Design workshops

I’m a big fan of structured/facilitated design workshops. They can be incredibly useful for user research sessions, co-designing services with teams, and stakeholder meetings.

Practising how to run these workshops, and being able to pick and choose the right one for the right task is becoming more valuable to me as a designer as I gain experience.

Design workshop collections

Here are some sites that list a range of design workshops, activities and exercises…

• 18F methods
• Atlassian team playbook
• Google design sprint methodology
• GDS user research activity cards
• Design Kit methods
• Gamestorming
• Liberating Structures
• Think Design's research methods (via Rob Whiting)
• Mental models for designers
• Service Design Tools (via Kate Towsey)
• A Comprehensive Checklist For Running Design Workshops

A list of design workshop methods

Here are some links to specific design workshop methods…

• Design critiques
• Prioritization matrix
• Empathy map
• Cards Against How Might We
• Job stories
• Service blueprint
• Stakeholder mapping
• Value proposition map
• User journey map
• Personas
• Task Model (via Nic Price)
• Despicable Design
• Making Product Decisions in Bets
• Synthesis Wall (via Kate Towsey)
• The good services scale from Lou Downe