The essence of using Design studio

The essence of Design studio is to create different drawings related to the interface that the participants feel expressive and related to the interface, but in a playful way.

By using Design studio, participants can think and find a common direction without the constraints that are not necessarily evident in mainstream development. The main advantage of Design studio is that it is an excellent way to address the lack of information that is typical at the beginning of projects.

As a method of design thinking, and like design thinking, its primary aim is to gather ideas and develop teamwork.

The Design studio at Ergomania

Design studio workshops at Ergomania involve drawing lines, drawing squares and writing short texts together with the client and even typical users.

Our experience is that occasionally one of the participants does not want to draw at all. In such cases, we always give them the opportunity to simply verbalise, i.e. write down their ideas.

A Design studio workshop at Ergomania will, in most cases, follow the points outlined below:

1. First we select the critical points of the current project that need to be improved
2. For these points, best practice and user research is carried out or the results of this research are classified
3. We organise a mixed team of 4-8 people
4. Together, we draw up the ideas that arise, first individually (no peeping!), then in pairs, and then collectively

The end result is a set of concept drawings reflecting a common understanding and acceptance, which participants can take away with them in digital form, cleaned up. As far as the project timeframe allows, we can also implement a more complex three-step drawing and evaluation process based on Brian Sullivan’s methodology. The design studio can also be done remotely using Miro software.

Main methods of the Design studio

In Ergomania’s understanding, a design studio is a drawing brainstorming session without constraints, i.e. without commercial interests and resources, in the framework of a short workshop.

During the Design studio, the participants in the project (developers, project managers, sales, support, potential users, etc.) clarify through their own perspective a selected point of critical importance, a process of the interface under development.

The undoubted advantage of the Design studio method is that many great ideas can emerge in a short time.

What do our clients gain from Design studio?

By attending a Design studio workshop hosted by Ergomania, project members will be able to clarify, both for themselves and for the whole team, what they think about and how they evaluate a key part of the interface being developed, increasing the chances of a successful project conclusion and creating a shared understanding and acceptance of differing perspectives.

What is the role of our clients in the Design studio?

We ask our clients to do three things in order to participate in a Design studio workshop:

1. Select key processes together with UX team
2. Drawing together
3. Evaluate designs

The result of a successful Design studio

The Design studio deliverables are concept drawings reflecting a common understanding and acceptance, which can be delivered in a digitally scanned format.