Hvordan involvere sluttbrukere i systemutviklingen v.h.a. rollespill og

Workshop Yggdrasil 10. oktober 2005
Hvordan involvere sluttbrukere i
systemutviklingen v.h.a. rollespill og
papirprototyping?
Kombinasjonen rollespill og papirprototyping er nyttig for å få kreative innspill fra brukere i
en tidlig kravfase i et systemutviklingsforløp. Fokus i denne workshopen vil bli på hvordan
man praktisk skal gå fram for å gjennomføre en designworkshop der en
gruppe sluttbrukere skal bidra gjennom selv å gjøre rollepill og papirprototyping.
Workshopen vil bli lagt opp med en kombinasjon av forelesning og praktiske øvelser, og vil
bli avrundet av en plenumsdiskusjon rundt svakheter og styrker til metoden, samt hvordan den
kan tilpasses og brukes i egne prosjekter.
Rollespill fra et ”pasientrom” (Gemini, 2. juni 2005. Foto: Rune Petter Ness)
Gry Seland
Stipendiat innen menneske-maskin interaksjon
Institutt for datateknikk og informasjonsvitenskap
Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet
E-mail: Gry.Seland@idi.ntnu.no
Preface
This compendium is mainly written for the participants at Yggdrasil 2005, who attend the
workshop “Hvordan involvere sluttbrukere i systemutviklingen v.h.a. rollespill og
papirprototyping?” The main intention of the compendium is to help participants who
consider organizing their own design workshop with focus on role play and low-fidelity
prototyping.
Role-play is a powerful tool for system development, and it is important that it is approached
in a systematic way. There are better and worse ways of using every kind of system
development technique and the difference between the best and the worst run role-play can be
considerable. At the best the participants will feel that they have been actively involved in
creating good ideas for system design, while at the worst the participants will feel
embarrassed and do not feel that the workshop has contributed positively to the project. For
these reasons it is important to approach the role-play workshop in a systematic way that
ensures that every participant feels that he/she has been actively involved in the workshop and
that every idea evolved has been treated seriously.
This compendium, therefore gives some guidelines for how to organize and lead such a
workshop. The description and the guidelines are based on Seland’s PhD work on developing
methods for involving users in the design of mobile IT systems. This work is described in
Svanæs and Seland (2004)1 and Sørby, Melby and Seland (2005)2.
For more information on how to organize such a workshop, or for help in organizing one,
please contact Gry Seland (gry.seland at idi.ntnu.no) or Dag Svanæs (dags at idi.ntnu.no).
1
Svanæs, D., & Seland, G. (2004). Putting the users center stage: Role playing and low-fi
prototyping enable end users to design mobile systems. Paper presented at the
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Vienna, Austria.
2
Sørby, I. D., Melby, L., & Seland, G. (2005). Using scenarios and drama improvisation for
identifying and analysing requirements for mobile electronic patient records. In J. L.
Maté & A. Silva (Eds.), Requirement engineering for socio-technical systems.
Hersley: Information Science Publishing.
