After snack time, the next part of a co-design session is typically an opening whole-group meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to introduce everyone if there are new co-designers present, and also to set the design purpose for the day. The opening whole group meeting should be a fairly small portion of the session – perhaps 20% of the total time allotted for the design session overall.
- Once snack time is over, head to the meeting place for the opening group. Some teams find that this physical moving of space indicates to co-designers that it is time to shift from the more informal snacktime to a more design-focused time.
- As with all parts of a co-design session, have adults and children sit together intermingled on the same level.
- Typically, one co-designer will get the meeting started, often with a section of time where everyone introduces themselves and answers the Question of the Day.
- Then, the co-designer who is leading for the day introduces the design task for the session. Sometimes, this design task will require that some background content be presented. For example, if working with the National Park Service on a website for children about a particular park, a visiting park ranger may take some time to quickly introduce the park and things that the team may need to know about it in order to design for it. She may also give resources for the team to use when they split into smaller groups to design.
- Opening whole-group meeting ends with co-designers breaking into smaller groups for design work.
