What To Expect From A Design Workshop
Have you ever intensively worked twelve hours in a day? Have you ever learned several skills in a mere three days? Have you ever cooperated with more than 10 people to design a product? Last weekend, I spent 28 hours in total in the Pixels & Print Design Workshop for three days, working with my teammates to design an app for a refugee assistant program. The app aims to help refugees to overcome language barrier with Augmented Reality (AR) technology.
It was my first time attending a workshop and I have learned a lot. The first thing I learned is that you need to negotiate with your team and let the best idea win. Since there are several translation apps and language learning apps in the marketplace, we wanted to make our app distinct from others. We brainstormed for almost 12 hours. Everyone came with at least one idea, talked about their thoughts, discussed about others’ opinions, and tried to improve the ideas. We inspired others and got inspired. Some ideas were interesting but not feasible, while some ideas were easy but not creative. From more than ten ideas, we first picked three ideas: virtual reality experience, photo gallery, and object-recognized translation. Then we were divided into three groups to work on each of the three ideas in more depth. We talked about the reason why we liked the idea that we worked on, what could be improved, and what users may think about this idea. Even though we tried to perfect the idea we worked on, we were still asked to choose the best among the three. Whenever we killed an idea, I didn’t feel pity about the time we had spent on it, but rather excited that we were going to make a better product.
The second thing I learned is that you need to know what your target users really need. Since our AR app is a part of the refugee assistant program, which seeks to create an online searchable archive of images and video documenting the lives and journeys of refugees, we primarily wanted our app to be closely related to the program. After discussion, however, we realized that their need for photo and video storage is not as urgent as the need for translation. Moreover, other teams had already decided to create a website where refugees can store photo and video, so it’s not necessary to have an app which has the same function. If putting ourselves in the refugee’s shoes, I think the language barrier is the biggest problem they will meet. They may also suffer culture shock. Thus, we’ll also add some idioms and culture related topics to our translation, which can attract and help refugees.
Last but not least, it’s important to cooperate with your teammates. I know it’s a cliché but when you are working in a team, you can’t only concentrate on your own work, you need others. When I was working in the workshop everyone was assigned with a task, but every task is related with others. Different people have different design concepts but we can’t follow our own patterns, even unconsciously. To make all the design consistent, we need to embrace new design concepts, use the uniform colors and pictures, and always remember to share our work with others.
After the workshop, I felt exhausted but excited; I saw the progress we were making, I saw the difficulties we had overcame. I could tell we were doing something great, and we were designing for good.
