Do what worx: Lessons in making the most of opportunities for user and client co-creation
As UX professionals, we are all aware of the benefits that co-design, prototyping and user testing present to a project but sometimes it can be difficult for us to communicate their value (and ultimately achieve buy-in from the client). As a result, these activities are often the first thing to be cut when budgets and schedules are squeezed.
Last year, Digital Eskimo were engaged to create a centre-piece installation for the Powerhouse Museum’s revamped Ecologic exhibition. The brief was to entertain, while helping (mostly younger) visitors understand the complex & challenging nature of managing Sydney’s water cycle.
We knew that to get the results we wanted for the project, we needed to deeply engage with our users and do as much prototyping and testing as possible. The challenge, however, was how to achieve this within a constrained budget.
Anthony will show how involving the client team in our co-design process allowed us to quickly develop trust and confidence in each others’ contributions. He’ll look at how this engendered a relationship that valued a low cost, informal approach to prototyping and user testing and how this ultimately resulted in Water Worx, an installation that is exceeding all of the project’s communications objectives.