The past couple of weeks I’ve been involved in some contextual enquiry, user research and problem-solving workshops for a project I’m working on with a large client. It’s been a lot of fun, not least because this is the sort of stuff I really like getting my teeth into. Hopefully this will lead to some significant influence over the outcomes for this project and some major usability wins for the end users.
The other major factor in the enjoyment I’ve had in the workshops particularly is the participatory approach we took to the whole thing. Reticence on the part of participants in workshops can be a major influencing factor in the success or otherwise of the workshops. In an effort to tackle that hurdle early, I posted the rules right at the start.
In case you can’t read them, here they are:
- There are no rules (except these ones).
- Everything/anything is possible.
- There are no wrong answers or stupid suggestions - everyone’s ideas are valuable.
- You get out of today what you put in.
- Have fun!
I think they are self-explanatory. They certainly seemed to make a difference and we have had some excellent sessions with very open and active discussion.
Feel free to steal the rules and make use of them in your work.
[…] The (Un)-Rules - If you’ve ever had to try to get a participatory workshop going in the face of participants who thought they were there just to be spectators, this whiteboard from WWD contributor Stephen Collins could come in handy. Sometimes you just need to nudge people out of their complacency zone. […]
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