Design Engineer

.

** ******* ****** ******* ************* *****

.

Group design workshops

Generating design requirements through brainstorming + sketching exercises

Hal Shubin

Picture this: Product managers, engineers and a physician sitting around a table decorating

blocks of wood with stickers and markers. Online service representatives, business analysts and

product managers sketching ideas for Web pages on oversized Post-It pads.

Why are these busy professionals doing arts and crafts

projects? They re not playing; they re collaborating on

research that will lead to more effective product planning.

Sharing ideas early in the process will help them write better

specs and marketing documents, and lead to better designs.

Collaboration in group design workshops is an important

part of the Discovery phase of the design process at

Interaction Design.

A recent participant said, The group design session helped

uncover new features as well as interesting twists on existing

features. Some make market sense now, others may in the

Discussing and sketching ideas

future.

led to a successful new Web site

The process

The basic process is simple: small teams brainstorm about problems in a few usage scenarios

and then sketch out their ideas. At the end, each team shows its work to the whole group,

including the assumptions they made. The simple drawing exercises help them explore all of

the details of each scenario. (And we don t judge anyone on drawing ability.)

Co-workers work together with nothing to think about but design. We frequently see people

bring up ideas they ve had, but have not had a chance to share. This strengthens the design

process by exposing features or potential problems while it s early enough to consider them.

As one engineer said, We were taken out of our little worlds we had to set aside time to

think about UI issues but we weren't given time to overthink solutions, or get bogged down in

voice 617-***-****

fax 617-***-****

***@****.***

www.user.com

the details. This promotes thinking outside the box. We had to talk to people from other

organizations. We got some insight into how they struggle with the product (which is very

different from how Engineering struggles with it).

It s an obvious choice to include product managers and lead engineers in planning sessions.

But there are others who can contribute to good product design, including telephone support,

documentation and QA. All of these people have direct customer contact or other deep

knowledge, and they want to contribute. Users themselves can participate, too.

Benefits of Group Design Workshops

We ve seen many benefits in each Workshop:

> Provide a forum for collaboration. These sessions let participants

talk about their design ideas. They have ideas, but probably don t

have any time to discuss them. The collaboration is exciting;

participants frequently need reminders to stop talking and start

drawing, and more reminders to stop drawing.

> Understand the user s point of view better. We start a design

project by thinking about who the main users are and by writing

stories about their tasks. These are called usage scenarios, use

cases or personas. Whatever the name, they make us think hard

about design requirements. Good scenarios can help us decide

which features we need and which are not useful enough to

include.

> Develop and verbalize ideas. All team members have ideas about

product design. The Workshops provide time for people to just

talk about design and share ideas that they will otherwise keep to

themselves.

> Give a voice to all team members. Many of our participants do not

typically participate in product design. We invite them because

their work gives them special knowledge of users and the

product.

> Develop initial design ideas. Results of the workshops always

provide good starting points for product design. They are also a

great way for design consultants to quickly learn about what

A microphone prototype

you ve been thinking about for months or longer.

made of wood & stickers.

Can we use Group Design Workshops to get a design project going at your company? Contact

Hal Shubin to find out. Let s discuss UI design, expert product reviews or usability testing for

your software or hardware project: 617-***-**** or ***@****.*** .

HU UH

Contact this candidate