Playful Participation. How pen, provocation & a personal touch boost user engagement in workshops

Abstract

Based on a case from industry we describe the use of graphic facilitation to boost participant engagement in workshops. With an outset in design sketching we describe and exemplify the use of graphic facilitation and reflect on its relevance for supporting a playful environment and the results on user participation in a professional learning situation. Further, we provide guidelines for practitioners on how to efficiently use graphic facilitation in situations where engagement, learning and reflection are of the essence. The guidelines include using a personal style of sketching as opposed to using generic icons, making large numbers of sketches directly in front of the audience in real time, and contextualizing learning points in humorous ways such as through re-framing and exaggeration.