Coded by: Kids

Coded by: Kids (CbK) is a wonderful non-profit operating in Philadelphia. They provide young people between the ages of 8 and 18, from underrepresented groups with software development, digital design, computer science, and tech startup-focused entrepreneurship education programs. As a member of the Mobiquity Community Outreach team, I was honored to help with their Ctrl+Shift program.

Ctrl+Shift is a competitive coding competition for teenagers run by CbK. Teens who participate in Ctrl+Shift compete for a $5000 grand prize by building websites that are judged by industry professionals. Through Ctrl+Shift students are able to put their web development skills into practice in a fun and competitive environment. During Ctrl+Shift teens take part in regular mentor sessions where employees from hosting tech companies help them prepare their projects for judging.

In February of 2020, Mobiquity was selected to run the second mentoring session called Intro to UX and Wireframing. Plenty of my fellow coworkers quickly stepped up to assist in the prep and planning of this session — all to ensure we provided the most valuable information and learnings to the high school students.

We hope to continue and expand our relationship with CbK as we move through 2020 and into 2021.

Guest Speaker: UX Grad Program

When my super-talented friend, and adjunct professor, Lauren Bauer asks you to be a guest speaker for her UX thesis students…you say YES! I certainly never had the chance to talk to college students about the work I do. And I for sure never thought I’d have the chance to talk to grad students. So, helping Lauren out at Jefferson University this past March was the perfect chance to cross some things off my career bucket list. :-)

Luckily, I didn’t have to talk on my own for 3 hours. Lauren also asked my coworker and super-talented friend Anna Budny to be a guest speaker…so this was all going to be perfect. Our mission was to talk about and facilitate exercises related to wireframes, prototyping, and usability testing to help students create optimal products. Turns out, those are exactly the things we’re most passionate about: research and crafting experiences.

Anna and I had plenty of content to evaluate for just this type of speaking event, so it was a process to evaluate and select just the right content and activities for our audience. Over the course of a few months (we do have real work to do :-), we were able to nail down our approach. On March 9, 2020 we put it all together. All the students were engaged, participated well, and asked insightful questions along the way. Overall this was a great experience throughout and I can’t thank Lauren enough for the opportunity.

Why didn’t we get a picture with Lauren!?