Open collaboration formats offer insights on how to engage, collaborate and bring ideas. This talk, presented at EuroIA 2010 (http://www.euroia.org/Programme.aspx) explores how co-creation formats like hackdays or design challenges can be used to enhance a co-design process, involving (lead) users, colleagues or clients.
2. Franco Papeschi - @bobbywatson Johanna Kollmann - @johannakoll User Experience @ Vodafone Group Services
3. Co-designā¦ ā¦is about developing a service or a product by a process that involves all perspectives that are related to the design. ā¦has its origin in systems-thinking. ā¦involves different groups of people actively in the design process, and all perspectives are equally important.
4. Collaborationā¦ ā¦ is defined as āworking jointly with others or together, especially in an intellectual endeavour.ā (Merriam Webster Online dictionary) Collaborating openly with others means that ideas are shared rather than protected. Open collaboration activities, such as barcamps or Hack-a-thons, encourage participants to share information, their work, and reflect and learn together.
6. Awesome! More and better ideas Tangible outcomes Perception of Vodafone Relationships Change internal perception of UX Weāre hiring more UX agencies for strategy work!
8. MicroFutures: Goals What Internal ideas around marketplaces and transactions Quickly turn these ideas into tangible product concepts Why Do more than one designer can do Expose ideas to fresh perspectives Collaborate more with users and internal stakeholders Learn for future co-design projects
11. MicroFutures: Process Internal research and design workshops Co-design project Internal sharing of design concepts Mobile app spin-off project with R&D
19. MicroFutures: Information Objectives Personas Brand Business objectives Background Initial ideas Research Outcome of internal workshops Constraints Design brief Technical constraints (Mobile) platforms Information facilitates focus and prioritisation.
22. MicroFutures: Tools Design Visual communicator Stimulus material Collages Scenarios Storyboards Communication Blog Skype Cameras āAdopt a remote memberā Collaboration Prioritisation techniques, eg dot democracy Tools facilitate designing and collaborating.
23. MicroFutures: Learnings Share āsecretā information like personas or business objectives. Facilitate self-organisation, rather than try to control the teams. Co-design requires a shift in mindset to succeed.
24. Mindset Share ideas and information Self-organisation Collaborative decision-making Info People Designers Experts Lead users Background Objectives Constraints Tools Spaces Design tools Collaboration techniques Communication tools Design studio Public online platform Process Sprints Timeboxing Clear tasks Competition Retrospectives
26. Ecomo09: Goals What Create tools and services that help people understand their impact on the environment, and act upon it. Why Collect expertise on the topic. Generate ideas that had a tangible result, and could be evaluated quickly.
27. Ecomo09: People Designers Lead users Sustainability experts Developers R&D Design knowledge Challenges of daily life Topic knowledge and passion Technical knowledge and passion Technical knowledge
28. Ecomo09: Process explore Co-design Close the loop between Explore and Design design experience Hack-a-thon Move from Design to Build build
29. Ecomo09: Process Internal research and design workshops Co-design project Public sharing of design concepts Similar to MicroFutures Hack-a-thon: apps and prototypes Further development of concepts and apps
32. Ecomo09: Information Background Initial ideas Research Outcome of internal workshops Interviews with experts Objectives Brand Vision of the future Constraints Design brief Technical constraints Opportunities Technical assets (APIs,ā¦) Information facilitates focus and prioritisation.
33. Ecomo09: Tools Communication Public Blog Twitter Flickr Design Visual communicator Stimulus material Scenarios Reuse Code repository Collaboration Prioritisation techniques, e.g. dot democracy Ownership Legal framework (Creative Commons, Open Source) Tools facilitate participation and creativity.
41. Mindset Self-organisation Passion for the topic Share ideas and information Info People Designers Experts Lead users Developers Background Objectives Constraints Opportunities Tools Spaces Design tools Collaboration techniques Communication tools Repositories for reuse Legal framework Design studio Hack-a-thon warehouse Public online platform Process Co-design + hack-a-thon People involved at different stages Competition
43. Elements of open collaboration Contribute Connect Core Collaborate Create Charles Leadbeater, We-Think (2008)
44. Reflecting on the process explore Co-design Close the loop between Explore and Design Build on the projects Neither project managed to inform product decisions in Vodafone design experience Hack-a-thon Move from Design to Build build
47. Info Information gives focus If you want your participants to be like a design team, give them all the information a design team would need!
48. Pick tools and spaces that facilitate creativity Spaces Tools Provide visual design / sketch support Provide access to sources of data (API) if you want people to create something tangible
49. Pick tools and spaces that facilitate collaboration Spaces Tools Hack-a-thons Design studios Retrospectives, dot democracy and other collaboration tools
50. People Engage the right people Who? Why? When? Give strong incentives - ideally intrinsic motivation
52. Mindset Practice the mindset Collaborate Be less protective about your ideas Step back and facilitate
53. Mindset Self-organisation Collaborative decision-making Passion for the topic Share ideas and information Info People Designers Experts Lead users Stakeholders Developers Background Objectives Constraints Opportunities Tools Spaces Design tools Collaboration techniques Communication tools Repositories for reuse Legal framework Design studio Hack-a-thon warehouse Public online platform Private online platform Process Co-design + hack-a-thon People involved at different stages Competition Sprints Timeboxing Clear tasks Retrospectives
54. Challenges āRiskā of openness Ownership of ideas Continuous engagement and motivation Tangible outcomes and new ideas Only relevant if youāre in-house?
