10 things we’ve learnt about online co-design
Miro board & workshop photo from our recent Activation Station workshop
We’ve all been busy adapting, rethinking and shifting as we learn to live in a new way of doing things. It’s been painful at times, disappointing. I’ve definitely found myself grieving for what might have been.
I recognise how lucky I am that I’m grieving for work lost or an expectation around how something might have turned out which is, in the scale of the crisis we’re in, absolutely miniscule. My heart goes out to everyone who has lost so much more.
However, I wanted to write this to capture the flurry of practical learnings and thoughts we’re (still) picking up from this journey into unchartered territories in the hope that it will give others confidence to try new methods of online collaborative working or the insight to avoid some of our pitfalls!
1. Keep it fun & light
People are struggling and strained at the moment, make sure you plan an engaging workshop with thoughtful, purposeful and creative activities to engage everyone or all ages. Bring lots of energy to the space and frame the purpose and desired outcomes of the workshop clearly in advance — people are giving up their evenings and (sort of) welcoming you into their homes!
2. Stretch & Reflect
We’ve started a few workshops with a short mindfulness activity followed by a stretch and this has worked really well! Scary at first, this activity really helps set the tone for new energy and is a reminder for people who’ve been at a screen all day to stretch and transition into a new space or frame of mind. There’s a lovely example of a short guided meditation from IFF here.
3. Always room for breakouts
We’ve loved getting more confident to use breakouts in every workshop we do. Whether we pair people up to introduce themselves to someone new early on, (saves time vs a whole room introduction for a larger group) or set a question for people to discuss and then share back in the main room (or over the chat). We love breakouts because they give people a chance to genuinely connect with someone they don’t know, breakouts mean everyone can participate and they provide smaller spaces for participants to develop or rehearse their thoughts or responses, building confidence to repeat them back in the main room.
4. Use visual tools to move from just words
At Street Space we’ve loved using Google Jamboard for workshops and collaborative meetings. It’s a bit basic but we love the post its, pen tool and google search capacity. We’ve used Jamboards to draw over existing google street views to design a more people friendly street and brainstormed our project approach or new opportunities. Recently we’ve started to use miro — think of it as a giant canvas that never ends. It’s easier to make miro beautiful and we’ve enjoyed using it to create moodboards using drag and drop image searches, massive post it walls with endless space to link, connect and organise thoughts.
Example mood-boards created during a recent workshop for young designers as part of engagement for The Yard, Bruce Grove
5. Flowers on the table (and the online equivalent)
One of principles we have when running workshops IRL is to always pick up some flowers or a pot plant on the way to liven up a meeting room or community hall. This might seem frivolous but we find they really serve a dual purpose — creating a sense of appreciation and hospitality as well as bringing nature into the room. We’ve been thinking about what the online equivalent is… possibly a bright, nature themed slide on entry to the main room? Leave a comment if you’ve got some ideas!
We started an online Symposium for Our Future Fairlop with a slide show of postcards from a local primary school
6. Keep to time / Sliding starts
An obvious one but remember to keep to time, just because people are saving on travel time they don’t want to attend a badly facilitated workshop that drags on. Everyone has had enough of screen time by 5pm so try and keep workshops to an hour and use the time efficiently — if longer, factor in a toilet or coffee break. Something I learnt from great online facilitator training with ICA-UK is the benefit of a sliding start.. factoring in that people will take 5–10 minutes to arrive and engage in welcoming chat as people join. It’s a good idea to post a google doc in the chat box for people to fill out during this time, to introduce themselves and share why they wanted to join perhaps (or what they had for breakfast) to help with that awkward meeting start or warming up process.
7. Set the boundaries
As with physical workshops it’s really important to set the boundaries at the start. Not just the aim of the gathering but also instructions about whether to mute or not mute, how to use the chat function and whether it’s necessary for video’s to be on or off as well as getting permission for any screenshots that might be taken, how they’ll be used.
8. Use music to set the mood
We love to use background music during workshops, this can really help to set the energy and tone. We might use music as people enter the workshop main room from the waiting room for example or if there’s a heavy individual thinking activity or post it writing task that can benefit from background music. This means people can have the space to process and think more clearly without focussing on the awkward silences that can feel louder online — as well as hopefully brightening up people’s day with new stimulation!
9. Short & snappy activities or tasks to keep the energy up
If you’re keeping to a tight one hour schedule and have a lot of feedback to gather or collaborative activities to facilitate, this will be inevitable, but we’ve found it’s good to keep participants engaged in short, high energy tasks with clear and regular instructions and structure rather than longer more free-flowing ones.
10. Follow up
As with all engagement and relationship building remember to follow up with everyone after the workshop or event, thank them for their time and share with them the findings, outcomes and what the next steps are.
If you’re interested in more of our ‘methods’ and ways of working, then please do follow us on our socials.. we’ll be launching some exciting new cards very soon so watch this space! These will aim to bottle up some of our approach (magic!) to share with team members and the wider community.