Moving human-centered design workshops to virtual spaces
We’re entering a new phase in the Coronavirus pandemic. As cases start to plateau and even decline in some areas, several states have started to cautiously reopen, while others are anticipating taking similar steps soon.
Approaching this new era, human-centered design will be more important than ever. As people begin shopping, eating out, getting medical care, and more, it will be a different experience. All organizations must shift strategies, and rethink how they engage with people while intentionally redesigning experiences to be inclusive of social distancing. Many will need to focus on what in-person experiences can and should become digital. We believe that the best approaches to these challenges will come through a human-centered lens, and those that take that approach will find much more success moving forward.
Unsurprisingly, when human-centered design is discussed, many think about design sprints or similar workshops and the images in their minds move to post-its, legos, and a ton of in-person collaboration and testing — which likely seem out-of-place in our new world of social distancing.
However, while the pandemic has changed a lot in our worlds, it hasn’t stopped our ability to use a human-centered approach to solve problems and design new futures. In fact, it may have enhanced it. As people everywhere have become more comfortable with video conferencing and other collaboration tools, we have found new ways to effectively build empathy, collaborate, and co-create — virtually.
We’ve already led several virtual workshops, and have developed approaches that form meaningful experiences that have lead to similar results as in-person workshops. Here are some of the key ways we are pivoting to make our virtual workshops successful:
Structure
As our workshops move from in-person to virtual, we recognize they must be shorter. This helps everyone stay focused and minimizes distractions. We are designing many of our workshops to take one-third to one-half the time of our in-person workshops. Further, we’re stretching the workshops out over time. For example, what might have been an in-person 12-hour design sprint over 2 days might now be six hours over 4 days.
Set-up
We recommend that all participants from Cast & Hue and our clients and stakeholders have a two-monitor set-up so they can use one for video collaboration and the other to take notes or complete exercises on. Of course, a strong wifi connection is important as well. Similarly to in-person workshops, technology can present challenges, so we set aside time upfront to help ensure everyone is connected and able to participate without technical issues.
Tools
Technology is key to our ability to conduct successful virtual workshops. It starts with video conferencing tools. Zoom has gotten quite a bit of acclaim during this time of “Stay at Home.” It’s been used for work meetings, education, and, of course, happy hours. Unsurprisingly, Zoom is also a great option for workshops, particularly because of its breakout rooms. This feature allows us to meet with a large group on Zoom and then assign smaller groups into their own breakout sessions to collaborate and work on exercises. Once the group exercise is complete, we are able to bring them back to the large group to share and discuss. We love this feature because it really helps incorporate some of the magic of in-person workshops — the ability to alternate between small group and large group work. We understand that other tools such as Blue Jeans, Teams, and Web-Ex have similar breakout room features.
Other tools we use include collaboration tools such as Mural or Miro, which both have many relevant templates for design sprints, journey mapping, business model canvas, and more. Google slides can be great for fast co-creation. And software like User Testing can be valuable when you go through the testing phase of design sprints.
Preparation
Another key difference from in-person workshops is the type of preparation we ask of all participants. First, we meet with all participants ahead of time to review the agenda, brief them on what to expect, and set expectations. Most will be participating in their first virtual workshop, so you want to make sure they are prepared and ready to contribute from the start. We also recommend developing some light “homework” for both participants and consumers. When we do in-person workshops, we do everything we can to bring our project to life in the room, so homework helps us do that virtually. For example, if we are leading a design sprint about a certain product, we might ask consumers to share a video of them interacting with the product. The objective is to immerse participants and consumers in the work prior to the workshop, so we can begin to build empathy and get into a strong mindset.
Engaging with consumers/end-users
Of course, the power of human-centered design comes from engaging those you serve, and that is still a core element of virtual workshops. It is important to engage your end-users throughout the process, in order to build empathy, gain feedback on ideas, test prototypes, and collaborate. We build in time for this type of engagement throughout the workshop, ensuring that our end-users have the right set-up and are prepared to contribute to the process.
How it all comes together
With the right preparation, tools, and technology, human-centered design takes over. The path may not be what we’re used to, but the same ideas of building empathy, problem-solving, ideation, prototyping, and testing emerge. And we again see the power of collaboration and co-creation.
Virtual workshops are different, but like all big changes, we can learn from pivoting. At the end of the day, we are all human, and our empathy and creativity can transcend these constraints. That’s what we need most right now, because as our communities re-emerge, delivering experiences designed to meet the needs of those you serve will be key to achieving success in this new era.