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Table of contents
PREFACE ............................................................................................................................................................... 1
ABOUT ROLE PLAY AND LOW FIDELITY PROTOTYPING .................................................................... 3
DEFINING ROLE-PLAY AND LOW FIDELITY PROTOTYPING ..................................................................................... 3
WHY USE ROLE-PLAY AND LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPING IN AN EARLY DESIGN-PHASE? ...................................... 4
LIMITATIONS OF ROLE-PLAY AND LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPES ............................................................................ 4
PREPARATIONS FOR THE WORKSHOP....................................................................................................... 6
SETTING A GOAL FOR THE USER-CENTRED WORKSHOP ......................................................................................... 6
DEFINING THE TECHNOLOGICAL BOUNDARIES ..................................................................................................... 6
PEOPLE ................................................................................................................................................................. 7
EQUIPMENT .......................................................................................................................................................... 7
SPACE ................................................................................................................................................................... 7
HOW TO LEAD THE WORKSHOP................................................................................................................... 8
GENERAL GUIDELINES .......................................................................................................................................... 8
THE WORKSHOP DAY ....................................................................................................................................... 9
INTRODUCTORY SPEECH (ABOUT 30 MINUTES)..................................................................................................... 9
WARM-UP EXERCISES 1 (ABOUT 15-30 MINUTES)............................................................................................... 10
EXAMPLES OF WARM-UP EXERCISES ................................................................................................................... 10
"Invitation to a party" ................................................................................................................................... 10
"Zip" and "Zap" ............................................................................................................................................ 11
"Simple creative improvisation 1" ................................................................................................................ 11
"Simple role-play"......................................................................................................................................... 12
CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT OF SCENARIOS (ABOUT 1,5 HOURS) ....................................................................... 12
Brainstorming ............................................................................................................................................... 12
Development of scenario............................................................................................................................... 13
Dramatizing today’s situation: Improvising the scenarios........................................................................... 13
SHARING THE SCENARIOS (ABOUT 30 MINUTES)................................................................................................. 14
INTRODUCTION TO TECHNOLOGY AND WARM UP EXERCISE SESSION 2 (20 MINUTES) ........................................ 14
Alternative 1: "Simple creative improvisation 2" ......................................................................................... 15
Alternative 2, "Creative circles” .................................................................................................................. 15
Introduction to technology ............................................................................................................................ 16
DESIGNING-IN-ACTION (1 HOUR) ........................................................................................................................ 16
SHARING THE FUTURE SCENARIOS (30 MINUTES) ............................................................................................... 17
FOLLOW-UP DISCUSSION (30 MINUTES TO SEVERAL HOURS) .............................................................................. 17
REFLECTIONS ON USE OF DRAMA IN ORGANIZATIONS .................................................................... 18
APPENDIX A, EXAMPLE PROGRAM FOR A WORKSHOP DAY............................................................ 19
DAGSPLAN WORKSHOP 26. MAI 2003 ..........................................ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
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About role play and low fidelity prototyping
Defining role-play and low fidelity prototyping
Role-play as used here can be defined as a short performance acted out by a small number of
people for a specific purpose. The performance is not created for the general public, but is
created to enhance the understanding of user needs and how new technology will fit into
users’ everyday life.
A role, as considered here, is defined as the professional role (occupancy) of the person, as
well as the personal history and experience. Not everyone in the same occupational role will
agree about how an IT system best will serve them, because everyone draws their conclusions
from their own experience. Everyone has an experiential history that they bring with them
into the development process, which cannot be separated from the role they are to fill as user
representatives in a development process.
In the type of workshop described in this compendium, people mainly take the role of
themselves in the role-play, or play a role that is very familiar. The main reason for this is that
both the “current” and “future” role-plays should be grounded in current work practice, being
as realistic as possible, and only people who play themselves can judge if a scenario is
realistic or not. This is important to avoid creating science fiction scenarios and solutions,
which have no use in design process.
Low-fidelity prototypes are simple models mainly made by foam and paper, to concretize
ideas and explore user needs (figure 1). . The prototypes may be in different sizes and shapes
depending on the project and the workshop goal.
Figure 1 Paper prototypes. Cardboard is glued to the foam model, making it easier to past
Post-it Notes to the model. A little nail signifies that the prototype is wireless
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Why use role-play and low-fidelity prototyping in an early designphase?
In the early phases of a design process it is important to get an understanding of the context of
use for the future system, and to explore different solutions in order to avoid getting stuck
with only one (suboptimal) solution. A one-day workshop is a relatively cheap way of
bringing out many ideas within a few hours, and giving system and organizational developers
insight into users’ worlds.
