45 minutes - Intro, Warm Up & Sketching User Experiences

a.) Introduction to the day’s exercises and to designing on-the-fly. Examples illustrating how teams use ideation and sketching to work through UX concepts will be shown along with examples of various natural sketching styles. Explanation of how to use this in an Agile process and the difference between sketching and paper prototyping. Brief explanation of rational and intuitive modes of thinking. Warm up exercises* will cover sketching basics like drawing basic shapes with different markers and at different scales. The exercise will also show people their natural sketching style and show them how to work with that style rather than against it. Groups will discuss the variety of styles in their group and then share their insights with the larger group. The implicit purpose of these exercises is to get people comfortable with the intuitive mode of thinking required by drawing. *Before beginning the exercise, people will be asked to form groups of 6 or fewer people and to introduce themselves to their group.

b.) Once people are warmed up, we will move into sketching the elements of user experience. Personas will be introduced to people along with example sketches representing interface elements and widgets. The exercise will move progressively from sketching individual interface elements to rough depictions of personas interacting with the interface. Basic sketch presentation skills will be addressed and people will be asked to present their sketches to their group and discuss. Highlights from the group discussions will be discussed by the larger group.

45 minutes - On-the-fly Design …. the Agile Conference Hallways (or open jam area)

a.) Armed with a visual vocabulary and a sense of each other’s sketching style, groups will be asked to work together to design on-the-fly. Scenarios of use will be provided for context, and the group will be asked to explore multiple design directions. We will look at how presenting sketches fosters good UX decision making.
b.) In the final exercise, groups will design on-the-fly in the hallway (or open jam area). The goal is to engage fellow conference attendees in a design on-the-fly discussion and elicit meaningful feedback. I will circulate from group to group providing support and gathering feedback. During the last 15 minutes of the conference, people can gather in the session room for a wrap up discussion -or- continue to sketch if their design on-the-fly sessions are really energetic.