5 UX Design Challenges for Groups

A workshop-style format for design and product meetups

During my 6 months in Singapore I ran a meetup called UX TL;DR. The idea was to provide an alternative to the lecture model most design and product events follow. Each meetup would start with a brief introduction to a topic followed by a design challenge. At the end, teams stick their work to the walls and walk around listening and discussing each other’s ideas. Each session had around 25 people and lasted about 3 hours including the show and tell.

I got heaps of great feedback about this format in part because people got their hands dirty while talking about their craft, but also because we kept the stakes low. The meetup was open to anyone, and by sticking to sketches or storyboards as the main output it was easy to get beginners contributing.

In addition to running some more of these myself back in the states I wanted share some of the most successful challeneges. Please, if you have any suggestions or ideas for new challenges add them in the comments!

Set up & facilitation for each session

• Arrange tables that allow people to sit in small groups of 3 to 5 (I usually had 4 or 5 groups)
• Set ground rules with a code of conduct
• Provide paper and pens/pencils
• Introduce the challenge with some background but keep it to a minimum (I used example experiences of summaries of an article.)
• As a facilitator float from table to table helping groups that are stuck. (Usually all I had to do was ask a question or two about the scenario their users would be in to get the team started.)
• Keep things moving by time boxing parts of the challenge, leaving an hour or so at the end for show and tell. I think it was an important not to do big presentations at the end to keep the energy flowing. Instead, have groups post up their work around the room and let them mingle. This science fair style allows multiple small conversations can happen.

Challenge #1: How’d it get so out of hand?

Design a tool or feature to prevent data deluge/information overload.

Background

When media or social networking companies measure success by daily usage, features and publishing models that push and pull at our attention get prioritized. This can cause a deluge, making content feel more like noise than signal.

The same design qualities that make an app enthralling, may also make it difficult for people to put down. — Greg Hochmuth, Network Effect

Examples of content that may need reigning in: user generated content, news sites, app stores, social networks, dating apps, professional networks, entertainment sites, events sites, messaging platforms.

Instructions

Choose a type of app or website (dating, professional network, etc). Then brainstorm types of ‘data deluge’ that could occur on this platform (unwanted invites, excessive updates, etc). Create storyboards or UI sketches to communicate how your solution would prevent information overload for a user.

Further Reading

• http://www.tristanharris.com/2015/09/what-is-time-well-spent-design-distinctions/
• http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/technology/personaltech/cant-put-down-your-device-thats-by-design.html?_r=0

Challenge #2: Guides & Way-finding

Choose a domain and a physical space then design an experience to fit within the space your group chooses.

Background

As mobile eats the world, interaction design looks to service design to understand how experiences are crafted by much more than just screens. This challenge is about getting creative with an experience using maps and physical spaces as your guiding constraint.

Examples of domains to design for: games, education, commerce, cultural, political, social, etc. Examples of maps/floorplans to design within: parks, hospitals, sports arenas, conference/exposition halls, malls, zoos.

Instructions

Make a map and a set of way-finding signs/interactions. Must include attention to copywriting, rules for the space, and ways to prevent things from going wrong: safety concerns, accessibility, and code of conduct.

Example from my meetup

One particularly fun design from this challenge was an experience to educate children on dental hygiene inside an old castle. The group took a floor map of an existing castle (found on Google) and created a tour with activities along the way like getting armor–a lead apron–from a wizard before going to challenege a dragon to a roaring contest–where kids teeth are x-rayed.

Challenge #3: Contextualizing Onboarding Tasks

Redesign a product so it does not need to rely on onboarding education.

Background

Apple says don’t do it. Google is changing their ways. Still, many apps ship with hamfisted onboarding flows resembling a print owners manual. Worse still are those that require login before giving any incentivising content, or ask for permissions to user data too early in the experience, before it’s necessary. If we follow the interface guidelines of the worlds two most popular patterns what we get are contextual, discoverable, and performative educational moments, also known as run-time or in-line help.

Education isn’t a substitute for great app design. — Apple

Instructions

Choose an existing app/site that asks for permissions too early in the onboarding process or relies on coach-marks to explain UI. Move the content of the onboarding to a more contextually appropriate moments in the app. Map out the sequence of screens and interactions a user goes through during onboarding. Note all marketing messaging, permission requests for user data, login screens, or any other interaction that does not immediately achieve a user goal. Sketch a redesign of UI or rearrange existing design elements to occur more closely to the goal.

Further Reading

• https://medium.com/welcome-aboard/batman-onboarding-999d19f0cab9#.tyzzzlb7c
• https://www.useronboard.com

Challenge #4: Physical Games

Make a game using sensors on a phone that interact with the world around you.

Background

Well before the Rumble Pak and Wiimote, novel controllers have made input a key factor to the reception of a game. There’s more though than just the technology that facilitates advances in inputs and outputs of a game. Games balance concepts like agency, rule systems, narrative, and aesthetics. The design of these together are then tested for learnability, challenge, mastery, and fun.

Examples in the wild

• Zombies Run — Running audio app that uses GPS and pedometer to watch as players run to escape a hoard of zombies.
• Johann Sebastian Joust — Player vs player game that uses accelerometers to listen for movement as players try to jostle one another.
• No Man’s Land — Narrative driven game that uses GPS and Foursquare data to let players unlock parts of the story. (Full disclosure: I made this)
• Space Team — Collaborative puzzle game that uses Bluetooth to sync instructions given to players as they work together within a time limit.

Instructions

Create a game that uses multiple sensors on a smartphone as the controller. Phone sensors let game designers play with location, movement, touch gestures, microphone and speaker, camera, steps taken, and bluetooth to name a few–plus any combination thereof! Make sure to define a challenging objective that gives players some feedback when they fail to meet that objective. Sketch an interface and define the interactions players perform.

Challenge #5: Inheriting Research

Perform a short interview or usability test then trade notes or findings with another team. Use the other team’s work, without asking them questions, to design either an update (usability test) or a new product (short interview).

Background

Projects where research is outsourced or performed by an ex-employee can lead to even more questions for a designer or product manager. Misinterpretation aside (but not too far aside), I believe anything that provokes us to think beyond our own generalizations is a good thing. This requires active listening and like any muscle, your interpretive abilities atrophy without practice.

Instructions

As a group decide on a product and a research method: usability test OR interview. Rememeber the purpose of this is to pass on your research notes.

The the usability testers should follow some guerrilla usability test best practices, but most importantly agree on a product and task. Get at least 3 people to take the test within your group, then take notes on your observations.

For the interviewers, agree on an area of discovery and a set of questions then take turns interviewing each other while taking notes. You may create your own questions using best practices or use this introductory research method that lets the interviewee drive.

Once you are finished testing or interviewing swap your research notes with a different group then try to design either an update (usability test) or a new product (short interview) based on the other group’s notes.