Now more than ever, prospective users and clients are being drawn even deeper into our UX design process through the use of participatory design activities. These activities help designers better identify people’s needs, then generate and evaluate a range of design ideas—often in a playful and fun way that helps us rapidly construct and test design hypotheses for products or services.
For many practitioners, however, the use of participatory design activities in a Lean UX world can feel like a black art. This practical workshop will help designers understand what types of participatory design activities they can use in their projects, and get hands-on experience on how to construct their own activities for use in their daily work. Working in small teams, workshop attendees can play with and construct participatory design activities for different types of projects and audiences, as well as gain best practices for facilitating, observing, and analyzing data gathered from participatory activities.
This slide deck is from a workshop that David Sherwin and Erin Muntzert facilitated at UX Week 2013, on behalf of frog.
37. NARRATE ACTIVITIES
Memory is improved when we use structured stimuli to recall stories.
Activities in this section provide thinking tools that can be used as a way
to jog a participant’s memory and guide them into recollecting and
generating stories. These stories help us better understand the nature of
a participant’s background, build empathy and rapport, and help us
relate to and understand a participant needs, wants, and desires.
JOURNEY MAPPING
LOVE & BREAKUP LETTER
TOPICAL COLLAGE
KNOWLEDGE HUNT
42. CREATE ACTIVITIES
Participants use activities to help us fill in the blanks, creating
elements of their ideal products, services, and experiences. This
helps us understand the expectations of participants. It also serves
to develop and validate working hypotheses for us and our larger
team. Constructing activities that provide the right balance
between structure and interpretation is key.
INTERFACE TOOLKIT
FILL IN THE BLANKS
IDEAL WORKFLOW
ECOSYSTEM MAPPING
47. PRIORITIZE ACTIVITIES
Projectionthe waysas a way to understandservices and
CARD SORT
Understand works people value the products, the expectations of participants.
information theyactivities that provide the right balance between structure and
CHANNEL SURFING
Constructing utilize. These methods help participants and
designers think through trade-offs, connections, and hierarchies,
CONCEPT RANKING
interpretation is key. Fill-in the blank activities for keyparticipants immerse into a world
help use
and often takes place to clarify information or evaluate fit
VALUE RANKING
that can help developincludes text, image, and iconography.
cases or tasks. The stimuli and validate working hypotheses for yourself and your larger
team.
52. CONTEXTUALIZE ACTIVITIES
Projection worksabout way to understand thein the story of a of participants.
These activities are as a immersing the participant expectations
COMIC STRIP
design. This may activities that provide otherwise presented with the
CUSTOMIZING
Constructing be verbal, kinetic, visual, or the right balance between structure and SCENARIOS
goal of eliciting feedback on the design itself. By being in context or
SIMULATING EXPERIENCES
interpretation is key. Fill-in the blank activities help participants immerse into a world
simulating a product or service experience, participants are able to more
INTERCEPT EVALUATION
thatexperience adevelopdesignvalidate working hypotheses for yourself and your larger
fully can help concept and or direction and describe their ideal
preferences for how the concept would best fit their lives.
team.