If there is uncertainty about the concept to be developed, creating tangible prototypes and
acting out the use of the prototypes will be very useful for giving the project a focus. Simple
moving from verbal discussions about needs and possible solutions, to visualizing real
scenarios and prototypes, will help creating a focus, which will help later discussions. In a
one-day design workshop the participants are very focused at the task at hand, mainly because
they work with acting out actual everyday scenarios and creating concrete suggestions for
solutions. Instead of talking about problems and possible solutions, workshop participants
propose and evaluate different solutions, while being in a situation. This helps the participant
to stay focused on the task at hand, which is important to drive the design process forward.
Combining role-play and prototyping is helpful because the role-play help understanding
context of use, while prototypes are useful for exploring different ideas.
Further, if it is not possible to observe work in the mundane world, a good alternative
approach to understand work practices might be to create a role-play of a typical work
scenario. For example, a system developer cannot always enter a busy hospital ward to learn
how their current IT-system works, because this will intrude on the privacy of the patients.
However, the use for role-play is not limited to re-presenting events. A role-play can be
stopped and started several times during a session, where the actors try out different ways of
doing things. In this way it is possible to make initial evaluations about how new technology,
through low-fidelity prototypes, may change work. Introduction of new technology is often
carried out hand in hand with organizational changes, and such plans can also be acted out in
a role-play, giving organizational developers feedback on their initial organizational change
plans. Further, role-plays of future scenarios give and indication about how the new
technology will fit into the user’s everyday life. This is in contrast to regular presentations of
product ideas (via powerpoint or similar systems), where the context for the system is far less
concrete than in a role-play.
Limitations of role-play and low-fidelity prototypes
Although role-play and low-fidelity prototyping may add value to a number of different types
of system development projects, it cannot replace a thorough requirements process. It may
replace some of the early meetings in a project, but the output of the workshop must be
elaborated and validated further before turning the suggestions into a product.
Prototypes made of foam and cardboard have limits as tools for simulation some types of
human-computer interaction, such as video shots, audio and real-time computer feedback. To
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simulate these types of interaction it is necessary to create a computer simulation, but then the
prototype will fill another role than the one we describe here.
Another disadvantage with using low-fidelity prototypes in the way described in this
compendium is that “science fiction” solutions may be created on the prototypes, which
cannot be implemented. This limitation can be confined by proper leadership of the workshop,
where the facilitators emphasize that the solutions should not be science fiction, even though
they may be creative. On the other hand, seemingly Utopian ideas may provide seeding of
novel realistic functionality if they are followed up in an appropriate way in the organization.
Finally, a role-play can “blend” the participants by demonstrating how much more smooth the
future will become with available technology. When viewing future role-play it is important
to remember that a role-play is a simplification of a complicated reality, and not a mirror of
the mundane world.
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Preparations for the workshop
Setting a goal for the user-centred workshop
The objective of the workshop must be stated and clear for everyone involved, including
facilitators, participants and designers. By creating at specific goal it is easier to focus the
role-play and the design activities, and there is a greater chance that the outcome of the
workshop will be valuable for the overall design project.
The goal of the workshop may be very specific, with clearly defined problems, or it may be
more exploratory, giving the participant an opportunity to define the content of the workshop.
It is also possible to have one overall goal, but two themes so each group work on separate
themes. Whatever approach is taken, it is important to create a written statement to enhance a
common understanding about the purpose of the workshop for everyone involved.
Defining the technological boundaries
The technology in focus must be identified, and preferably organized in a written list. The
technological solutions is evidently tightly knit to the workshop goal, and the must be agreed
on and specified.
Figure 2: Example of list of
available technology
Network and other signals:
ADSL minimum 10 Mbit in / 2 Mbit out
IP-telephone til IP-telefoni).
Cable TV
…
Wireless network in the house
WLAN b & g (11, 54 Mbit).
Other: BT, wireless control of heating system etc.
…
Elctronics
PCs: stationary and laptops
Xbox, PS2, Xbox360, PS3 with wireless controls
DVD player
Mp3 player
…
Cell phones
2G/3G telefoner.
