IA Summit 2013COLLABORATIVE DESIGN
04.05-07.2013
Monday, April 8, 13
04.05-07.2013
HELLO.
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04.05-07.2013
@KELANINICHOLE
Monday, April 8, 13
Back home in Brooklyn
Director Product Strategists User Experience Designers You?
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Sketch
Refine
Critique
Present
DESIGN STUDIO
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What about when you don’t know what all the pieces are?
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Or what you want to build?
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Or want to take your product in a whole new direction?
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IT WORKED!
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An effective and actionable means to build strong relationships across mixed client/agency teams.
What we found...
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A natural fit with our working style, and a great way to invite clients into our culture.
What we found...
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A way to get clients out of their typical environment and engaging across internal walls.
What we found...
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A means to create shared ownership in envisioning new products, services and digital platforms.
What we found...
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1. What does new product X look like when you login?2. How can we reinvent this customization tool?3. What is the new homepage experience on site Y?4. How can a new search and directory tool help
connect people?5. How can we create a social shopping experience on
this eCommerce product page?
How we’re using collaborative design:
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1WHAT IS DESIGN STUDIO?
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How it Works
Present Critique Sketch Refine/Repeat321 4
Group provides positive and negative
feedback
Steal the best ideas – incorporate feedback and refine concepts
Present ideas to your group from a user-
focused POV
Generate ideas through quick rounds
of sketching
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• Generate eight ideas in 8 minutes – they should be distinct concepts, and can be very rough.
• Present & Critique with your group – 5 minutes each.
Round 1
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• Steal the best ideas from your group – combine them into 4 refined concepts, with a little more detail, in 10 minutes.
• Present & Critique with your group – 5 minutes each.
Round 2
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• Collaborative Design – Divide & conquer to deepen one concept, incorporating the best elements by working together for 20-30 minutes.
• Present & Critique with the entire group, 5 minutes per team – vote on leading concepts.
Round 3
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• Creates shared understanding around the design challenges, user needs and functional scope.
• Produces leading design patterns through iteration and consensus building.
Why it works:
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2HOW WE’RE USING IT
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Foster a sense of ownership,
investment and deepen engagement
with partners.
Create a common language and frame of reference around the product, unite
collaborators.
2Functional Emotional
1
Why Collaborative Design?
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Build Relationships
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Overcome Obstacles
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Establish a Common Language
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Create Shared Understanding
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• Research informs well-defined design challenges.• Background is presented at the beginning of the
workshop. • Participants break into teams of 4 or 5 for three rapid
rounds of sketching, presentation and critique and then refine ideas.
• The whole group gathers together after the third round to regroup and build consensus.
Overview of the Workshop
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Tips: Sketching
Everyone can sketch!
It’s about quantity NOT quality.
Focus on getting the idea down on paper, then refine.
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• Persona-first thinking should always lead presentation of designs.
• It’s about selling a concept and getting to the best solutions through collaboration.
• The art of critique – focus on articulating the strengths and weaknesses of each and every design solution.
Tips: Presentation & Critique
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• Aligning stakeholders on priority and scope.• Exploring a problem space from a user-focused
perspective.• Educating collaborators on how context impacts a
person’s needs, and what to expect from our iterative product design process.
• Working through internal politics, agendas, bad ideas and constraints.
What its great for:
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• A simple brainstorming method you can run on-the-fly in an hour – it requires investment and preparation.
• A means to identifying a fleshed-out approach to implementation.
• A decision-making tool – consensus is different than approval.
What its not:
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• Scheduling is a challenge – getting a group of stakeholders in a room to sketch for six hours is sometimes not so easy.
• Environment is essential – table space, ambient music, healthy nourishment and the right leader.
• Preparation – a well-framed set of challenges is essential in addition to a solid understanding of the participants roles & relationships.
What it takes:
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3HOW TO PREPARE
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People-focused Research
Understanding not only user behavior across context, but also needs and behaviors of internal stakeholders is essential.
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Frame the Challenge
Sketching is uncomfortable enough, without a clearly defined challenge your participants will struggle to dig-in.
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Provide some Inspiration
Thought-starters should be easily accessible by each participant as they hit mental blocks – a look at competitors
and innovators can help ignite creative sparks.
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Moderation & Critique
A strong leader to guide the session is an essential component – to both keep the loudest voice in the room in check and
encourage participants to push their critique.
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PEOPLE-FOCUSED RESEARCHHOW TO PREPARE A SESSION
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Contextual Inquiry, Interviews & Surveys:
Interrogate user behavior, surface internal and external needs, and explore organizational challenges.
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Analytics:
Discover behavioral patterns, investigate what’s working and what’s not, understand context and device usage.
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Journey Workshops:
Take an immersive step-by-step journey into a problem space, discover thoughts, feelings, needs and constraints across contexts.
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Goal Alignment:
Clearly articulate findings from research, and build consensus around leading goals.
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FRAME THE CHALLENGEHOW TO PREPARE A SESSION
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Personas/Profiles:
Create actionable representations of the people and behaviors you’re designing for – personas are a great tool to have in a session.
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Experience Map:
Illustrating the problem space through an experience map or user journey map helps to anchor design across contexts.
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Content Outline:
Participants have different roles and relationships with the content of a challenge – give them an outline to work from.
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Requirements & Constraints:
Clearly articulate the functionality that might be included – encourage blue sky thinking but provide some foundation.
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Design Challenges:
Articulate the leading challenges, explaining how they align to your research and stakeholder goals.
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PROVIDE SOME INSPIRATIONHOW TO PREPARE A SESSION
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Competitive Analysis:
What other solutions are out there in the problem space? What’s working, and what isn’t? Where do opportunities exist?
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Explore Paradigms:
Look for inspiration in a completely different problem space, think about how divergent paradigms could lead to opportunity.
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Outline Thought Starters:
How would you begin to tackle this challenge? What are the most fertile dimensions of the problem space?
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Ambience + Setup:
Comfortable seating for groups is a must, music helps stimulate creativity – make sure to stock up on supplies to set participants up for success.
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MODERATIONHOW TO PREPARE A SESSION
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• Push your understanding of critique with each new session – read up on methods and best practices.
• Practice makes perfect – the more time spent in critique the better equipped you’ll be to lead it.
Practice Critique.
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• Get to know your participants ahead of time – what are their goals, needs and personal agendas?
• If you don’t have a chance to interview participants, take the time to understand their role & responsibilities.
Foster Alignment + Buy-in.
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• Keep pushing for more time and participants – the more diverse the disciplines the better the output.
• Articulate the value of the collaborative session, why its worth an investment, and what you’ll come out with.
Diversify + Excite.
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4OUTPUT + LEARNINGS
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The work has just begun.
Collaborative design is a great starting point and exploration tool, but it requires further definition and follow-through.
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Solutions will evolve.
At the end of a session it can feel as if the solution is obvious, but evolution is inevitable as the solutions are defined & refined.
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Communicating output is essential.
Consensus and understanding is a huge part of collaborative design – it must be nurtured and kept alive.
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1. Regroup with participants to review the output and conversation that happened in each round.
2. Articulate the leading design patterns that emerged.3. Produce a readout deck to circulate with the team.4. Include photos of people sketching, presenting and
photograph work output.5. Position the work alongside next steps – be it
wireframes, annotated sketches or other documentation.
After a session...
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This is just the beginning. The possibilities of this methodology are vast – let’s continue to explore the approach and push its boundaries.
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04.05-07.2013
THANKS.
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