Choose Appropriate Design Activities
As the design studio host, we’re responsible for choosing activities that guide everyone through the create-share-critique steps in a fast, effective, and fun way. There are many design activities we could use, though not all design activities are appropriate for architecture design. Try to select activities that are architecturally focused and effective when thinking about the system as a whole.
Here is an example workshop agenda based on the round-robin design activity. The workshop itself might run anywhere from 90 minutes if we’re only exploring initial ideas to a whole day if we’re well prepared and plan to explore multiple parts of the system deeply.
Activity | Timing | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
Introduce the context and goals | 15 minutes | Arm everyone with the knowledge they’ll need to be an active, contributing participant in the workshop. |
Round-robin design activity, described | 30 minutes | Promotes rapid divergence and convergence to get the workshop rolling. This agenda plans for only one round, but you could do more with more time. |
Group Poster Activity, described | 30 minutes | Summarize findings as posters so they can be shared more easily among the group. Start building consensus. |
Present and critique posters | 15 minutes | Allow about 3 minutes per poster for presentations. Use dot voting for the critiques. |
Reflect and review action items | 10 minutes | Review how the workshop went and define next steps to ensure strong follow-up. Allow about 10% of the workshop time for this. |
To customize the workshop, use different exploration activities. Instead of a round-robin design, try a whiteboard jam, described. If your aim is to arrive at a better system metaphor, try telling stories by pretending the architecture has human qualities, outlined. The activities you choose for the design studio should help you achieve your goals.
Get Your Hands Dirty: Sketching Practice
During a design studio, we ask participants to sketch quickly and share big ideas under extreme time pressure. Sketching and sharing can be difficult if you haven’t practiced. Practice sketching architectures so you are well prepared to help participants who freeze up during a workshop.
Here are some things to think about:
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How many different ways can you draw a line? An arrow? What meaning might the different lines and arrows convey?
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Try to draw the most precise architecture diagram you can. Now draw the same views and see how much precision you can remove without creating ambiguity.
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Draw as many different types of people as you can. Find a style that works for you.
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Try filling a whole page with shapes, arrows, people, and doodles.
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For real practice, purchase a pocket notebook and fill it with sketches.