Also, feel free to provide me with any feedback or questions in the comments below. Thanks!

This is an approach to facilitating a discussion using a presentation of selected items from your portfolio that demonstrate specific values unique to a particular phase of your project. For example, if you are discussing visual design, you might want to illustrate values of beautiful typography, white space, or strong grid systems. Or while discussing information architecture, you might cover values such as clear primary calls to action, or shallow versus wide navigation systems. The goal of the discussion is to assess how well certain values fit with the client or department you are working with, and what values might not fit.

Materials & Requirements

• Optional: Sticky notes and Sharpies, for people to identify new values during the discussion

Time Required

This presentation takes 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on the number of values being discussed. 4 to 7 is ideal, more than that becomes cumbersome.

The 20 Second “Gut” Test is a technique you can use to help clarify the preferences, specifically aesthetic preferences in visual design.

Materials & Requirements

• A collection of web pages, no more than 20 or so.
• Pre-printed score sheets with a Likert scale for each web page

Time Required

Well, it’s the 20 second test, so you can assume it will take 20 seconds multiplied by the number of web pages you are showing. That being said, it will take roughly half an hour to do about 20 websites, and if you are going to tabulate scores in real time, allow 45 minutes to an hour.

Steps

1. In advance of the meeting, assemble 20 or so screen captures of web pages. Try to capture a range of approaches and styles.
2. Put them in a random (or strategic) sequence in a Keynote or PowerPoint presentation. Place a letter of the alphabet on each slide, so that each web page has a different letter.
3. Create a scoring sheet that has only the letters and a Likert scale for each letter. It is important that you don’t list the names of the actual web pages you are going to display; seeing what is coming in advance would be giving them more than 20 seconds to formulate an opinion.
4. At the meeting, distribute the scoring sheets, and explain the exercise. Show each slide for 20 seconds, and have everyone circle the number that represents their gut reaction for each, with 5 being highest and 1 being lowest.
5. If possible, have someone gather the score sheets and tabulate live results (average the scores for each letter), so that later in the meeting, you can present the top 5 and bottom 5 to discuss.

Credits

• Chris Cashdollar

The Design Experience Health Check is a combination of the 20 Second “Gut” Test and the User Experience Health Check by Austin Govella and Livia Labate. It is a technique you can use to help clarify the preferences, specifically aesthetic preferences in visual design of individual elements. You can also use it to evaluate the percieved relative priority of different elements against each other in the overall design.

Materials & Requirements

• A list of individual user interface elements you are trying to evaluate, such as “advanced search” or “faceted navigation”
• A collection of web pages, no more than 12 to 15, with screen captures of the individual elements
• Pre-printed score sheets with a Likert scale for each web page

Time Required

This requires more time than the 20 Second “Gut Test” because you have to multiply 20 seconds by the number of elements, then again by the number of sites. It might be good to only pull a range of 5 to 7 examples of each element to reduce the boredom in this exercise, but either way plan on an hour.

Steps

1. In advance of the meeting, assemble 5-7 screen captures of  the user interface elements on different web pages. Try to capture a range of approaches and styles.
2. Put them in a random (or strategic) sequence in a Keynote or PowerPoint presentation. Place a letter and a number of the alphabet on each slide, so that each element  has a different letter, and each example has a different number. For example, 5 examples of advanced search would be A1, A2, A3, A4, and A5.
3. Create a scoring sheet that has only the letters and a Likert scale for each letter. You can use two Likert scales to capture different dimensions of preference, such as aesthetic design and priority. Note: You’ll need a different scoring sheet for each element, so each meeting attendee will have the number of scoring sheets . It is important that you don’t list the names of the actual web pages you are going to display; seeing what is coming in advance would be giving them more than 20 seconds to formulate an opinion.
4. At the meeting, distribute the scoring sheets, and explain the exercise. Show each element for 20 seconds, and have everyone circle the number that represents their gut reaction for each, with 5 being highest and 1 being lowest.
5. If possible, have someone gather the score sheets and tabulate live results (average the scores for each letter), so that later in the meeting, you can present the top 2 and bottom 1 in each element to discuss.

Resources

• UX Health Check

Credits

• Austin Govella
• Livia Labate

Social Mania is a card game based in part on the work Christian Crumlish and Erin Malone put into their book Designing Social Interfaces. The game is great way to help “non-web” people understand the social web. It’s fun, it stimulates good discussion and can help plant seeds for understanding a social experience strategy down the line.

