A First Implementation of a Design Thinking Workshop During a Mobile App Development Project Course
This addresses the need for enhanced creativity training in project-based learning for millennial students in software development education, but it is incremental as it applies an existing method to a new educational context.
The authors tackled the challenge of integrating creativity into software development education by implementing a Design Thinking workshop in a mobile app development course, reporting observations and lessons learned to guide future implementations.
Due to their characteristics, millennials prefer learning-by-doing and social learning, such as project-based learning. However, software development projects require not only technical skills but also creativity; Design Thinking can serve such purpose. We conducted a workshop following the Design Thinking approach of the d.school, to help students generating ideas for a mobile app development project course. On top of the details for implementing the workshop, we report our observations, lessons learned, and provide suggestions for further implementation.