What is a Designathon and how to run one successfully?
A year ago Goodpatch was invited to participate in an event called “Designathon18” in Zurich, Switzerland. The Designathon is similar to a hackathon, but instead of IT specialists and computer enthusiasts coming together to tackle a given topic; UX, web — and business designers lock themselves in a room and work on a broadly defined challenge for social good. Ever since the first edition, we annually help facilitate the weekend and share our tools and design-related methods with the different teams.
We were so inspired by the Designathon in Zurich and realised it was the perfect way to package our knowledge of design thinking methods and decided to introduce this format as a service for our clients (after kindly asking the Designathon team if we can use their name of course). We have now created a mashup, or “best of playlist” of all different design thinking methods and over the past year successfully turned designathons into a 4-day workshop format that fits our goal: creating prototypes that can be tested with real users within a short amount of time. This approach has proven especially effective when there is no clear vision or just a rough idea for an entirely new solution.
Following is a breakdown of each step, so you can get an idea of what you’re in for.
The Challenge before the Storm
It all starts with a challenge which sets the frame for the designathon and gives a rough direction for the days to come. This is the actual first step in the process where we invite participants to come up with a few challenge suggestions. We discuss, prioritize and settle on one formulation to kick off our upcoming days and make sure everyone is on the same page.
Phase 1: Discover
Inspiration is key to kick off the creative process. This is why we invite participants and project stakeholders to share their knowledge on the given topic by showing existing solutions or telling stories with inspirational presentations. We encourage participants to actively listen and capture notes that reflect their “aha-moments”. We believe in the power of human-centered design and we think it is essential to invite end users at this early stage, which is why we talk to at least 1–3 core users in order to collect qualitative data in the form of statements through interviewing to make design choices early on.
3 tips for the discover phase:
- One interviewee, one interviewer and one or two observers is a great setup to conduct an interview in this workshop setting.
- As a facilitator, it is good to have a questionnaire with a few open-ended questions prepared before the designathon.
- Write down statements that inspire you and capture them on post-its to share with the team later.
Phase 2: Define
As Henry Ford mentioned: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said faster horses.’’ Users don’t know what they want. That’s why it is crucial to make connections and abstractions of the collected qualitative data. This helps you find new patterns and surface needs and pain points. For displaying the data in a neat structure we use a 2x2 capture board in order to cluster the statements of the interviewees. The naming of the four areas could be pains, goals, motivation or behaviour. These naming conventions can be changed as needed. Next, the teams need to synthesise the data and structure the insights in the form of user + need + insight.
3 tips for the define phase:
- Try to speculate and abstract from the initial statements when crafting the insights.
- Let team members present their findings to other participants so that knowledge is shared among the team.
- Don’t make assumptions too early, if you’re not sure formulate your findings as questions rather than statements.
Phase 3: Ideate
This is the fun part where the team dynamic is at its peak! Generating ideas based on brainstorming and brainwriting is one of the most fun exercises because of its collaborative nature. We’ve made especially good experiences when participants generate ideas silently and share with the group them afterwards. To make the sharing even more productive we encourage to use „yes and…“ to build on top of the existing ideas. With these collected ideas and fragments of content, we move on to our next tool called “idea napkins”. It’s a framework to shed more light on an idea and to make it more concrete.
3 tips for the ideation phase:
- Generating “how might we…?” (hmw) questions based on your insights.
- Involve others from the organisation that are not part of the team. This ensures a new perspective and can lead to new surprising ideas.
- Put the finished napkin pitches in the hallway where other employees can engage with the content.
Phase 4: Build
After the idea napkins have been shared and prioritized the next step is to bring these concepts to life. Here we use a structured approach where we gradually move from an abstract idea to a concrete solution.
First, we create storyboards, which describe how a user moves from an existing setting (usually a problem) through various steps into satisfaction (solving the problem). In the second step, the participants write down all the steps the user performs to form a list of tasks. These tasks are then associated with screens and embedded into a user flow. This flow shows how a user goes through the digital solution to achieve the intended goal. It is similar to the storyboard but in more detail and visualized through the screens.
When all the screen wireframes are created, the teams sort them and add the connections between them on a whiteboard which results in an interaction map. We use Prott to make theses paper-sketched wireframes interactive, allowing the team to click through, test and improve their proposed solution and interactions.
3 tips for the build phase:
- Storyboards can also be written — no pictures needed. But these make it more appealing.
- Encourage participants who have trouble putting pen to paper that screen wireframes can be created easily with boxes and text.
- Identify “techies” within the teams that are quick to learn new apps and have them install the Prott app. This ensures that the interactive prototyping will be completed quicker.
Phase 5: Test
Interactive rapid prototyping tools such as Prott enable us to scale design so that we can be even faster in the design process and get to test the solution even sooner. Our final goal is to test the solution with potential users so that we can include the feedback in the next iteration. As J. Knapp puts it: “The solution should look real enough (like a façade) to test but it doesn’t need to be pretty”. In this initial exploratory user test, it is mostly realistic enough and the teams get to realize roadblocks and the difficulties a user encounters. The goal is to observe the user when testing the prototype and draw conclusions for the next iteration.
3 tips for the test phase:
- Try to not sell the developed prototype.
- Listen to what the tester encounters and keep asking “why” when you discover a behaviour pattern.
- Encourage all participants to take notes during the user testing sessions.
Phase 6: High-Res Design
To turn the prototype into an even more realistic product we use it and add all necessary visual components to it. The prototype looks and feels very realistic after one more day of offsite work from one of our UI designers. With the use of Sketch and Invision the product really comes to life and can be shared with the team. With the high-res prototype, the client is then able to test it further with potential users. It also helps communicate a story to the management in order for the team to get funding for additional product stages or just settle on a mutual understanding.
At Goodpatch we have used the designathon many times especially for our clients from the insurance and automotive industry to start-ups who have a new digital project coming up. A designathon comes in handy when all stakeholders need to be brought together with the goal to design a new solution in just 4 days. They embrace creativity by experiencing a structured approach to digital product design. The process helps the team make decisions and not getting caught up in endless discussions, but rather focus on a possible solution and tangible outcomes.
Let us know what you think and if you’re ready to try this with your team, give us a call.
