Database Reference
In-Depth Information
AfterwalkingtheAffinitythefacilitatorintroduceseachoftheContextualDesignmod-
els andparticipants read them inturn,individually orinpairs. They think about the implic-
ations of the data and post design ideas responding to it. Because each model presents a
different aspect ofthe users' practice it prompts adifferent way ofthinking about solutions
for the design. The Identity model, for example, makes the users' self-image explicit and
invites designers to think about how product features and overall product design can pro-
moteorviolatetheusers'senseofself.TheDayintheLifemodelpromotesthinkingabout
how an activity flows through place, time, and technology devices—a very different set of
issues.Afterwalkingeachsetofmodels,theteamaddstotheirlistsofissuesandhotideas.
The Wall Walk provides an opportunity for individuals to dialog with the data and form
an initial design response, getting ready for the visioning session. This interactive process
focuses team members on how their design ideas respond to the user's world. Walking the
data in a facilitated group process creates a time-bound, interactive event producing a tan-
gible result focused on creating new product concepts.
The design ideas the team posts on the Affinity and on models are uncommitted, spur-
of-the-moment ideas; Contextual Design does not encourage the team to get overly at-
tached to them. But much of creativity comes through the recombination of existing parts.
These ideas will be available to the team for reuse during the Visioning Session. Capturing
themostsystemicideasinalistisaneasywayfortheteamtosharefirstideaswithoutcom-
mitting to building anything—and without having to argue about whose idea is best. The
bridge to design has to work not just for individual designers, but to bring the whole team
together in a shared direction, without overly constraining design thinking or converging
on a single solution too quickly. The Contextual Design ideation workshops are structured
to do just that.
TheWallWalkisanimmersionexperiencethatcanbeusedoverandoverwithdifferent
teams for different purposes. Most complex products comprise multiple teams working on
different parts; explicit consolidated data allows the different teams to walk the data and
vision solutions for their own part of the problem. Because every team is responding to the
same data, they are more likely to deliver a coherent response.
T
he Visioning Session.
The Contextual Design Visioning Session is a facilitated work-
shop that generates a coherent design response to the user data. It is carefully structured
to optimize a team's ability to invent creatively in the context of user data. It is a group
process where the team jointly tells the story of the users' life and work, focusing on the
tasks of interest, showing how the users' world will be changed and enhanced by the new
invention. In the session, the team does multiple visions, telling multiple stories from dif-
ferent starting points, evaluates the visions, and then reconciles them to create a set of co-
herent product concepts. Here again, Contextual Design builds on people's natural skill at
storytelling, using it now to generate new product ideas.
