Littleton High School IB Design Students DELIVER on LINK & APH Design-a-thon Challenge
Project Introduction
In September 2026, we had the privilege of hosting a two weeklong Design-a-thon at Littleton High School in collaboration with the American Printing House for the Blind.
The Goal: Create an educational toy module for children with limited vision.
Nine students in the IB Design class were put to the test with accelerated curriculum focused on empathetic design, brainstorming, and prototyping tailored to specific user personas. The experience concluded with students presenting innovative concepts to a panel of judges, addressing diverse visual abilities, age groups, interests, and physical and cognitive needs.
Littleton High School Students creating low fidelity prototypes for their educational toy modules.
Classes and Deliverables
LINK PBC presented three classes featuring informative sessions, interactive activities, and guided worksheets. Each class was designed to guide students through the design and development process in an approachable, engaging way.
User Research: Students wore low-vision simulation glasses to better empathize with users experiencing visual impairments during everyday tasks. They created targeted user personas for specific age groups (1–3, 3–5, and 5–7 years old) with diverse cognitive and physical capabilities to guide their design choices.
Brainstorming: Each team received a set of opportunity statements tailored to their user persona to kickstart group discussions. Students sketched ideas and posted them on a shared whiteboard to encourage collaboration and to build on each other's concepts. After working through the prompts, teams narrowed down their ideas to select the most promising concepts.
Mock-up Development & Product Testing: Using various materials and tools in the LHS studio, students built low-fidelity physical prototypes of their ideas. With every iteration, they refined their designs for higher quality and detail, re-testing them with the low-vision simulation glasses to ensure they functioned as intended.
At the conclusion of the two-week program, each team presented their final concept mock-up and pitch deck to a panel of volunteers from the American Printing House for the Blind and LINK PBC. We could not be more impressed by these students and the positive impact their work will have on the low-vision community.
Why This Matters to LINK PBC
LINK PBC is committed to supporting the future generation of Industrial Designers, researchers, and engineers. In collaboration with donated printers from Bambu Labs, we push to bring “Design for Good” challenges to local schools and communities as a part of our effort to donate a portion of annual hours towards reduced rate or pro-bono services.
Thank You
Special thanks to LHS teacher, Brian Jernigan for allowing us into his studio to engage with his incredible students, and American Print House for providing our challenge statement, insight, and feedback for continued development. And lastly, thank you to the students who continue to bring creative and thoughtful ideas to life.
October Update: Continued Design Development
Following the Design-a-thon, prototypes and presentations from LHS were brought to the University of Colorado Boulder as a crash course in understanding APH and their users. Led by Brian Jernigan and representatives from APH, this group of mechanical engineering students are tasked with refining the initial concepts into a cohesive solution for a more diverse range of users for their capstone design projects. During one of the first classes (shown below), students reviewed the prototypes and appreciated the foundation presented to them from the IB design students. We’re excited to see how the projects progress, and for potential collaborative efforts between the high school and college groups.
CU Boulder and Brian Jernigan starting off the new semester by reviewing the Design-a-thon prototypes created by the Littleton High School IB students.