Unboxing design for non designers 🐛
Have you ever put on a non-designer’s pair of eyes to look at design? It can get intriguing. It feels like deciphering a complex piece wrapped up in a seemingly simplified cover.
With the ever-changing meaning of design, there has always been a continuous need for it's advocacy & appreciation by business leaders, technologists, data scientists, analysts, product managers and more.
Lot of my consulting gigs have an inbuilt component of design advocacy. Both for clients and for internal stakeholders. While there are lots of MOOCs, blogs, videos available, what's often missing in them is the connection between different layers of design. And are they fun to engage with? Not sure.
I was on a lookout for a learning experience for non designers that encouraged hands-on creative thinking. It had to be immersive. An idea emerged to create a series of creative thinking sessions that gradually segue into realms of design. That's UNBOX.
Unbox is a design learning program envisioned with a dual purpose of cultivating design appreciation and carving a creative respite for an otherwise mundane work life.
Audience
Coders, analysts and data people who are swamped with numbers & logic all day.
Manifesto
Sensitize the participants towards design fundamentals
Keep it playful & hands-on. Make it to believe it. Break inhibitions. Getting judgmental about anyone's creative output is strictly prohibited.
Help them discover layers of design incrementally. (Remember, it could be their first step to learn about design beyond prettification)
Use analog methods. Because that’s relatable, universal and fosters continuous learning.
Format
60-90 mins of sessions every week/month in a bright, happy, open space.
Team
Put together a multidisciplinary organizing team of 3-4 high energy people who share your love for creativity.
the first cut
Unbox's maiden session had 18 energetic participants from a good mix of roles. In Gurgaon's brand new shiny office we got together for our first 60 mins long creative workout. This is structured the first session was structured:
Warmup with some lateral thinking
Design for anti-ease-of-use (Anti. Right!)
Short round of gyaan on principles of ease of use
1. WARMUP - "Oh, the Thinks you can Think!"
Needed : 20 mins, Common objects, Stickies, Inhibited doodling
Every 2 mins, 1 new object appears. Draw infinite ideas of all that it can become but it is not. Scale it, multiply it, modularize it. We had objects like comb, socks, spoon, rolling pin, binder et al.
And here's how this group of non-drawers were bubbling with imaginative visual ideas. A rolling pin became a flag hoist, a spoon blew up to a water slide & a pair of socks turned into a punching bag. Tons of interesting ideas out there.
Giant comb as a road blocker and pair of socks as laundry bag. Jumbo spoon as a thriller swimming pool. Human sized rolling pins for Buddha chanting & reverse bowling.
2. UNDESIGN - Push/Pull/Scan/Wonder
Needed : 20 mins, Clay & strings, Room full of doors, Experimental mind
In 20 mins, design the world's most difficult to use door handle. Using clay & strings make a working model as a group of 3-4.
This session was intended to sensitize the participants towards ease of use. And what better than door handles to use? They have been the most legendary metaphor for an interface.
Just like any other interface they are metaphorically the entry points to a space/system/product that are often left undesigned making a mundane activity loaded with irritants. How many times have you pushed a door only to let it not open? And pulled it to realize it was easier pushing? The idea was to exaggerate bad design of door handles to eventually appreciate simplicity of good design.
In no time, the teams were rolling with some great 'bad' design ideas. So much that we had a team locked themselves up in a room because of their unusable door handle. Clear winners!
There were bear traps, hidden hammers, mathematical strings & deceptive hinges. We saw some insanely creative juices flowing in this session.
Track 3 [Gyaan] - In which Don Norman made a cameo
To connect the dots between the participants' quizzed minds and impact of ease of use in design, we discussed how everyday experiences are loaded with such unwanted barriers. Be the printers in our office or button panels in our lift cars, why do we have to process so many thoughts to use something as simple as a TV remote?
Discoverability & Feedback as Norman discusses in this video are 2 essential forces that make good design. We watched it together to conclude the session.
Overall it turned out to be one power packed session with a riot of imagination & design learning. Big Thanks to my team including - Chithkala, Umang, Rivina, Saif and Rachit.