Leading a UX Design & Ideation Workshop

David LaFontaine
Sep 5, 2018 · 8 min read

tl;dr version: A design and ideation workshop should go beyond just coming up with a new design or feature. It should animate and empower the attendees to start taking ownership of the product and the solution.

Onscreen: three recommended books about UX design: The Design of Everyday Things; Don’t Make Me Think; Rocket Surgery. All of these are available in Spanish.

I’ve always felt that the best solutions a designer can come up with are those that not only include insights from your users, but that leave them encouraged and feeling a new sense of purpose. I got a chance to put that philosophy to the test recently.

As part of the El Otro Conference in Lima, Peru (“El Otro” was the name of the startup newspaper launched by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, whose foundation was a co-host of the conference), I led a UX Design & Ideation Workshop to work on not only the SembraMedia website, but to also come up with some long-range goals.

I’ve done lots of design workshops and ideation brainstorming sessions in my career, but this was the first one I had to lead in Spanish. Now, while I speak the language pretty well (as my partner in all things analog & digital would put it, “Te defiendes” — I can defend myself in the language), this was going to be the first time I would have to do a high-level design workshop exclusively in Spanish. It brought to mind the old adage about Ginger Rogers — that she did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in heels.

For two days, SembraMedia brought together their Embajadores — a virtual team that includes some of the top digital entrepreneurs from 16 countries throughout Latin America. The group came together for a regional conference, followed by a private Executive Retreat.

For more about the amazing work that SembraMedia is doing to help digital entrepreneurs build sustainable online businesses, visit the About Us page (relax — it’s in English).

I knew going in that the attendees were going to have radically differing skill levels; most were journalists and entrepreneurs. This is a very good starting point. Journalists who run their own news organizations tend to have an intuitive knowledge of some pretty sophisticated design principles. But like many people who haven’t studied UX or researched how people use their sites, they were missing some of the key elements of good user design.

How is UI different from UX?

My first module was designed to get them started with a vocabulary lesson — what’s the difference between UX and UI, what are the essential elements of design. To help them understand the differences, I used the example of an ATM — that the UI is the size of the screen, the layout of the buttons, the arrangement of the slots for the money or deposits.

“What is the difference between UI and UX? UI is User Interface, and in this case, it refers to the arrangement of the screen and the controls for this ATM.

UX is how you feel about that arrangement. Was the screen readable? Were you able to figure out where to put your bank card without having to lean in and peer at the slots? Once you typed in your PIN number, were you able to quickly deposit/withdraw/transfer money? Did you feel that you could trust this process (regardless of whether there was a creepy dude trying to peer over your shoulder as you typed in your PIN — although maybe that can be lumped under a certain kind of UX).

UX is User Experience; and in a nutshell, it’s about how you feel about using the product/service. The example given is how well did the ATM’s design contribute to you being able to complete your task?

Once I established the basic concepts, the next step was to connect UX to what they were trying to accomplish: figuring out better ways of supporting independent journalism (it says so right in the SembraMedia mission statement).

What does “conversion” mean? In the context of your design, it’s how well your design guides your users to do what you want them to do.

To get them thinking about how great UX design drives users to take action, I spent some time explaining the concept of “Conversion.” Not as in a religious conversion — although some people do take the concept of converting web visitors as being akin to some kind of holy crusade.

No, conversion as in “designing something so that users do the thing that you want them to do.” Is it a form of hypnosis? Well, sorta. But not really. Let me get back to you on that.

(Meanwhile, concentrate on this animated GIF … you are feeling more relaxed … now log into your PayPal account … )

How UX design can help sustain journalism

Then we got into the meat of the workshop: getting people to think about how to connect these theories to their users’ reality. (Background for those not in entrepreneurial journalism: the biggest problem that everyone is wrestling with is how to establish and grow reliable revenue streams to support good journalism.)

One by one, I led the team through the UX design challenges of the most promising business models, and asked them to think critically about how the design of their startups was helping drive conversion, and thus revenue.

“What do you want? — For your users to read more stories — More stories means more ads viewed — More ads viewed means more advertising $$ for you.

UX for Advertising

For those with an ad-supported business model, it’s all about driving pageviews. This means design strategies that 1) invite people to read more similar stories on their sites (rather than the cheap, quick hit of Native Advertising like Outbrain or Taboola, that sends your readers to someone else’s site); 2) make the experience on your site pleasant enough so that readers actually want to come back

Would you like to know the secret that every e-commerce site online uses to earn millions of dollars every year?
They put a Big Orange Button on the site that leads users to click on it and buy stuff.

