My Goals for Studio
At the conclusion of the studio. attendees will:
- Be able to identify, understand, and create great user experiences
- Learn, and be able to apply a formal design process and set of practices
The Flow of the Studio
DAY 1: DISCOVERY AND SPECIFICATIONS
- Creating project briefs
- Conducting design research
- Deriving requirements from personas and scenarios
DAY 2: FRAMEWORK DEFINITION
- Storyboarding user flows
- Creating lo-fidelity sketches and prototypes
- Usability testing designs
DAY 3: DETAIL DESIGN AND REVIEW
- Polishing the interface
- Creating a style guide
- Applying the Process
What's it like to attend?
In the morning of the first day, after I present an overview of the process, I tell the participants that we have been hired to do a redesign by a nearby counter service restaurant (that has good food but has a less than desirable layout and menu design). My goal for this exercise is to have them experience the design process in it's entirety (in under 90 minutes of work excluding lunch) in a setting where they are unable to fall back on the habits that they have developed in their prior software development experiences.
I give the attendees the following project parameters:
Goals
- Improve the physical layout to improve the customer flow
- Improve staff efficiency.
Constraints
- We may not do any reconstruction of the building. We can move anything that is not part of the building, but no tearing down walls or columns.
Out of Scope
- We are not changing the food served.
Instructions
I ask them to write a project brief, and then give them the following on-site research assignment to accomplish over lunch at the restaurant:
- Identify at least three personas
- Select one persona to develop
- Identify at least one scenario for the selected persona
Process
When we get back, we discuss their personas and scenarios. I then have them do a 15 minute storyboard sprint in which they envision the ideal flow for their selected persona/scenario in words in pictures. From the storyboards they derive the requirements for the redesign.
When they are done, I have them do a set of six-up templates and then a one-up template in which they redesign the restaurant suggesting changes based on their onsite research and storyboards.
At the conclusion of the exercise I introduce a software development project which we spend the next two and half days designing. Having walked through the process once, the students are able to incorporate the new information much more quickly.
What Are Past Attendees Saying?
“What I learned in three days at the Design Studio advanced my skill set considerably and I recouped the cost of the course in new business within three weeks.
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“Over nearly two decades of database development I’ve informally picked up countless fragments of design knowledge. The Design Studio was extremely effective in helping me integrate that unstructured information into thoughtful, organized design processes. My clients were benefiting the very next day.”
“The Design Studio was awesome; we’ve already changed our entire workflow in the two weeks since we returned!
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“This course is a must-have for all serious developers.”
“This workshop changed the way I work forever!
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“Absolutely fantastic material, professionally delivered.
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“I would wholeheartedly recommend this workshop to any serious developer trying to bring the best user experience possible to his or her clients.
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“This workshop provided clear and tangible examples and exercises that engaged us to rethink how we approach requirements gathering and dovetail that into intentional system design.
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“The Design Studio was fun and stimulating... I learned a lot in a short time.””
“It’s a ‘must do’ for developers who do not have a background in formal software development. It will save them and their clients much time and aggravation if they apply the process presented in the workshop. Otherwise, they will repeatedly re-invent the common mistakes inherent in a free-form design development process.
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