Integrated camera and video recorder
Integrated HDD 40 Gb, MP3 player
…
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People
There may be several types of people in different roles in a drama workshop:
Prospective end users: These are the main participants, the ones creating the content of the
workshop. Ideally there should be 4-10 end users participating, depending on the domain and
the design task. Four is suggested as a minimum, because the participants divided into two
separate groups, and there must be at least two participants in each group. Similarly, ten is
suggested as a maximum, since too large groups will make it difficult for everyone to
participate.
Facilitators: There must be one facilitator for each user group, and at least one of the
facilitators must be comfortable with leading the drama parts of the day.
Camera persons: One person is needed for filming the participants.
Observers: System developers, organizational developers, designers, and others with an
interest in the design task.
Drama instructor: If the facilitators do not have experience in leading the role-playing
session, a drama instructor may be hired to help organizing the dramatic parts of the
workshop.
Equipment
Besides foam models (figure 1) in sizes and shapes similar to the technology that is in focus in
the workshop, tools for writing and drawing are needed. Paper and Post-it glue or Post-It
Notes are useful for making screen sketches. In addition other props such as clothes and
furniture might be needed to enhance the simulation of the environment and the situation in
focus.
Space
Preferably the site of the workshop should be similar to the environment where the
product/system in focus will be used in the future. The minimum requirement for the
workshop is that each group has a room where they can work without disturbing each other,
and that the rooms are big enough to provide place for acting out scenarios. In addition, one of
the rooms must be suitable for one group performing their scenario, and the other group
watching.
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Figure 3: Simulation a hospital room in a usability lab
How to lead the workshop
General guidelines
Yardley (1997) has developed three principles for conducting role-play exercise, which are
important to keep in mind when leading a workshop.
1. Particularization: To bring all objects in the acting to the awareness so everybody
knows if an object is what it usually “is”, or what the participants of the workshop or
the leader determine it to be. For example: A table can be an ordinary office table, or it
can be a “patient bed”. A newspaper can be a newspaper, or it can be a “patient
record.”
2. Presencing: The scene must be made personal and familiar to the acting participants.
This is done by speaking concrete, in present terms, what the situation is like. An
example of such a statement is: “You are Anne, 50 years old, and are waiting for the
physician on duty. You are sitting on your bed in a patient room”. This can be
contrasted to conditional statements like “Imagine that this is a patient room. If you
were a patient in this room, how would you react…?”
3. Personalization: The more the participants take part in shaping the environment for
the acting place and in developing the scenario to be role-played, the more likely it is
that they will feel comfortable with acting.
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The workshop day
An overview of the agenda for a typical workshop is given in figure 4, and details about the
different steps in the outline are described in the rest of this section.
1. Introduction to method and to design themes.
Dividing the participants into two groups.
2. Warm up drama exercises 1
3. Brainstorming on situations for scenarios
4. Improvisation of ”current practice” scenario
5. Presentations of scenarios, without and with unexpected
events
6. Lunch
7. Warm up drama exercise 2
8. Introduction to mobile technology and paper prototyping
9. Improvisation of future scenario and development of
paper prototypes. ”Design in action”
10. Presentations of future scenarios, without and with
unexpected events
11. Discussion and evaluation of workshop
Figure 4 Workshop agenda
Introductory speech (about 30 minutes)
The leader of the workshop should introduce everyone involved in the workshop, participants
as well as organizers and observers. This will make it easier for people to understand each
other’s role in the design workshop.
Further, the person giving the introduction must state the goal of the workshop, which for
example can be to get insight into a working process, and to gather initial requirements for an
IT system. Some background in participatory design and an explanation of why role-play has
been chosen may be appropriate. And of course, the leader must tell, without going into
details, what the agenda for the day is.
In addition, the workshop leader must introduce the main theme(s) for the workshop, and the
group division. Depending on the workshop goal, each group can work with separate themes,
or with the same one.
If video recording is used to document the finding of the workshops, a written consent is
useful for ensuring that the video recordings are used for the purpose they are intended to.
