Interdisciplinary Co-Creation
Co-design is core to the futurePerfect methodology™. At the kick off of each project, we employ our four-part “play as process” workshop, which is tailored for each client, issue and medium. The kick off is comprised of a full day, multi-modal brainTrust involving a “meshwork of influencers”–an interdisciplinary group of key stakeholders on the issue–in a participatory process that moves them from the rational to the emotional, then onwards to the visual, spatial and temporal unpacking of the issue through system’s thinking. In the final stage, participants will apply all the accrued knowledge and documentation from the first three stages to the design of a paper prototype. During the process, participants:
- Identify and humanize their target audiences by defining their core values, problems, possible solutions and actions to take for their issue. With this information participants translate it into a simple narrative with characters and a clear message frame
- Next, through four discrete “imprinting sessions”, drawn from French psychologist Clotaire Rapaille, they deconstruct the “culture code” of their audience’s issue, which allows them to see the inherent resistance and challenges to communicating their issue.
- After that participants explore mapping, diagramming and cataloging their issue to begin visualizing the organizational and causal systems at play in their issues. With these three prismatic ways of looking at their issue, participants now possess all the ingredients for designing an interactive experience. This interactive experience is where they experiment with various forms of prototyping.
- At the close of the day, each group pitches their concept pecha-kucha style. While these concepts are never used, this approach quickly brings us up to speed on the issue in design terms we understand, and also enables the client & key stakeholders to feel like part of the creative process, and generally keeps them more invested in the project as it develops.
The Play as Process approach enables teams to more closely map design challenges to story design and interactive mechanics to increase authentic engagement, behavior change, and learning outcomes. Please reach out if you are interested in a Play as Process workshop or find our DIY version of the workshop below.
This DIY version of the Play as Process workshop offers users a chance to experience futurePerfect Lab’s interdisciplinary co-creation methodology in conditions that best fit your team’s needs. While we won’t personally be facilitating your DIY workshop experience we recommend identifying a facilitator who will guide participants through the Play As Process steps. The facilitator would need to take some time before the play session to familiarize themselves and the organization or group with the card deck and what you intend to gain from the experience.