Workshops (Co-design)
Key Points
- Engage with users in developing technology fit for purpose.
What are they and Why use them
Workshops are a way to engage with users to understand their desires on how they would like to see their practices improved with technology. Recently, most workshops have been labelled as co-design, meaning that the users are part of the decision-making process. However, there are a number of different types of workshops that can be conducted with users, which generate different outputs. These workshops may be co-design, in the sense that you are generating prototype ideas; user investigations, as you work with users to evaluate prototypes and roleplay potential scenarios; and informal scenario workshops, which envisage how they would like to see the task improved by generating speculative scenarios. For this introduction, all types of workshops will just be referred to as workshops.
Workshops provide means for the participants to explore the problem space and identify opportunities for improvement and barriers that currently hinder their ability to perform a task. However, the aim of a workshop is not to establish a final solution, instead they are used to develop concepts to inform design for an established user. Workshops are a means to bring multidisciplinary teams together to leverage the expertise from one another to generate concepts that explore different facets of knowledge. Workshops that involve engineers, clinicians, and human factors provide a balanced discussion. The engineers are able to provide expertise in what technology is available and how it can be integrated into practice. Clinicians can provide details on the scenario, task, and the environment in which it will be incorporated. The human factors help to determine the points of human interaction and incorporate users’ needs into the design.
To get the most out of your workshop there are different methods that can be used to help generate creativity. These include collages, paper prototyping, sketching, mind mapping, storyboards, inspirational cards, video-based card sorting, modelling, and others. For more details on each of these methods, what they are and how to use them, click here (10 min read).
When to use them
Workshops are, in most cases, best run once you have a clear understanding of user needs, and are looking at developing initial concepts with the users. Apart from design workshops, other types of workshops (click here for more examples) may be run in order to get different information from users or to critique the design as it gets closer to its final concept. This allows you to ensure that it still meets the users’ needs before moving into any formal evaluation.
How to use them
There are many ways in which a workshop can be run, but using the following plan will help get the most out of a workshop.
- Explain the purpose of the workshop and what you will be doing during the workshop and how it will be structured so that participants know what to expect
- Encourage creativity and remind people that everyone can be creative and contribute to the workshop
- Divide people into teams when working with a large number of participants, (in some cases ensuring that each group has an individual from each discipline can be helpful as they can learn from each other e.g., engineers and clinicians working together as the engineer has the technical understanding while the clinician has the contextual understanding)
- Describe what you expect to get out of the workshop so that participants can properly contribute to the outcome
- Run the workshop using the method you chose earlier
- Re-group. This is a time for the individual groups to explore how others have contributed and provide feedback to help generate the best possible outcomes
- Debrief with the group to discuss standout features, issues, opportunities, and barriers
Pros
Generate good ideas that take on board user needs, allow unprofitable designs to be rejected early during the design stage, empower users in the decision-making process.
Cons
Time consuming, difficult to recruit participants, huge data set.
Points to ponder
- What do you plan to achieve from the workshops?
- What are the main user needs that the workshop is focused on?
- Who should you invite to the workshops?
- What method will allow you to best help participants explore ideas?
