If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong. That’s my motto -- the one that drives nearly every aspect of how I work and organize my projects. Product design is hard: either digging deep into tiny details, or zooming way out to high levels of abstraction. It’s cognitively taxing. Injecting fun is not only a welcome change, but necessary for maintaining well-being, project momentum, and disarming complexity.
In this talk, I’ll share three collaborative techniques to draw others into the product design process:
- Rapid personas: getting in a user-centered frame of mind
- Requirements on a scale: deciding what’s most important
- Build the nav: demonstrating the complexity of designing navigation
They’re not only useful. They’re fun. Having fun engages others, thereby bringing in many perspectives into the process. For each activity, I’ll describe how it works, how to run it, and how to facilitate discussion afterwards.
The structural challenges of designing products are often MARGINALIZED. Product teams, rushed to produce lots of features and updates, don’t have a chance to think deeply about the implications of their decisions. They do not have an opportunity to think through the underlying structure before preparing screen designs. The purpose of these collaborative activities is to bring these complex, often hidden challenges, out from the margins, in front of everyone.
Participants will learn:
- How to run and facilitate three fun activities for collaborative creative sessions
- Three important principles for creating their own creative activities
- Three ways to fit collaborative activities into your design process
Come hang out with us IRL!
We’re planning this event as an in-person get-together—because let’s be honest, it’s just better when we can actually talk and connect face-to-face.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Room 401-E, Gallery Place Metro Stop for mingling, and the main event kicks off at 6:00 p.m. followed by a social outing.
Can’t make it in person? We’ll record and post for folks to watch on your own time, but if you’re nearby, we’d really love to see you there!
If attending in person, do us a favor please: Drop a quick note in the event comments after you register so we set up enough chairs.
