Workshop Game: Impact Cards

This game is part of the custom workshop I create and facilitate for a product team when I first join the project.

I previously introduced two workshop games: Goal Rush and Focus Finder. I don't usually start the workshop with either of those games. Instead, I use two other games as ice breakers. I'd like to introduce one of these games today.

The game is called Impact Cards.

The purpose of this game is for everyone in the workshop to learn about a few different disabilities and how persons with these disabilities can be affected on the web.

Here's how you play it.

• Time needed: Varies, depending on the number of participants. 5 minutes + 1 minute per participant
• Participants: 4 - 20
• Materials: Index cards or rectangular sticky notes
• Prep work: A set of pre-made index cards described below

Before the workshop, you need to create a set of index cards. On each card, stick an avatar photo and write down a name underneath each plus a disability. Make sure to leave enough room underneath for the game participants to fill in.

Then, you, or the facilitator, can simply introduce the game by saying:

We’re going to play a game called Impact Cards. The purpose of this game is to discover some of the customers with disabilities that want to use our product and understand how they are impacted on the web. We’re playing this game because we need to understand how the web impacts people with disabilities.

And then start explaining the steps of the game:

1. You will notice I’ve already created a few trading cards that are similar to the ones in the previous game. Each of you will get one card. (At this point, pair up each card with a participant. Do this without too much ceremony or debate)
2. For the card that you got, I want you to write down on the card how you think the person on the card is impacted on the web. Here’s an example: The person on my card is called Emily. She’s visually impaired and cannot clearly distinguish between colours that are too similar to each other. Because of that, Emily cannot tell what links to click on if they is not enough contrast on the page. (You can pick a card for yourself in advance and write down the information to use in the example).
3. You will have 2 minutes to do this.
4. Next, write down how you would help that person overcome the barrier you just identified. Here’s an example: To help Emily, we need to make sure there is enough colour contrast for links. (Again, you can do this example in advance as a facilitator)
5. You will have 3 minutes to do this.
6. At the end, I will collect all the cards from you and read them all aloud.
7. If any of the cards won’t be filled in, we’ll take a stab at them together.

This game also has one rule: no talking.

At the end, when reading the cards aloud, do it without comments or debate. There’s no need for questions unless any of the cards are incomplete. If that’s true, ask for a volunteer to fill it in. They can dictate to you and you don’t need to read it aloud again.

Impact Cards is a pretty simple game. When I use this game, the participants are always intrigued by how things they take for granted on the web affect other people. And I make sure to tell them that the index cards we fill in, we'll get a chance to use again a bit later in the workshop.