Highlights from the 2024 Youth Design Team

In January 2024, the Cooney Center announced 10 fellows in our inaugural Well-being By Design cohort. Since then, the fellows have been meeting regularly to learn about the frameworks and approaches that can help media and technology companies integrate well-being principles deeply into their products for children.

During this period, the fellows have had opportunities to workshop their emerging insights with a parallel cohort of teenagers in the Cooney Center’s Youth Design Team. With representation from across three US time zones, this diverse group of young people brought their perspectives, questions, and interests into rich dialogues with the fellows. The results of these intergenerational conversations were valuable for everyone involved: fellows established a better sense of “ground truth” based on the first-person experiences of the youth designers; youth designers broadened their understanding of how research, design, and product development unfolds in professional settings; and in some cases, sparks of genuinely new ideas began to catch fire.

The Cooney Center’s 2024 Youth Design Team

Candice (11th grade)	Hasan (11th grade)	Kosmo (9th grade)
Leena (11th grade)	Prince (11th grade)	Ryan (8th grade)
Sally (11th grade)	Simran (11th grade)	Tithi (9th grade)

 

Aatash Parikh, Well-being By Design fellow and founder of Inkwire, shared that, “Working with the Youth Design Team gave us not only fresh and practical product feedback from a youth perspective, but it helped us explore new possibilities and directions that we hadn’t considered for how our product could empower young people.”

The youth designers felt similarly enthusiastic about their experience with Inkwire and the nine other companies represented by the fellows in the cohort:

Learning about how companies are using their platform to target diverse audiences has inspired me to think about the relationships I have and how I can use my technological experiences to benefit my community. —Leena

When I first entered the program I was nervous to share ideas and contribute. What I didn’t realize was the amazing crew and designers that were validating my ideas and made me feel like my contribution was useful. —Hasan

I do feel that I have had an impact on technologies that I or other people might use by not only applying my own unique experiences but also putting myself in other people’s shoes. With PBS KIDS, for example, I suggested possible activities I would have loved as a kid and how to make these activities more accessible for kids today. —Simran

I think all the other fellows and I have helped make the designs a lot more personalized and focused to our age range. I noticed that many of the designs seemed very general. With our input, we made sure that they were personalized and appealing to young people. —Tithi

I’ve come to realize that a product is made through a lot of trial and error and built up by the feedback of many people.  —Sally

The Youth Design Team concluded with a panel discussion with three of the fellows so that the youth could understand their career paths and ask questions important to them. We also asked for feedback from both the adult fellows and youth designers as the Cooney Center looks forward to bringing more youth into design conversations, particularly for teens who are interested in seeking careers in design and technology.

In addition to the reciprocal learning among the adult fellows and youth designers, we at the Cooney Center learned a lot through this experience too. One of our favorite takeaways: both the youth and adults wanted to spend more time with each other and build sustained relationships. As one youth designer put it,

My only improvement would be having more meetings. I absolutely loved this experience, and the only way I could see it improving is if there were more opportunities and meetings with fellows. —Candice

 

We couldn’t agree with her more. Special thanks to the whole Youth Design Team for a great experience!