Defining some of the new terms from the workshop

Hello everyone!
We’ve captured some of the terms from the workshop that might be new to some people and we wanted to share some definitions.

List of terms used during the workshop

  1. Is role play or card sorting different from FGD?
  2. Participatory design process
  3. Storyboards
  4. Comic Strips
  5. Equity Centered Community Design
  6. Photovoice
  7. Design workshop

1. Is role play or card sorting different from FGD?
A card sort is a quick and easy activity by which to gather feedback from someone about what matters most to them. Participants are provided a deck of cards, each with a word or single image, that they can rank in order of preference. This can spur deeper conversations around the participants’ values, priorities, and tradeoffs. Designers use this method as one way to co-design with users. Card sorting can be particularly effective in revealing users’ mental models and decision-making processes related to their day-to-day experience of health systems.

Role-playing is a type of prototyping or simulation technique that can help in quickly eliciting the user experience for a product or service from the target audience. The participants in this method of research essentially play certain roles in a skit or a conversation. As compared to other design ideation methods such as focus groups, or card sorting, role-play allows for much more spontaneous, natural and real insights. This may be because role-playing sessions create more scenarios than other ideation methods within an equal amount of time. Additionally, scenarios from role-playing provide richer insights with a lot more details giving the designers with many more recalibration possibilities.

A focus group is a gathering of intentionally selected people, in a non-threatening and receptive environment, who participate in a planned discussion that is intended to elicit user perceptions about a particular topic or area of interest. Unlike an interview, which usually occurs with an individual, the focus group method allows members of the group to interact and influence each other during the discussion. Focus groups can play an important role in health settings because they can bring together multiple considerations within a community and surface common needs and meaningful differences in perspective regarding the health system. Designers often use focus groups to facilitate more complex discussions, by asking participants to build collaborative stakeholder maps showing, for example, the sources of health information within their families and communities.

2. Participatory design process is an approach that invites stakeholders such as clients, users, and community members into the design process to ensure that a design meets the needs of those it is serving. It is a type of social research in which the people being studied have significant control over participation, collaboration, and agency. Participatory design is often used to increase buy-in and ownership when developing health solutions for users and providers who lack a sense of control and agency within the broader health system.

3. Storyboards communicates a story through images displayed in a sequence of panels that chronologically maps the story’s main events. Each step in the scenario is represented visually in a sequence. The steps can be sketches, illustrations, or photos. Images include details relevant to the story, such as what the user’s environment looks like, speech bubbles with quotes from the user, or a sketch of the screen that the user is interacting with. Using images makes the story quick to understand at first glance and easy to remember.

4. Comic Strips is a medium used to express ideas with images (cartoons), often combined with text or other visual information. See examples here: User Experience Comic Strips | Dilbert by Scott Adams; Influencer Scenario Sheets (2).pdf - Google Drive

The difference between a comic strip and a storyboard is that, we use comics to tell the overarching narrative, and we use storyboards to work through the individual interactions that make up that story.

5. Equity Centered Community Design (ECCD) is a unique creative problem-solving process based on equity, humility-building, integrating history and healing practices, addressing power dynamics, and co-creating with the community. This design process focuses on a community’s culture and needs to gain tools to dismantle systemic oppression and create a future with equity for all.

6. Photovoice is a qualitative method used in community-based participatory research to document and reflect reality. Participants are asked to express their points of view or represent their communities by photographing scenes that highlight research themes. Common research themes include community concerns, community assets, social issues, and public health barriers.These photographs are collaboratively interpreted through discussions in both small and large groups, and narratives can be developed that explain how the photos highlight a particular research theme. These narratives are then used to promote dialogue to mobilize and help change-makers (i.e. policymakers) better understand and change the community, thereby developing effective solutions and programs that address the community issues and needs.

7. Design Workshop is a semi-structured interactive session with a group of target users, who engage in collaborative activities with a design team. Workshop activities might include journey mapping, sketching, paper prototyping, scenario-based role play, etc.

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