Fit and Finish: Insight from the Ironworks User Experience Group

Ensuring Equal Web Accessibility for All Is Our Specialty

Americans are more reliant than ever on the Internet as their primary source of critical information and communication. When disaster strikes, news happens or inclement weather is on the horizon, the quickest access to the most information is just a mouse click (or finger tap) away. Continue reading after the break ...

Getting Smarter About Brainstorming: This Month from the Idea Forge

Discover How the Gamestorming Technique Adds Structure and Fun to the Ideation Process

 

Are your team Brainstorms suffering from idea drought? In our latest Idea Forge, we take a look at some of the practical implications of Gamestorming – a technique that ups the ante for the process of generating big ideas. We caught up with UX Architect Larry King at a workshop where he explained this technique and how he’s used it in the field. Watch to see how Gamestorming harnesses the power of Structured Play and learning theories like Distributed Cognition to help you seek out unexpected solutions to specific business problems.

At ICF Ironworks we’ve used Gamestorming both internally and with clients, often at the Strategy Phase of interactive projects. Some examples:

• Helped Define an Approach to Social Engagement. Worked with an insurance industry client to hone their social media strategy through games like Cover Story, which helps envision end goals, and Affinity Map, which assigns ideas into meaningful groups.
• Found New Ways to Encourage Community Content. Created a variety of custom games like Brainwriting and Associative Barriers for a membership association client to explore ways to engage users online and encourage the development of community content.
• Lots of Other Uses. We use it internally as well for problem solving– some favorites are the 3-12-3 Brainstorm, Campfire, and Ethos Logos Pathos.

For more on Gamestorming, make sure to check out http://www.gogamestorm.com/ from the authors of the book “Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers and Changemakers.” You can see some of the latest Games submitted by readers as well as the new Gamestorming iPhone app. 

---

Idea Forge is a series from the ICF Ironworks’ Interactive group that highlights practical uses for big ideas in User Experience design. For the latest thoughts hot off the forge, follow our blog at fitandfinish.ironworks.com