker-Smith-x/dp/18...

PS: If you're involved in children's books, and you want to use a weird font: just fucking don't.

RUG3Y
Model interest in design for them through your behavior, and provide opportunity in the form of tools, supplies, books, and exciting examples. Then encourage them in the right way when they do things. The child may or may not develop a lasting interest in design, everyone is different.