56. Awesome! More and better ideas Tangible outcomes Perception of Vodafone Relationships Change internal perception of UX Weāre hiring more UX agencies for strategy work!
57. It was so much fun! Photo ofJohanna by Kevin McDonagh http://www.flickr.com/photos/appletv/3942194437/
59. Resources Hicks, Mark: Collaborate to Innovate? Getting Fresh Small Company Thinking into Big Company Innovation. Interactions, XVII.3 - May / June, 2010. http://interactions.acm.org/content/?p=1363Leadbetter, Charles: We-Think. Mass innovation, not mass production. Profile books, 2008. http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/orange-buttons/we-think.aspx More about ecomo: http://tinyurl.com/betavine-sustainability Thank you MicroFutures team: Mark Hicks, Dug Falby Ecomo 09 team: Tory Dunn Heather Moore, Dan Appelquist, Steve Wolak, Tracey Lee-Joe, Richard Child, Bryce Ashdown, Phill Julian, Josh Ulm, FJ van Wingerde, Russell Sese Sense Networks, Seren, BASH Studio, Sprung Studios All our collaborators and hackers! London IA community, Matthew Solle and the Vodafone UE team for valuable feedback on our dry-runs.
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to ābeyond codesignā. In the next 40 minutes or so weāll talk about how open collaboration formats can be improve the way you involve different types of people in a design process, and hopefully this will inspire you next time that you start a new project
Iām Franco, and together with Johanna I work in the user experience team of one of the largest telecom operators in the world, Vodafone. One of the points of excellence of our team ā I think ā is the expertise in co-design: we have run many projects with this approach, and we have people who have done codesign even before it was invented ^_^ Itās not only the experience during working hours the one that Johanna and myself have: we are both regular attendees and sometimes organisers of what we have called āopen collaborationā events: barcamps, meet-up, hackathons.Today we are going to reflect on how to mix codesign and this type of collaborations, using 2 projects we run in Vodafone in 2009. Johanna, can we clarify what do we mean by codesign and collaboration?
What: sustainability and Vodafone and peopleThe process: invite experts, interested, activists together with designersAlso, bring the ideas generated in codesign to a further stage, by co-prototyping these with developers and tinkerers Objectives: collect expertise on the topic. Generate ideas that had a tangible result, and could be evaluated in a quicker way. Be able to extrapolate enablers an services.
How did we sell it?Make all the Corporate Social Responsibility efforts visible to āconsumersā.Generate brand differentiation.
The goals of the project influenced the type of people we asked to participate---And ā of course ā everyone contributes with ideasThe grey ones mean: like Microfutures. Unlike microfutures, marketing stakeholders were less involved
The grey ones mean: like MicrofuturesBenchmark of existing solutions + Internal workshop: first ideas and conceptsCo-design workshops: conceptsFurther development of concepts (internal) Publication of conceptsHack-a-thon: apps and prototypesFurther development of concepts and apps
You do not have to assign ownership of any intellectual property rights arising from Your developments to Vodafone, but in the interests of sustainable development, You must make available any code which is part of your competition entry under a recognised open source licence of your choice, along with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, on the Betavine platform, or such other platform as provided by us, and You must neither use any third party code which is incompatible with distribution under your chosen licence, nor knowingly infringe any third party intellectual property rights.
Participants in the codesign workshops appreciated a lot the availability of a panorama of existing solutionsParticipants in the co-prototyping day appreciated the briefs and āstimulus materialā coming from the concepts created during the co-designWe realised ā maybe too late ā that it would have been beneficial to break this barrier, and mix the 2 groups of participants.Why? Users have needs and desires. Developers know what is possible, and this can make users discover needs they werenāt aware of
Our stakeholders were mainly inside our team, and part of the corporate responsibility department. A proper engagement with product teams would have made the differenceThe output of the project is not just what you deliver: itās the chances to follow-up and continue working on it
An attention to the process helped us open-up the project to new sources of knowledge. Tools and spaces supported this not-so-typical collaboration style with people like experts, lead users, developers.But most important for us was to attract people that had a certain mindset: an interest for the topic and a will to share ideas and code.
What do they have in common?Our goals were: Tangible outcomeāMake it realā quickerNeeds drive technology drives needsTransform vague ideas into tangible prototypesParticipation of different people / codesignExperiments with processes, information given, tools, spaces used for designing
What do they have in common?Transform vague ideas into tangible prototypesParticipation of different people / codesignExperiments with processes, information given, tools, spaces used for designingOur goals were: Tangible outcomeāMake it realā quickerNeeds drive technology drives needs
"All of these initiatives, whether they apply to brand, CRM, product development, R&D, customer service, or HR, exhibit some similar characteristics:- easy access;- open platforms that harness the creativity and expertise from people outside of the organization or untapped sources inside;- open-ended formats that can evolve as the problem statement changes;- ample room for participation and emergent self-organization;- easy mechanisms for tinkering and hacking (e.g. through open-source formats);- small formats that can be easily shared- strong incentives (ideally intrinsic motivation or social currency);- real-time visibility (through sharable content);- tie-ins to dormant or active social networks;- and distributed decision-making."
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to ābeyond codesignā. In the next 40 minutes or so weāll talk about how open collaboration formats can be improve the way you involve different types of people in a design process, and hopefully this will inspire you next time that you start a new project