Team Construction

Team Construction involves an entire co-design team working together to build one large low-tech prototype of a technology or immersive environment.

This technique can be used when creating and designing immersive environments or very large-scale technology. While the environments may eventually be digitized, this technique allows for the entire team to visualize and create an immersive and 3-D model, which allows for deep thinking about navigating and details of the environment. This technique could also be used for early design for Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality environments.

• Supplies: Large, low-tech art supplies, such as pool noodles, large cardboard boxes, packing styrofoam or other packing materials, and chart paper; smaller art supplies such as drawing supplies, paper, writing and drawing implements, pom poms, pipe cleaners, and so on; glue, scissors, tape; sticky notes and pens can also be helpful.

• Introduce the design prompt to the whole team, and explain that unlike typical sessions, for this session the whole team will be working together on one design idea. For example, perhaps the team is going to make a game that takes place in an immersive environment that requires players to travel around an extensive map, and they are going to prototype the places that will be on that map. 
• Large art supplies should be available throughout the room, as well as the smaller art supplies typically used in low-tech prototyping.
• The entire team can begin to work on creating the world or environment. At the beginning, co-designers will decide what parts they wish to work on and may form themselves into smaller groups. Adults might want to consider ahead of time which part of the design they would be a part of depending on how the design emerges and where more support is needed. As design progresses, you will likely find that some co-designers wish to move around the world and work on various parts, while others prefer to stay and work deeply on one area.
• Sticky notes can be used to ask questions about a specific piece of the design, or to add ideas to it by making notes and posting them directly on the Team Construction. If a co-designer moves where they are working and is confused by something, or has an idea to elaborate on it, they can use sticky notes to do so.
• When the design time is up, the final whole group meeting and Big Ideas can be done by having everyone walk around and through the immersive environment together. As you move through the environment, designers from each small team or each co-designer who worked on that part can explain pieces they worked on and ask other teams questions in order to clarify ideas.

Walsh, G., Foss, E., Yip, J., and Druin, A. (2013). FACIT PD: A framework for analysis and creation of intergenerational techniques for participatory design. In Proceedings of CHI 2013, 2893 – 2901