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This may be for internal analysis of the results, but also for external presentations of the
outcome of the workshop.
Warm-up exercises 1 (about 15-30 minutes)
Participating in a design workshop focusing on role play might feel intimating for people that
have not role played since they were young. Warm-up exercises are important, because they
function as a way to make role-play less scary by starting out easy. In addition, they help
people to focus on the task at hand: to be present and involved in the design workshop instead
of thinking about what else comes later.
The number of exercises may vary depending on the participants. At some point in the warmup process the participants will “loose up” and do not feel afraid of acting out. There is
therefore possible to have a list of warm up exercises, and use as many as needed by the
particular participants in a specific project. In this compendium I have described the exercises
that we have used in our workshops, but they may be exchanged with others.
In our workshops, everyone takes part in the warm-up exercises session to emphasize that we
are working together on a task. Nobody is allowed to watch, and end users, facilitators,
observers and camera men are included on the same terms. One of the facilitators or a drama
instructor hired for this specific purpose must lead the exercises.
Examples of warm-up exercises
In all the exercises the participants stand in a circle, facing each other.
"Invitation to a party"
Purpose: Learning each others name
The facilitator explains that he would like to invite to a party, and all the participants should
pretend to be bringing something to eat or drink. The item that the participant brings must
begin with the same letter as the name of the person. The facilitator begins by saying for
example "My name is Anna, and I'll bring some apples." Then the person to the left for the
facilitator does the same, and the exercise continues until everyone has told their name and
what they would have brought to the party.
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“My name is Ingrid,
and I’ll bring some ice-cream”
"Zip" and "Zap"
Purpose: To make the participants focused, to heighten the energy level in the room
The facilitator says that he would like to send a "zip", and ask the participants to send it
further. He sends the "zip" by clapping the hands, -the right hand towards the person he will
send the "zip" to, and the left hand towards himself while saying "zip!" The facilitator starts
by sending the "zip" to the person on the left. After the "zip" has travelled through the circle
about twice, the facilitator changes the direction of the "zip" by shaking his body saying
“boing”, before sending the “zip” to the person on the right instead of the left. When the "zip"
again returns to the facilitator, he points both his hands towards another person in the circle
(not the person next to him) and says "zap!" Now the participants can chose whether to "zip"
or "zap". When the "zip" or "zap" after some time again returns to the facilitator, he
terminates the exercise.
"Simple creative improvisation 1"
Purpose: Make the participants feel comfortable about simple improvisation
The facilitator introduces the exercise by saying that product development sometimes is about
imagining how things can be used in different ways. In his hands he has an ordinary object, as
for example a shoe, which may be used as a token and as a representation for the imagined
object. He says that in this exercise, every participant shall imagine what the object could be,
and show it to the others without telling. The others can guess what the object is. The
facilitator starts by acting out that the shoe for example is a telephone. When the others guess
what the object is, he hands the token over to the person next to him in the circle.
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"Simple role-play"
Purpose: Make the participants feel comfortable about simple role-playing, and learning the
"freeze" technique.
The facilitator explains the exercise. The facilitator picks two of the participants to start the
exercise, preferable someone familiar to the facilitator who is not afraid of acting out. He asks
the audience to name a general place (in the woods, on the beach, in the shop etc.), to name
something that happens at the place (crossing a river, building a house made of sand, buying
an umbrella etc.), and who the two actors are (two kids, husband and wife etc.). The two
chosen participants start acting until the facilitator says "freeze". When this happen the actors
must not move until the facilitator asks one of the actors to return to his seat, and asks another
participant replace the person who left the stage. The new person entering the stage must
think of a new place, happening and characters, and start acting accordingly. The role-playing
partner must act according to what he believes is happening. The facilitator again "freezes"
the play, and changes the person who has been acting out two situations. This continues until
everyone has acted out one or two situations.
