Mockups

Update 7/30/2021: Unfortunately, Mockups does not seem to be available for purchase any longer.  For a similar game that is great to use for Design Thinking, I recommend Disruptus.  Also, here is a list of books, including picture books, to use with Design Thinking.  And don’t forget that I provide professional development on Design Thinking as well! 

In that creepy way that Amazon has of knowing all about you, it recommended Mockups to me when I was searching for another brainstorming game someone had recommended on Twitter.  The original game was not available, so I thought I would give Mockups a try instead.

Mockups is a good game to practice Design Thinking.  It includes cards of three different colors.  Pick a card of each color, and you suddenly have a Design Thinking Challenge.  A white card tells you the person you are designing for, the gray card tells you what to design, and the black card will give you a constraint for that design.

As an example, I just randomly selected: Adventurous Preschoolers, A Way to Keep Their Hands Warm, Absorbent.  There are suggested “games” to play using the card, such as giving the challenge to teams to come up with the best answer or making groups work silently on creating a solution.  Of course, you can use the cards however you want.

This can be a fun way to encourage creativity, and students can learn empathy and new vocabulary as they design.  The suggested ages, according to Amazon, are 6+.  I took out the card, “bartenders,” but didn’t see any others that were objectionable.

For some other Makerspace challenge ideas, check out this recent post.