Speaker, Gamification, UX Research
Teaching Design Thinking through Gamification
I got the opportunity to be a speaker on The 1st Floor Challenge workshops at Lumière Business University to talk about Design Thinking applied to Business Management. I also worked to transform their educational content into an immersive and engaging event through Gamification mechanics.
Background
The 1st Floor Challenge is an International Project Management workshop. Participants are immersed in a simulated scenario, that mimics a real-world situation. Each team has the opportunity to build and fly a Drone, while actively learning and applying Project Management, Sustainability, and Design Thinking methodologies in an integrated way. They’ve been involved in previous workshops in Portugal, Panama, and France.
I got the opportunity to go to their recent events in Lyon, France, and to talk about Design Thinking applied to Business Management. It was an amazing experience, and the response from the students was incredible.
You can check out their website, or contact them to organize the event yourself if you're keen!
Gamification in education
Apart from being the speaker for the Design Thinking section of the workshop, I also worked with the team to refine the overall learning experience through Gamification mechanics implemented. The overarching challenge was to transform business management educational content into an immersive and engaging event.
After observing the workshops and analyzing the pain points, I designed new educational material for the next The 1st FLoor Challenge workshop in Lyon. These improvements consisted of making clearer instructions and ensuring the students spent their time problem solving while minimizing the risk of failing to build a functional flying drone due to any misinterpretation of the brief.
The second challenge was to come up with a sustainable and economical solution that would still improve the learning experience. I succeeded in reducing both material cost and waste by designing a new workbook with re-usable materials such as the Inventory, the Drone Building Instructions, and Safety instructions.
“I finally finished a project from beginning to end. Educational, practical, and well taught.”
-Student feedback
Summing up
The 1st Floor Challenge is an international Project Management workshop in which the participants learn best practices by running a real project that involves building and flying your own drone. With their new and improved educational material, they're ready to keep teaching business practices in an innovative manner.