Looking for some fun design challenges that you can do at home? Here are 10 design challenges to get you using your imagination to solve real-world problems.
Free eBook: Creative Thinking Challenges for Young Minds (Ages 11+)
Designed for teachers, parents and young people (11+ years), this free eBook is a practical and inspiring resource to help build creative thinking skills through real-world challenges.
The eBook brings together tools developed and curated through the Teen Start Up journey, including techniques grounded in human-centred design. Alongside these practical activities, you’ll find inspirational stories from creators, inventors and entrepreneurs across a wide range of industries, encouraging young people to think differently, stay curious, and imagine what’s possible when they step outside the box.
Why creative thinking matters
Creative thinking is like a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it becomes. Many careers and university courses now embed design thinking into their curriculum because it teaches people how to move beyond what already exists and create something new.
The world needs people who can turn ideas into reality, whether through products, services or solutions to everyday problems. Most of all, the world needs people who are curious.
This eBook includes 10 real-world design challenges that act as creative prompts, helping young people explore the role imagination and design play in solving problems in the world around them.
How to use this eBook
- There are no right or wrong answers, just ideas to explore
- Challenges can be completed in any order, at your own pace
- Responses can be written, drawn or designed in the workbook, a notebook, or an “Ideas Book” created just for capturing great thoughts and sketches
- Challenges can take 5–10 minutes or be extended over several days, depending on how deeply you want to explore an idea or whether you choose to create and test a prototype.
Perfect for:
- Rainy day activities
- Screen-free creative prompts
- After-dinner conversation starters
- Family or classroom creative activities
- Mindfulness and mental wellbeing exercises
- Growth mindset journaling
- Group activities and workshops
- Drawing and idea-building practice
- Developing confidence in generating and testing original ideas
Download the free eBook and start building creative confidence, curiosity and problem-solving skills - one idea at a time.
