On Wednesday (10/14), our team held a 9-person discovery workshop where we asked participants to cluster a selected group of 28 BEcon concepts any way that made sense to them. Our goal was to better understand how a multidisciplinary group of designers understood and organized them.
To begin, we handed out 28 cards -- with definitions and case studies -- to each participant a couple days before the workshop. Encouraging them to write any thoughts and/or notes onto the cards, we wanted each participant to understand the content so they could easily work through the exercises. The first began with an individual sort using the cards given on Monday. After sorting, the entire group discussed the various methods used, patterns discovered and difficulties encountered.
For the second exercise, participants worked in groups of three and parameters for sorting were again left open. At the end, the groups presented their clusters and discussed their organizational approaches.
So what did we learn? Well, we’re still analyzing the data, but the fruitful discussions with our participants helped confirm some previous hypotheses and inspire some exciting new ideas. Thanks to the discoveries from this workshop, we have some important questions to answer as we move forward. How can we make these concepts easier to understand and more immediately recognizable for designers? Are some concepts more important than others at different stages of the design process? What useful metaphors can we draw upon to create a flexible tool that guides, instead of prescribes? What significant points can be found and analyzed within a user’s decision cycle? How can we account for different entry points into the decision-making process? What are the overlying contexts we can identify in order to create for versatility? Can identifying a person’s mindset help when determining which concepts to follow?
We’ll be sure to keep you updated as we answer these questions.
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