Materials & Requirements

• Social Mania game cards, enough sets for the number of attendees divided by 8 (e.g. 24 attendees would require 3 decks)
• A table for each deck large enough to seat 8 to 12 people
• A room large enough to house that many tables and people with sufficient distance to minimize the distraction of discussion for each group

Instructions

Instructions are available online, and come with the game as well.

Resources

• Purchase Social Mania from The Game Crafter
• Game instructions and rules
• Designing Social Interfaces book site

Credits

• Christian Crumlish
• Erin Malone
• Designing Social Interfaces

This is an exercise that is great to help a large group of people feel like they have a say in a project, and generate ideas from many different perspectives in an organization. It was adapted from Todd Zaki Warfel’s book Prototyping: A Practitioner’s Guide.

Materials & Requirements

• Pre-printed sketchboard template, 8-up and 1-up variations
• Pencils with erasers
• Optional: Post-it notes and other additional tools for creative prototyping
• Optional: Easel-sized post it notes for larger group collaboration (with sharpies)
• Enough space or rooms for people to work in smaller groups without the noise becoming disruptive

Time Required

A minimum of 1.5 hours is required, and a large group can take upwards 4 hours. It may take more time for larger groups; additional time allows for increased exploration and collaboration.

Steps

1. Set an 8-up sketchboard template and pencil at each place where someone will be sitting.
2. Instruct them that they have to come up with 6 or more prototype ideas for the problem at hand (e.g. a home page, a critical sub page, an application) on the sheet. They should do rough sketches with text and minimal annotation. Encourage them that anyone can sketch, and to use basic shapes (rectangles, lines, circles, triangles, arrows) if they feel challenged.
3. Set a time limit. For the first round, 10 minutes or so is fine.
4. Start the clock, and allow them to sketch. Game show or other similar music can add to the experience.
5. At the end of the time limit, have each person pair up with someone who is not a member of their department of organization.
6. Allow them to spend time presenting their ideas to each other, then critiquing those ideas. 2 minutes for presentation and 3 minutes for critique should be sufficient for each person (10 minutes total.)
7. While the discussion is taking place, hand out a 1-up sketchboard templates to each group.
8. Have them collaborate on a new prototype sketch using the 1-up sketchboard template.
9. Repeat steps 4 through 8, but each time have the groups combine into new groups that are twice the size of the previous. Groups of 2 become groups of 4, groups of 4 become groups of 8, and so on.
10. Note: With larger groups, you may want easel size sticky notes for later prototypes, or have technology in place (digital camera or document projector) to display the prototypes on the screen.
11. Once you are down to 2 – 4 large groups, do presentations and critiques for the entire group.
12. Collect the sketches for review by your team.

Resources

• 8-up sketchboard template
• 1-up sketchboard template

Credits

• Todd Zaki Warfel
• Prototyping: A Practitioner’s Guide
• MessageFirst

This is a fast and simple technique for developing agreement around organizational priorities. It was adapted from a technique presented by Adaptive Path’s Henning Fischer at UX Intensive.

Materials & Requirements

• Pre-printed worksheets listing items under consideration and two blanks next to each item, one labeled priority and one labeled feasibility.
• Pens and/or pencils.

Steps

1. In advance, prepare the worksheets. Be sure to put in the instructions that the total for each column must equal the number of items multiplied by 3, for example if there are 5 items, the total of each column should be 15.
2. Hand out the worksheets.
3. Instruct meeting attendees to circle the number between 1 and 5 for each item that represents their perceived priority for that item, and the their opinion on the feasibility for that item. Make it clear that the total for each column, the total must be 3 multiplied by the number of items.Some participants may feel like they are technically unqualified to evaluate feasibility;  tell them to circle what feels right based on how complex they feel it would be to do: how much staff or budget it would require, for example.
4. Collect the worksheets and enter them into a spreadsheet.

Analysis

Plot individual, sub group, and full group averages on charts where the Y axis represents the priority, and the X axis represents the feasibility. The items in the upper right are more “must haves” and/or problems that would be easy to solve quickly. The items in the middle area are things that are either more difficult or less of a priority, and may be good longer term goals. Items in the lower left are things that are good candidates for reevaluation or reconsideration. Compare variations in different sub-groups or between different individuals to identify topics for additional focus and further discussion.

Credits

• Henning Fischer
• Adaptive Path