I am reflecting on my summer breaks back in middle school, growing up. I spent my summers in the DMV area at my community center: Willston Multi-Cultural Center. Every day we took part in various activities that rotated, including field-trips and county-wide cook outs and events across community centers. We had a blast. Each normal day though would end with a couple of mandatory, but free hours in the computer clubhouse. Once or twice there were optional demos that a staff person would walk us through if we cared to listen or follow along. Otherwise we could sit at one of the computers in the clubhouse and chose our own adventure.

In the beginning I remember dreading these couple of hours at the end of the day. I didn’t care about computers and they intimidated me. I got anxious about it. I eventually got into a flow with a few of my girlfriends and my sister, putting together cute outfits on animated doll fashion sites like Roiworld.com for hours. We got really into the styles and instead of listening in on the graphic design or character world-building/SIMS demos, I posted up at my favorite computer and dressed up dolls to match whatever story line I had in my mind that day. 

As time went on and I grew more comfortable in the computer lab space, I started to branch out some more and snoop over the shoulders of my other friends’ computers. I would find people on all sorts of websites , watching videos, playing games, building virtual things on various design platforms that they were all super into. I remember being shocked in some of the skills some of my friends had on the computer. Including my friends who spoke mostly Spanish and who I didn’t always get as much of a chance to get to know them deeply because of language barriers in part. I remember all sorts of interactions that developed naturally over time in the clubhouse-  from watching in a huddle around a  friend to cheer him/her/them on  for scoring the next point, to just gazing in awe as another friend designed an elaborate world, to hanging out with a staff in the corner who sketched gorgeous mythical characters quietly. 

I remember learning not just a whole wide range of what computers could do, but also endless interesting and intimate things about my peers. I felt empowered in that space to explore without worrying about outcomes or my tech skills. Shaped more by social dynamics surrounding the technologies than anything else most days. 

The computer clubhouse initiative spanned a network of community centers in the county, and the one at our center happened to be super free-flowing and open for us to create our own experience. It felt more like recess than anything else. I think that this design space embodies all of the design principles quite closely, especially numbers 1,2,3,6,7,8, 9, and 10.  5 could have been more engaged, but I don’t think it was needed because everyone felt like an expert in their own way, designers/staff leaders included!