Choice and development of scenarios (about 1,5 hours)
The focus in the workshop determine whether the participants freely can chose a theme of
their own, or if they have to chose a situation based on set topic. Either way, this process
starts with a brainstorming session.
Brainstorming
If the participants are free to suggest situations, they are asked to brainstorm around everyday
situations. If the workshop is focused around one particular theme, the participants are
required to brainstorm around the given situation.
To ensure that as many ideas as possible come up in the session, the participants individually
write each idea on a separate Post-It Note, and put it on the wall. When the total number of
ideas is about 50, or the participants have stopped writing, the participants look at and cluster
the ideas.
After organizing the notes, the participants choose one or several related ideas for making a
scenario. The criteria for choosing a scenario is set by the organizers, and can for example be
a situation where the people in the scenario gather or utilize information.
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Figure 5: Brainstorming
Development of scenario
When the group has chosen a situation, it is time to elaborate some of the details before
starting to improvise the scenario. The facilitator writes down the details.
Who are in the scenario? What are their names? How old are they? What (work) experience
do they have? If a participant acts himself or herself, this information is easy to gather, but if a
participant acts someone else, he/she must make up the details.
Further, time in the day and environmental place must be specified. A work task may be
different in the morning than in the afternoon, so it is important to state when a scenario is
taking place. If the participants need props in the scenarios, these must be specified as well.
The main plot in the scenario is given by the choice of idea(s), but it might be clarifying for
the participants to make a decision about the main sequences of the role play.
Dramatizing today’s situation: Improvising the scenarios
The participants in their roles create the performance by improvising. The facilitator starts the
scene by summarizing the details about roles, place and main plot, and the participants act out
in the same way they would have behaved in the mundane world.
The facilitator helps the participants by telling what part could be elaborated a little more, and
what part should be shortened.
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If the participants exaggerate their acting, the facilitator gently reminds the participants that
they ought to act themselves as “average persons”. This is important for the validity of the
workshop, so the scenarios become as realistic as possible.
The scenario is rehearsed a few times until the participants and the facilitator are content.
Sharing the scenarios (about 30 minutes)
After practicing their scenario for a few times, all the participants gather, and the two groups
act out their scenario in front of the others. While one of the groups shows their scenario, the
participants of the other group plot down realistic incidents on small paper notes. The
incidents are events that could have happened in the scenario. The same group acts out their
scenario again, but this time the facilitator “freeze” the group a few times during the play and
hand out notes with incidents to the actors, introducing unexpected events in the play. We
have found it useful to read the incidents out aloud, to ensure that all the actors and the
viewers of the scenario understand what happens. The unexpected incidents make the scenario
more varied, which is especially useful when the group later shall work on the technical
solutions.
After both groups have shown their scenario twice, with and without unexpected incidents, we
usually have a lunch break.
Introduction to technology and warm up exercise session 2 (20
minutes)
To get the participants focused on the design after the break, we usually combine the
introduction to technology part with a second warm-up exercise session. In this section I give
an example of two different warm-up exercises, which can be used for this purpose. The
exercises must again be considered as examples, and can be exchanged with other exercises if
desired.
For both alternatives, the warm-up exercise comes first to make the participants focused, and
is followed by an introduction to future technology.
After the introduction to technology, the participants divide into the same two groups as they
had before lunch.
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Alternative 1: "Simple creative improvisation 2"
Purpose: To enhance creativity and prepare for the design part of the day
Equipment: In the middle of the circle is a box with different usual and unusual household
items
In this exercise the participants stand in a circle, facing each other.
The facilitator introduces the exercise by saying that product development sometimes is about
imagining how thing can be used in different ways. Everyone is told to pick one item, and to
make a little story about what the thing “is”. The story can be told in one sentence or in two
minutes, but the important thing is that the participants are creative in imagining new uses for
ordinary objects. The facilitator starts by telling his story, and then the others tell their stories
Example story
“This is a new innovative product for the hair industry. This
lightweight hair-curler can be used by anyone wanting to
have a softer look at their hair. By using the hair-curler as a
brush when air-blowing the hair, it is possible to obtain
nice, soft curls.”
