User problem identification
User problem identification starts with observation and interviews, not with an idea you already like.
AI for Kids · Class 8 · Module 9 of 9
Impact Challenge
Find someone with a real problem. Build something they would actually use.
8 sessionsSessions 65–72
4 weeksTypical pace
IntermediateLevel
Class 8Artificial Intelligence
The big idea
A design-led challenge: identify a user, prototype quickly, test with that user, and iterate based on what they do rather than what they politely say.
Why it matters
Building for someone other than yourself is the step that turns a school exercise into genuine design work.
Unpacked
What you will actually learn
Three core ideas, each taught with worked examples and then practised until it feels obvious.
Prototyping
Prototyping means building the roughest version that can be tested. Polish comes only after the idea survives.
Testing and pitching
Testing and pitching means watching real use, then presenting what you learned alongside what you built.
Did you know?
Designers often build deliberately rough prototypes, because polished ones make testers reluctant to criticise them honestly.
Common mix-up
“Users will tell you what they want.” They will describe what they think they want. What they do while testing is the real data.
Session by session
Your 8-session journey
Sessions 65–72 of the 72-session year, at two one-hour sessions per week.
- 1
Warm-up and big picture
Where this module fits, what you will build, and a hands-on starter that gets everyone curious about user problem identification.
- 2
User problem identification
Guided teaching on user problem identification, worked through together with the teacher.
- 3
User problem identification — practice lab
Independent practice, small challenges and one deliberate mistake to diagnose.
- 4
Prototyping
Guided teaching on prototyping, building directly on the previous two sessions.
- 5
Prototyping — practice lab
Applied tasks that combine user problem identification and prototyping in one piece of work.
- 6
Testing and pitching
Testing and pitching introduced and practised, completing the toolkit needed for the project.
- 7
Project build
Guided build session for the module project: AI-for-good solution showcase.
- 8
Test, present and reflect
Finish, test against the checklist, present the work and explain the decisions behind it.
Project lab
AI-for-good solution showcase
Every module ends with something the student built themselves and can demonstrate. This is the piece that goes into their portfolio and gets explained out loud at the end of session 72.
Try this at home
Test your prototype with one real user and say nothing while they use it. The silence is uncomfortable and enormously informative.
It is finished when
- It works from start to finish without breaking
- You can explain every part of it in your own words
- You tested it and improved at least one thing afterwards
- Someone else used or understood it without your help
By the end of this module
Students finishing Module 9 can:
- Explain and use user problem identification without prompting
- Explain and use prototyping without prompting
- Explain and use testing and pitching without prompting
- Build and finish ai-for-good solution showcase
- Test your own work and correct what you find
- Talk an adult through what you made and why
Word bank
The vocabulary introduced here, in plain language:
- prototype
- An early testable version of an idea.
- user testing
- Watching real people use your solution.
- iteration
- Improving through repeated build-test cycles.
Module challenge
Think you have got this?
0 XPLevel 1 · Curious Beginner
6 quick questions drawn from this module — vocabulary, the project you build, and a myth-or-fact round. Every wrong answer explains itself, so a mistake still teaches you something.
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