Lewis Tucker, and I had the incredible opportunity to visit Hamstead Hall Academy for their Careers Day, an event designed specifically for Year 8 students who are about to make important decisions with selecting their GCSE subjects. As passionate digital enthusiasts, we were looking forward to sharing a sneak peak into digital careers – a field many students might not know much about.
Why We Did This
Our main objective for the day was to introduce the students to the diverse career opportunities within the digital realm, particularly in web development and experimentation.
With Year 8 students standing at the crossroads of important GCSE decisions, we aimed to equip them with knowledge and inspiration to guide their choices. As this school is local to us, it was important for us to give back and inspire the next generation. It was essential not only to introduce these young minds to new potential career paths in digital, but also to enhance our ability to communicate and engage a broader audience about what experimentation actually is, as it’s still quite a niche subject. We believe that every student deserves access to the skills and knowledge for a thriving career in digital.
A Day of Workshops
We crafted a day filled with interactive workshops designed for students to engage with their curiosity and spark creativity. Here’s a glimpse into our activities for thee day:
- Understanding Web Experimentation: We kicked off the day by demystifying web experimentation. We explained from the very basics of what it involves, why it matters, and the various roles available within the field. It was so amazing to see the students’ eagerness to learn about different career paths they haven’t even thought about.
- Ideation Breakout Activity: Next, we engaged the students in one of our favourite activities at Creative CX, a “Crazy 8’s” brainstorming session, tackling real-world challenges such as enhancing the school’s website homepage. The creative ideas flowed, especially as they worked with the simulated data we provided.
- Build Breakout: In this session, we guided the students through the exciting process of turning their design concepts into reality using simple web tools. We emphasised the importance of good UX design, sharing examples of what works and what doesn’t.
- Analysis Breakout: We introduced an “A/B test” scenario, allowing students to analyse data to evaluate the effectiveness of their experimental designs. It was so rewarding to witness the students getting excited about potential winners amongst their groups.
Celebrating Creativity
The students truly amazed us with their creative thinking. As we mentioned before, at Creative CX, we love facilitating “Crazy 8’s” sessions with our clients to encourage the generation of quick ideas. During these sessions, we also encourage clients to generate two “wild card” ideas as part of the process.
While these wild card ideas aren’t always feasible – sometimes they involve concepts that are too expensive to build, or even technologies that don’t exist yet – they are a fantastic way to foster creativity and open the door to some potentially unexpected solutions.
During our session, the students definitely embraced the nature of the wild card ideas, so we wanted to share a couple standout ideas that showcased their creativity.
- One student suggested having the school’s core values bounce across the screen on the homepage – something that would definitely grab attention!
- Another proposed increasing sign-ups for extracurricular activities by adding interactive elements like confetti and a ballerina skating across the page during peak traffic times. Safe to say we definitely encouraged the outlandish and fun ideas.
Learning to Embrace Risks and Boldness
One of the most memorable moments came when a student reflected…
“I learned it is good to be bold and take a risk with an idea.”
This insight encapsulated the spirit of experimentation we aimed to inspire. We set out to encourage these young minds to embrace fearlessness when it came to their creative endeavours. Speaking from experience, working in digital demands a mindset that is not only open to new ideas, but also willing to take risks.
Whether these students end up pursing careers in digital, the ability to think outside the box and take calculated risks will be invaluable, and usually takes people years to learn.
Conclusion
A huge thank you to Hamstead Hall Academy for hosting us and providing a platform to engage with such bright and enthusiastic students. We also want to give a special thanks to Georgiana Hunter Cozens, our data queen at Creative CX, for her invaluable support in planning the day and crafting engaging scenarios for the students.
As we reflect on this memorable day, we are filled with optimism for the future of digital innovation. These young students have the potential to become the next generation of creators and problem-solvers, and we can’t wait to see how they will shape the future of digital.
