Day 8 - Program Design Techniques

Day 8: Program Design Techniques

Review and Connection (3 minutes)
- Review program requirements concepts from previous lesson
- Connect to today's focus on translating requirements into design
Warm-up Activity (5 minutes)
- Show students 2-3 different user interfaces for similar applications
- Ask them to identify strengths and weaknesses of each design

Lecture: Design Phase Techniques (12 minutes)
- Explain key program design techniques:
  - Brainstorming and ideation
  - Storyboarding user interactions
  - Wireframing interfaces
  - Flowcharting program logic
  - Modular design (breaking program into components)
- Discuss principles of effective UI design:
  - Consistency
  - Simplicity
  - Feedback
  - User control
  - Accessibility
- Show examples of good and poor UI designs
Demo: Creating UI Diagrams and Layouts (8 minutes)
- Demonstrate how to create a simple wireframe
- Show how to storyboard a user interaction
- Explain how to document UI elements and their functions
- Connect UI design to program requirements
Activity: "Diagramming" (12 minutes)
- Divide class into small groups (3-4 students)
- Each group plays a simple board game for 5 minutes
- Groups then create flowcharts showing:
  - The sequence of actions in the game
  - Decision points and their outcomes
  - How the game interface communicates information to players
- Groups share their diagrams with the class

Individual Design Activity (7 minutes)
- Based on the program requirements developed in the previous lesson
- Students create a storyboard and UI layout for their program
- Design must include:
  - Main screens/views
  - Key UI elements and their functions
  - User interaction flow
Preview Next Lesson (3 minutes)
- Explain that next class will focus on program documentation
- Ask students to think about why documentation is important in programming