Over the past couple of weeks, I've introduced a workshop game each Wednesday. Those games are part of the custom workshop I create and facilitate for a product team when I first join the project and they're meant to be one cohesive exercise.
During the workshop, I involve all the roles responsible for product development, from the product owner, to designers, developers and testers. Ideally, I try to have between 4 and 7 people for the entire duration of the workshop, including:
- the product owner
- 1-2 UX designers
- 1-2 developers
- 1-2 testers
It's okay if some people will cover multiple roles.
The entire point of the workshop is to get a lot done fast in as little time as possible. For this, I want to replace unstructured meetings with a clear process where we uncover accessibility issues in the key user flows on the website.
The workshop became an easy, straightforward and effective way for product teams that are new to accessibility to uncover the potential accessibility barriers their customers with disabilities might encounter in key user flows on their website.
I've named the workshop Inclusive Impact Jam or I2J for short. Hey, everything needs a name, right?
This workshop isn't for everybody! It's a new way of working. It's different, it's weird, it's uncomfortable.
It might be for you if:
- You are on a product team where not everyone is trained to deal with accessibility
- You are frustrated that you haven't "shifted left" yet
- You are sick of the endless meetings that yield no results
If you’re running this workshop in person, you’ll need:
- Plenty of square sticky notes
- Index cards or rectangular sticky notes
- Sticky dots
- Sharpies to write
- A whiteboard
- A timer to keep track of time
- A room reserved for the team for the duration of the workshop
- Snacks and drinks
If you are running this workshop remotely, I'm putting together a FigJam template you can use as a guide. It details all the exercises you’ll run in one simple to use canvas.
In an ideal scenario, you can run the workshop in 2.5 to 3 hours, including a half-time break. For larger groups, I recommend using 4 hours with 2 breaks intermingled.
Each of the workshop games will help you understand a problem through collaborative play. The facilitator’s role is to introduce each game, guide the team to complete it and move on to the next game in the workshop with minimal interruptions.
The workshop takes you through the following steps:
- Start with who you are
- Find out who your customers are
- Explore what they want to do
- Prioritise what’s most important
- Break down each goal
- Find potential barriers
- Summarise
At the end of the workshop, everyone should:
- have an understanding of different disabilities
- know what the key user flows are on the website
- know where people with disabilities might have problems on your website
And to recap, here are the workshop exercises in order:
I'm turning this into an ebook and giving it away for free. It will include tips for facilitators, problems you might encounter or how to handle loud voices and going off-topic.
Would you be interested?
Hit reply and write "i2j" and you'll be the first to get it when it's ready.