During my first semester in the MEITE program, I had the privilege of working with several talented individuals on a project for our Design of Emerging Technologies for Education class. The goal of our project was to develop a program called Circle Keeper that teachers and other stakeholders could use to track student data trends and their relationship to interventions taken for individual students. Specifically, we chose to work with Restorative Circles as they are new behavioral intervention that many schools are utilizing. However, this could be expanded to work for a plethora of behavioral intervention techniques.
In the process of developing the Circle Keeper application, the design thinking process was a critical component. Through this process, my team was able to empathize with users and understand their needs and challenges. One way my team accomplished this was by interviewing subject matter experts on Restorative Circles to gain insights into the intervention technique and its impact on student behavior. Additionally, my team also solicited feedback from potential end-users, including teachers and classmates, to ensure that the application met their needs and was user-friendly.
The design thinking process also helped my team to define the scope of the project, including identifying the key features and functionality needed to make the application successful. By storylining and wireframing, my team was able to map out the initial design and create prototypes that could be tested and refined based on user feedback.
Overall, the Circle Keeper application serves as an excellent example of how the design thinking process can be utilized to develop emerging technologies for education. By using a customer-centric approach and engaging in user research and testing, my team was able to create a product that met the needs of its intended users and had the potential to impact student behavior in a positive way.
Below you will find a link to my team’s Google website which outlines the design thinking steps that were used to create a prototype of our Circle Keeper application. Within this website you will also find a link to our interactive prototype. I encourage you to explore this site to learn more about this amazing prototype, my design team, and the processes that used to create our final product.
