Lesson 10: Market Research

Students will be researching apps that could be similar to the ones they plan on creating. You can provide students with copies of the Market Research - Research Areas guide to students in their research. We haven't provided these directly to students because sometimes these sites are blocked by district filtering programs, or you may decide to add or remove items from this list as you see fit. We strongly suggest you check each site for inappropriate content and to make sure it will load on classroom computers before sharing it with students.

Distribute: Make sure each team has their materials available, especially the Team Contract they created yesterday.

Group: Have the students sit at their team tables. This will be the default seating arrangement for the rest of the unit.

Prompt: Today we will be looking at similar apps that might already exist for the topic and users we brainstormed yesterday. Before we go look online, What type of apps do you predict you’ll find when we do our research?

Discuss: Give groups a minute to journal individually, then brainstorm in their groups. Ask someone from each group to share with the class.

Discussion Goal: This is a quick, low-stakes brainstorm that asks students to bring in their own experiences with apps and imagine what apps might already exist for their same topic and user. Ideally, as groups share out, heading from other groups will inspire new ideas their group hadn’t considered.

Today you will work in your teams to research any similar apps that might already exist for your topic as a form of inspiration. This will also help narrow-in on the type of user you would like to design your app for, and the type of app you will be making. It’s okay to get inspired by the apps you see and borrow some of their ideas for your app, but we are not yet planning out the individual screens of what the app will look like - that happens in a later lesson.

Question of the Day: How can we use existing apps as inspiration for our own apps?

Distribute: Hand out one copy of the activity guide to each team.

Display: Read through the instructions on the Market Research activity guide. Every student is expected to find at least one app for the team to analyze.

Reducing Printed Materials: This Activity Guide can be completed online or as a journal activity. The Research Areas resource should also be distributed digitally.

Distribute: Digitally distribute copies of the Market Research - Research Areas handout.

Do This: Give students time to research individually first, then time to share the apps they found in their teams. They should make special note if there are any features of the apps they found that they might “borrow” for their own app.

Circulate: Monitor teams as they look for apps and complete the first page of the activity guide. This activity may start off quietly as students research on their own, but will gradually build to team conversations as they share the apps with their teams. Make sure teams are recording the name and location of the app they research, so they can later create a citation in their final presentation.

As students fill out the chart, circulate to ask them questions about why they chose those particular apps, and how they identified the app's target users. Make sure students are thinking about the target users as well as the general app topic. As they fill out the "liked" and "didn't like" columns, ensure that they are doing so from the perspective of their identified user group's needs, rather than their own personal preferences.

Display: Have teams transition to the second page of the activity guide and read the instructions. Inspired by their research, teams should have roughly 10 minutes to share specific ideas for the apps they want to make and the features the app should have. There is space for them to write down these ideas as team members propose them. As they generate ideas, they should also record the apps they discovered that inspired their ideas.

Circulate: Monitor students as they complete their brainstorm, ensuring all voices are heard in their discussions. Their goal today is to start getting more specific with the app the team wants to design, including the features the app should have. Emphasize that they will have time in the next lesson to make a final choice, plus time in future lessons to design the app.

Brainstorming: This brainstorming activity can also be done with Post It notes similar to yesterday’s activity. Students can write down their ideas as they have done in previous grouping exercises, then as a team select the top 3-6 ideas and record them on their activity guide.

Collect: Either collect the materials from each team or have students store their market research activity guide in the same place as their team contract so they can be accessed later.

Prompt: What is one feature you are excited for your app to have?

Discuss: Have students journal individually, then share in their groups. Ask one person from each group to share with the class.

Discussion Goal: This prompt is meant to generate shared excitement for the ideas they’ve generated so far, and build momentum for the next few lessons as they begin designing their user interface for their app. There are no right or wrong answers - it’s more important for each student’s voice to be heard within their group as they share the features they’re excited about.