Alternative 2, "Creative circles”
If this alternative is chosen, the participants sit around a large meeting room table, and both
the warm-up exercise and the information about future and available technology is given
while they are still seated.
Purpose: To enhance creativity and make people aware that it is usual to go into a “rut” when
working on a specific task, and sometimes one must start with something completely different
to be able to continue.
Equipment: A sheet of paper with 25 equally large circles are handed out to each participant.
The participants are given 2 minutes to fill out as many of the circles they are able to do. After
the time is out, the facilitator asks whether the participants noticed anything particular when
doing the exercise. The answer to this question is that it is easy to start with one idea (such as
faces), and continue to draw incidents of this idea until the a certain point, where one has to
start over with a completely different idea.
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Figure 6 Circles and drawings
Introduction to technology
The facilitator or a system developer gives an introduction to the technological systems which
are in focus, without going into details. At this moment the simple foam models and
prototyping materials are introduced and explained to the participants. The main reason for
telling about technology is to ensure that the participants know what type of technology will
be available during the coming few years, and what type of technology they can choose from
when developing their “future scenario”.
After the introduction, the participants continue to work in the groups.
Designing-in-action (1 hour)
We have called the transformation from an everyday scenario to a probable future scenario
with new technology as “designing-in-action”. The key principle in the transformation
process is that ideas for technological solutions are improvised during a role-play.
This is done in the following way: The group plays the scenario until somebody sees a need or
a potential for new technology. The facilitator or one of the participants freeze the scene and
pick a device to fit the need. The participant imagines how the information would be
presented on a screen, and stop acting to draw the imagined screen(s) on a paper. The paper is
then attached to the prototype, and the group continues the scenario until the next freeze
integrated. At the end of the exercise the team has designed both a future scenario and a lowfi prototype for that scenario.
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Current practice
scenario
Low-fi prototyping
Future scenario &
low-fi prototypes
Role playing
Figure 7 Designing-in-action (Svanæs & Seland, 2004)
Sharing the future scenarios (30 minutes)
After practicing their future scenario for a few times, all the participants gather, and the two
groups act out their scenario in front of the others. In the same way as when the current
practice scenarios were shared, the spectators write realistic incidents on small paper notes.
Each group acts out their scenario twice, first in the way rehearsed, and second with
unexpected events. One of the facilitators leads the second performance, “freeze” the group,
and read out load an unexpected event. The unexpected incidents make the scenario more
varied, which creates an initial feedback of the technical solutions improvised by the group.
Follow-up discussion (30 minutes to several hours)
The content of the follow-up discussion may vary depending on type of project. However,
there some questions that are general and that are useful to pose for every type of project:
••
••
Are the current and future scenarios realistic?
If the technology that was suggested were available, would the participants want to
use it?
Besides these general questions it might be useful to go through the technical solutions that
the participants suggested. A discussion around what ideas should be elaborated in the
projects, and what ideas should not is valuable, and how the different ideas should be
validated further in the process.
Depending on the participants in the workshop (both user participants and observers) the
workshop can be extended to include a requirements meeting, where everyone involved in
cooperation creates some initial requirements based on the result from the workshop.
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Reflections on use of drama in organizations
Drama workshops are useful for involving end users and creating many ideas for future
technologies. They might be particularly useful in early phases of a project, and especially
when the concept or theme in the workshop is not clear.
However, there are a few issues that an organization must consider before deciding to invite
users to participate in a workshop. These issues are closely related, and are concerned with the
participant’s experience of taking part in the workshop, and with what the organization learns
about user involvement and how to follow up creative ideas.
If a person is invited to join a workshop, this person is taken out of his/her ordinary work
context, and asked for an opinion on a specific problem. The danger of involving users in this
way is that it creates some expectations about how the organization should act on the results.
