Designing a ‘Design Room’
December 21st, 2006
Where does your design team work?
Over at the IxDA discussion board, Rob Nero from Northwestern Mutual posted a question about creating a space to help design teams collaborate:
What unique items to keep in your room to promote problem solving and creativity?
Dan Peknik, a designer for NASA Ames and San Jose State University, replied with some great ideas, including:
- People need space to express their ideas - one whiteboard is not nearly enough. Lots of colors, lots of whiteboard space is always key.
- Most creative sessions are waaay too long. Keeping people standing keeps things moving, but it’s also not a bad idea to have a large stop watch somewhere - there are several timers available that can be attached to the wall to keep people on track. When I run meetings, I’m always aware of how much floor time people are getting, and I’m scanning to see if people are starting to glaze over. I never put people in meeting where they must go on for more than an hour at a time without a break. That yields diminishing creative returns.
- A printer with a USB port and cable so people can plug in and print right there instead of walking out to do so.
What do you do to keep your team’s creative juices flowing?
December 21st, 2006 at 5:34 pm
This may be redundant for some work sites, but not for many I’ve been at…
-A computer with a screen large enough to be seen from several feet away (So you can show examples of other work). With internet access AND intranet access, please.
-Speaker phone with conference calling capabilities (so you can call someone and ask a question.)
-Non-speaker phones, preferably 2. (So people can network with others as need be).
-Wireless.
-Trashcans. (We don’t have that in our whiteboard room here. It’s really frustrating to LEAVE THE ROOM to toss something.)
-A big clock on the wall. I’ve had creative meetings in a room with no clock. Ugh. It never ends.
-Surfaces people can sit at and write out thoughts, preferabbly a bit away from the whiteboard group (brilliant idea! need time to think! go over there, sit, write, come back, present.)
-Kleenex (see Trashcan)
December 21st, 2006 at 6:14 pm
Timely post! We were just at our new office space (moving in next week) trying to figure out how to mix individual work space and an open collaborative (design) space. Is it possible? Or do you really need to separate areas for work and design? I think we have a lot of prototyping to do!
December 21st, 2006 at 10:09 pm
- pillows (small colored ones can be fun to throw at various stages)
- music (a must - giving everyone a choice of genre)
- snacks
- finger puppets
- digital cameras for the odd photo
- a good stationary depot
- and the odd bit of craziness
December 25th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
Something the seems obvious, but we just started using a few months ago that has made our brainstorming sessions more useful:
Butcher Paper on a roll
Having a nearly endless supply of paper allows us to brainstorm more. It’s cheap and unlike whiteboards you cant accidently erase your work.
The only problem we now have is not enough wall space…
December 27th, 2006 at 10:04 am
Our design room is 30% whiteboard (floor to ceiling) which is nice. The real awesome part is that we have a 9ft long conference table whose surface is also whiteboard. I cannot recommend this highly enough.
December 29th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Steven: I’m designing a new workspace/conference room and am looking for a source for floor to ceiling whiteboard. Do you know where you bought your material? Does it erase fully?
Also, your “white table” sounds awesome….where did you find that, or did you make it yourself?
Thanks!
December 31st, 2006 at 8:15 pm
I find that lots of space for writing on the wall to be shared and discussed as well as table space is highly desirable though whiteboards have the disadvantage of having to be captured or copied. If a white board is being used, then a camera and tripod needs to be present to capture images and ideas as they are being created to keep the sessiong fluid. Of course there is always the old fashioned method of using the giant 3M stickies and putting them up on the walls and/or whiteboards. I actually prefer this method over digital capture because you can move them around and when reviewing these sessions for transcription I find that seeing the original pages have a stronger conceptual association that remains fresher than digital or video captures.