MSU iOS Design Lab Students present at Detroit Apple Academy
On May 4, 2022 students from the Michigan State University iOS Design Lab traveled to the Apple Developer Academy in Detroit to present the culmination of the work they have done throughout the 2021/2022 academic year. In attendance were over 40 iOS academy students and representatives from the Apple educational team. The seven MSU students highlighted their journey through the challenge-based learning space and how they used human-centered design approaches to better understand the problems and solutions they face as students. This spring, the students completed a design sprint that focused around the subject of mental health. In order to determine the best way to engage users, they carried out three prototype experiments, using insights discovered through their research to guide their development. These prototypes included creating a sensory room using projection mapping tools and Apple watches to monitor heart rates and a shortcuts based notification system that offered stress relieving tips and exercises based on calendar events.
The iOS Design lab was formed in 2018 and offers a one-of-a-kind university experience and is made up of students from various colleges and programs from within MSU. The main focus of the lab is for students to gain experience working in diverse teams to discover issues within their communities and design impactful solutions using the Apple ecosystem. Among the challenges of being part of the lab, students are able to work in an environment where failure and ambiguity are embraced and utilized to help learning outcomes and job preparation.
“Being part of the iOS Design Lab has been a really great way to gain experience not only in terms of working in the UX field, but being part of a team that comes from many different backgrounds. Typically in my courses I work mostly with other XA students, in the iOS lab I was able to collaborate with students from multiple different majors. When everyone brings something unique to the table, you end up with a really interesting process and end result.”
– Kate Schleusener, Experience Architecture major and Theater minor
From Heather Noonan, a graduating Senior with a double major in Computer Science and Statistics
“ I was pleasantly surprised by the responses we got through questions asked both publicly and privately of us after our presentation. No one questioned the validity of our idea, which I expected, maybe because I’ve seen too many episodes of Shark Tank. In fact, many asked what our plans moving forward were and when we expected to launch the real app. I was also surprised at how many students asked us for advice or how we overcame certain obstacles. To me this suggested that our presentation came off respectable and somewhat relatable to these students.”
While the MSU iOS design lab is only open to enrolled university students, the Apple Developer Academy is open to the entire Detroit community. From Sarah Gretter, Director of the Detroit Apple Developer Academy “Hosting the iOS Design Lab presentations at the Apple Developer Academy was a great opportunity to connect MSU students with Detroit students around their app development projects. I am looking forward to more insightful and energizing conversations between our two groups in the near future.”
The group was led by the teaching team of Jeff Kuure, Brittnay Stahl, Ken Szymusiak, and Daniel Trego.