Michelle Chin Mary Fran Thompson_How to Design Inclusive Workshops in a Hybrid World_UX Y'all 2022

Transcript

1. How to Design Inclusive Workshops in a Hybrid World UX Y’all 2022 9/23/22 Michelle Chin & Mary Fran Thompson
2. Who We Are Mary Fran Thompson She/Her/Hers Senior UX Designer @ Insight Michelle Chin She/Her/Hers Design Advocate @ zeroheight We’re 2 friends that love UX! We’ve been collaborating over the last 8 years in and outside of work.
3. Also... We Host a Podcast! It’s called UX IRL (aka UX in Real Life!) There’s UX in theory and then UX in reality. We cover the latter across a wide range of topics—everything from being scrappy with research to UX in video games. We're on most major podcast networks including Spotify & Apple
4. Who you are Facilitators • Learn what’s different about hybrid workshops • Learn best practices in planning and hosting inclusive workshops Participants • Discover how to meaningfully participate whether you're virtual, in-person, in a different time zone, etc. • Learn better ways for collaborating more inclusively!
5. What We’ll Cover Our hybrid reality Workshopping Ramping up Winding down How to be a great facilitator
6. Our Hybrid Reality
7. Pre-Pandemic In the past, there was a mindset that we need to be in-person to conduct great workshops. Anyone remote would bear the burden of figuring out ways to contribute and follow the conversation.
8. “Post”-Pandemic… today As employees become empowered to decide where they work best, we're rethinking how we collaborate on a daily basis. We need to rethink how we create and facilitate workshops.
9. Workshop experiences In-person experience Remote experience Hybrid experience Level playing field for participation ✅ Yes! ✅ Yes! ⚠ Doesn’t feel equitable Real-time collaboration ✅ Yes! (might require travel) ✅ No commuting ⚠Can be harder to collab ⚠Can be, but tough on time zones Tools ✅ Analog is easy ✅ Can use digital ✅ Digital tools make documenting easy ⚠Not always equitable Timing ✅ Can spend all day! ⚠Can’t spend all day ⚠Hard for remote people to spend all day
10. Including people Goal: To make sure no one is left out. Ask yourself: • Am I leaving anyone out from participating? • Can people participate to their fullest extent possible? • Am I providing equivalent alternatives?
11. Ramping Up
12. Set Expectations What’s the goal? How do I participate? Why are we doing this? How long will it take? When will you have the results?
13. Workshops can be intimidating • May be a new way of collaborating or participating • People can feel put on the spot • This isn’t like other meetings (e.g., reviews, stand-ups, etc.)
14. Ease Into It
15. Icebreaker • Low stakes, easy to answer • Opportunity to learn about each other • Get comfortable with tooling • Test the waters Pro Tip Have people on hand to sort out technical issues. While they’re working on it, you can be the scribe!
17. Real-time kickoff When possible, real-time kickoffs help • Reiterate expectations • Provide a high-level overview • Let folks ask questions • Allow for more async opportunities Pro Tip If possible, get a head start on informing people about the workshop. Could be during a regularly scheduled meeting (design share, stand up, etc)
18. Written Instructions Participants can • Refer back to it later • Understand the instructions and intent When Facilitating… • Focus on activity steps • Avoid reading what you wrote word for word
19. Provide an Example Examples can help participants: • Make sense of things • Sets expectations • Reduces questions during workshop When creating examples: • Keep it simple • Demonstrate the output
21. Make it Fun • Memes & GIFs • Music to fill the silence
22. Activity Let’s try out an ice breaker! Tell us a boring fact about you ON SLIDO!!
23. Workshopping
24. Hybrid Workshops are a Design Problem • Get creative with your solutions • Think about the UX (for facilitators and participants) • Don’t lose sight about the workshop’s goal by over designing the workshop
25. Factors at Play Number of people Time zones Location
26. Under 8 people Over 8 Many, many Co-located Some co-located; some virtual Virtual 0-3 hours difference 4-7 hours difference 8+ hours difference Factors at Play # of people Location Time zones
27. People: 8+/Many Keep groups under 8 people Group based on time zone and/or location • Time-zone compatibility • In-person compatibility • Remote compatibility Hybrid group based on time zone Group working in the same office Remote group in same time zone
28. Time Zones: 8+ Hour difference Be really intentional when meeting in real time; try workarounds • Create groups based on time zone compatibility • Try equitable solutions (e.g., recordings for “listening-only” activities) • Have “team leads” to help facilitate Hybrid group based on time zone
29. Location: Some in-person; some virtual • Maybe have virtual people form a team • It’s OK to have in-person activities - maximize those in-person benefits! (make sure you digitize + share) • Upgrade your space Have members take turns being a scribe Better cameras Document camera Whiteboard camera
30. Example Team A Team B Team C Team D Team E
31. Example
32. Base guidelines Your energy is infectious! ≤90 minutes Groups ≤8 Always be capturing Get comfortable repeating yourself
33. Activity: Hybrid Simulation Part 1 “Time Zone A” (Virtual friends) • Name some favorite flavors of ice cream “Time Zone B” (In-person friends) • It’s you’re evening, so just hang out Part 2 “Time zone B” (In-person friends) • Morning! Name some favorite flavors of ice cream! “Time zone A” (Virtual friends) • It’s your evening, so you can hang out now Part 3 Everyone - we’re meeting at a time-zone friendly time Using Mentimeter: Vote on the favorite flavor!
34. Winding down
35. Winding down End a high note Say thanks! Explain what’s next Stay digital
36. Ending on a high note
37. Activity https://bit.ly/hybrid-workshop-feedback
38. Being an awesome facilitator
39. Use a Canvas to Plan Plan what you need to be successful Easy way to brainstorm ideas and organize your thoughts
41. Outline the Workshop Outlines can help • Create an overview of steps • Get buy-in and set expectations • Think through timing
43. Be intentional with your activities Know your audience Be flexible based on their needs Consider what activities are best for async or real-time Time zone A Time zone B
44. Be intentional with your activities Real-time for… • Complexity • Setting expectations • Discussion + collaboration needed Asynchronous for… • Simple tasks • Requires little to no explanation • Independent-friendly work
45. Create a Library! Pro Tip This helps you and your teammates in the future! Templates Icebreakers Activities Music playlists In-person kit
46. Pilot it Practice with peers (Gut check on timing!) Test your equipment
47. Follow Up What are next steps? When will you reach back out? Following through builds trust (now and next time)
48. Our Wind Down
49. Stay in Touch Reach out to us on… • LinkedIn (maryfran-ux & michelletchin) • Zheroes Slack (bit.ly/zheroes-signup) • Medium (@uxinreallife) Our podcast has UX Help Desk episodes! Find us after the talk to ask us your burning UX questions! We might feature your question in a future episode
50. Last Activity What’s your favorite gif from the presentation?
51. Questions