Design Thinking with Mouse

by Corinne Brenner, PhD

It’s that time of year again…the post-it notes are flying, prototypes are being revised, and students all around NYC are diving into design thinking! 

Each Spring for the past few years, I’ve participated as a mentor for Mouse Design League. In Mouse’s program, students create their own tech projects to address a social need in their communities. I’m excited to meet with the first group this week and offer feedback about their projects! In the past, projects have ranged from apps to assist in learning to play the piano, to addressing crime in underserved communities. 

It’s always incredible to see how students’ use of empathy, ideation without judgment, and iteration – core elements of design thinking, but skills that often aren’t practiced in regular classroom practices – result in work they are really proud to showcase. As a mentor, one of the things that I can bring to the classroom is confirmation that professionals use these principles as well. Students are often surprised at how much a design can change between the first idea to the final product, but being willing to look beyond your own experience and revisit aspects of the design to better meet the underlying challenge is a key part of the design process. 

This year, Mouse’s focus is on integrations with AI. I can’t wait to see how students react to the benefits and limitations of platforms like LLMs. Every professional I know is navigating the need for authenticity, connection, and how to use technology to enhance, rather than dilute, the expression of their ideas, so it will be exciting to see how students’ creative processes develop in this new context.