UX for subscriptions

For the growing number of news organizations that rely on subscriptions or user donations: The UX has to be about 1) convincing your audience that what you do has value and, 2) convince them that their subscriptions/donations/volunteer activities will have value. And, of course, the enduring principles of the B.O.B. (Big Orange Button, or in Spanish the GBN — Gran Boton Naranja).

Special bonus: the audience was particularly interested in the psychology of color — what various colors evoke in our subconscious, and how that plays into logo design. (Shout-out to the Logo Company for their excellent work.)

“What do you want? -To demonstrate that your site is having an impact — how — testimonials — stories that show the evidence of the impact that your reporting is having

UX for donors and foundations

For sites that are supported by donors and foundations: The thing to remember is that the grants and foundations that are themselves accountable to their boards and endowments to justify what they invest in. Thus, the UX should be demonstrating that the money that was given has resulted in what they call IMPACT.

After all, if the goal is to change the world rather than to drive purely financial ROI, then donors are going to want to see evidence of how and to what extent the projects they invest in have succeeded in making a difference. That means prominently featuring 1) follow-up stories that show how your original reporting is spurring real-world change, and 2) gathering and featuring testimonials from people in the community that you cover as a form of “social proof” to the donors; 3) and, of course, touting these successes as a nudge towards re-upping said grant (nudge, nudge).

Taking It All Back Home

After the training and question-and-answer session, I led the teams through an exercise that merged card-sorting with brainstorming. Since the SembraMedia team members are the ones who are closest to the users and market conditions in their native countries, I asked them to draw upon that knowledge, and take color-coded sticky notes and reimagine the order and priority for the content on the SembraMedia website.

“How should we organize and prioritize the information on SembraMedia.org to better serve our core users? We are going to do a ‘card sorting’ exercise, which is a method used to help define the Information Architecture of a site. Organize the content of the site into categories that make sense to you and that can also help our users find what they are looking for.

(Side note: these dense packs of sticky notes can look an awful lot like blocks of C4 plastic explosive when going through airport security. Traveling with a large quantity can cause you to be thoroughly searched. Ask me how I know.)

“What new content or functionality do we need on the SembraMedia.org site to better serve our users and grow our audience? When thinking about this content/function, ask yourself — Who is it serving? What does it do that they need? How can we build it?

The second part of the hands-on session was even more demanding: I asked them to think a little more long-term about SembraMedia about what the organization should try to build into the site in the future.

Finally, the teams were tasked with proposing content areas or functionality that could then fulfill those needs.

Cool? (aka bacan, chevere, super-wow)

Why I did it this way

These exercises were about something more ambitious than just getting the teams up out of their seats and scribbling on the sticky notes (although after 4 days of seminars, speeches, presentations and panels, that alone is a welcome relief). No, I had a much deeper intent; one that goes far beyond just wanting to take advantage of some free labor to crowdsource a possible redesign.

I wanted this entire exercise to align with the goals and ethos of the SembraMedia organization.

Baked right into the core DNA of SembraMedia is the notion that the organization and the site that reflects it, is something that is driving the goals of serving the digital media startups that are featured in the directory. Of actually increasing the diversity of voices and the sustainability of independent news sites in Latin America.

To that end, I wanted the attendees to start to feel a sense of ownership of the site. And by extension, of the SembraMedia organization. I wanted them to start to wonder:

· What would I want SembraMedia to do, if I were in charge?

· More importantly, what would I do with a trans-national organization like this that would help all the people that I know who need help?

· What do my friends and colleagues really need?

· What does journalism in entire Latin America region need?

· What does my country, my region need to get better, to throw off the shackles of corruption, violence and apathy?

These are some very big questions. There is no way that SembraMedia by itself can accomplish any of these goals.

You have to build a network to fight a network

As one of the panelists during the conference said, “The bad guys have built networks to traffic drugs, launder money, bribe politicians. We have to build a network ourselves to oppose them.”

The SembraMedia team is a networks of networks; an international group that represents some of the best and brightest connectors in their countries. The work that SembraMedia asks them to do is to maintain knowledge of these markets, to study and connect; to research and disseminate.

Starting to think about how great UX design can help unite journalists and their audiences into something far more powerful — well, thinking about something is just a tiny step.

But it’s a step.

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