The organization must have a proper plan for following up the ideas to ensure that the
participants feel that they are taken seriously and have not wasted a day of work. Similarly,
working creatively during a day may create an awareness of the problem, and if there is no
forum for sharing and discussing the ideas the participants may feel frustrated. The
participants learn something about a theme and how ideas may be explored, and depending on
how this knowledge is handled the workshop may be more or less useful for the organization.
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Appendix A, Example program for a workshop day
8.00 – 8.30
Welcome
Presentation of participants
The workshop goal and user centre design
8.30 – 9.00 Warm-up drama exercises
•• Inviting to a party ”My name is Gry, and I’ll bring some gifts”
•• Focus exercise: Zip, zap and boing
•• Creativity exercise: Sende rundt en en hverdagslig gjenstand av en viss
størrelse. Tingen sendes rundt i ringen, og hver og en mimer hva den
kan være. (Kanskje denne kan flyttes til etter lunsj?)
•• Frysøvelse: Publikum gir et sted og en enkel hendelse.
Dramainstruktøren ”fryser” de som er på scenen, og bytter ut den ene
deltakeren med en annen. Nykommeren inntar samme posisjon, men
improviserer fram en ny situasjon.
-----------------------------------------------9.00 – 9.15 Kort frukt, kjeks- og kaffepause
-----------------------------------------------9.15 – 9.30 Introduksjon til arbeidsmåte: Først visning av video, deretter brainstorming
9.30 – 9.45 Visning av videoklipp fra previsitten
9.45 – 10.45 Brainstorming rundt previsitten (Dag og Gry)
Spesifisering (tid, sted, rolle) av hendelsesforløp (Dag og Gry)
Gjennomøving av hendelsesforløp
Systemutviklerne stiller spørsmål for å oppklare uklarheter angående dagens
situasjon (Jøran og Henning)
10.45 – 11.30 Fremvisning av hendelsesforløp, med og uten uventede hendelser (Dag)
-----------------------------------11.30 – 12.00 Formiddagsmat
-----------------------------------12.00 – 12.15 Dramaøvelse for å fokusere oppmerksomheten (Dag)
•• Kreativitsøvelse: Alle står i en ring på gulvet. I midten av ringen ligger
en eske med diverse ting. Hver person tar opp en ting og forteller en
liten historie om tingen, som ikke er relatert til hva den objektivt sett
er!
Introduksjon til prototypene: (Dag)
•• Muligheter med dagens teknologi:
1. Mulig å ta med seg (bærbare)
2. Er knyttet opp mot de andre datasystemene på sykehuset i et trådløst
nettverk, og de kan snakke med hverandre over nettverket
3. Er knyttet opp mot apparater og utstyr som registrerer
pasientinformasjon
4. Er trykkfølsom
5. Kan brukes til å spille av og ta opp tale
6. Kan brukes til å ta opp og vise bilder og korte videoklipp.
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Introduksjon til arbeidsmåte:Utv. av ideer til mobilt EPJ-system (Gry?)
1. Hver gruppe spiller igjennom sitt hendelsesforløp.
2. Når en av de som spiller en rolle har behov for informasjon, kan de selv
eller den som hjelper til i gruppen ”fryse” det som skjer.
3. Den personen som har behov for informasjon noterer ned akkurat hva
han/hun har behov for på et post-it-ark, og plasserer det på den bærbare
enheten
4. Gruppen fortsetter å spille til et nytt ”informasjonsbehov” dukker opp
12.15 – 13.15 Prototyping, skissering av IT-løsninger for de gitte hendelsesforl. (Gry og Dag)
Systemutviklerne stiller helsepersonell spørsmål om løsningene de har utviklet
(Jøran og Henning)
13.15 – 14.00 Fremvisning av hendelsesforløp med teknologi,
både med og uten ”uventede hendelser” (Dag)
14.00 – 14.30 Skriftlig og muntlig oppsummering av workshopen (Gry og Dag)
14.30
Slutt
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