In July, AIGA Jacksonville hosted our 2nd Let’s Get Digital workshop series. The two-day workshop taught creatives how to use design thinking to solve real problems and design a mobile app. For this year’s event, we partnered with local nonprofit organizations, Jacksonville Public Education Fund and K9s For Warriors, to give participants a chance to work on impactful, real-world problems.

What is Let’s Get Digital? Video credit: Kurt Hudson

Each Saturday, a mixed crowd of designers, developers, and entrepreneurs of all experience levels gathered to learn about the processes and tools successful teams across the globe are using to build products and solutions. Our presenting sponsor, DiscoverTec, hosted us in their collaborative office environment, giving participants plenty of room to creatively express their ideas.

Workshop facilitators Amber Aultman, Anthony Catanese, and Jason Kellum lead participants through a series of small group discussions and design thinking activities.

Amber Aultman facilitates group discussions during one of the many breakout sessions. Photo credit: Kevin McDonald

Day One:

After introducing the nonprofit organizations and explaining what they need help with, participants divided up into smaller teams based on their interests. Day one set the stage with a focus on the problem space and personas and then transitioned into a fast-paced ideation session followed by wireframing. The session ended when each group presented their ideas and wireframes to workshop participants and made plans for the following session.

Groups brainstorm ideas through timed activities. Photo credit: Kevin McDonald

Day Two:

The focus of day two was on bringing each group’s ideas to life in an interactive prototype. The groups learned about creating minimum viable products, refining an elevator pitch, working with UI kits, and building a prototype in InVision. At the end of the day, leaders of Jacksonville Public Education Fund and K9s For Warriors joined the workshop for the final presentations. Each group pitched their idea and walked the audience through their interactive prototype. The nonprofits were pleased to see the results and excited to take ideas back to their organizations.

Groups collaborate while building clickable prototypes using InVision. Photo credit: Kevin McDonald

Ultimately this fast-paced workshop series covered many topics in a short amount of time. Participants were able to walk away with guidance for the creative thought process, new design skill sets, and portfolio-worthy clickable prototypes.

Participants take turns pitching their ideas and sharing prototypes to representatives from both nonprofits. Photo credit: Kevin McDonald

From all of us here at AIGA Jacksonville, we’d like to give thanks to those who participated, the non-profits for donating their time, and DiscoverTec for helping us make the event possible.

The next chapter of our Let’s Get Digital series will be returning in Summer 2017. Stay tuned.

More photos from the event can be found here.

Photos from the 2014 event can be found here.

– Jason Kellum and Amber Aultman, Let’s Get Digital Co-Chairs