Donna Denio and I recently led a workshop for the New Hampshire chapter of the User Experience Professionals Association NHUXPA, specifically to improve user feedback, access subconscious knowledge, and uncover user needs and feelings that might get lost using traditional user-research methods.

The session was very well received and the response from the participants was extremely supportive of LSP as a tool for user experience research. I am quoting Kyle Soucy‘s post on MEDIUM where she gives an overview of the session and shares her personal insights and impressions. Kyle is a board member of NHUXPA and organized the LSP event.

Using LEGO® Serious Play® in UX Research

My notes from the NH UXPA March 2018 Meeting

Kyle Soucy, Founding Principal, Usable Interface. UX Research Consultant. www.usableinterface.com
Mar 28, 2018

Once our time was up, each of us had 1 minute to share our models with the others at our table and then one person from each table had to share their model with the entire group of workshop attendees. My superpower was self-discipline and it was a lot of fun to learn what other people’s were… organizing, bullshit detecting, planning, interviewing, Etc. In just 10–15 minutes we certainly learned more about each other and had a lot of fun in the process.

It was interesting to note that the models didn’t need to be complicated. Dieter mentioned that you can tell a story with just a single brick and that there’s always enough LEGO® bricks or pieces to build a model.

Exercise #2: Opposites Attract — What’s a divide in your life? (4 mins)

This was when it really got interesting. Donna and Dieter created an imaginary user research session for a new app where we all played the role of the end users. The fictitious app was called “Opposites Attract” and its goal was to help bring people together that are divided due to having completely opposite opinions about a topic (anything from food to politics). I’d say this is an app that could definitely be useful nowadays, eh? ;) We had 4 mins again to think of a divide going on in our lives and build it.

I can’t even describe the emotion that came out of this build. All of us immediately shared deeply personal divides in our lives and got very deep without hesitation. My model reflected religion and some others touched on gun control, politics, living environments, and other physical and emotional divides with loved ones. It was powerful!

Exercise #3: What’s the feeling of being divided? (4 mins)

This was the easiest build for me. I knew exactly how the divide made me feel and found it almost therapeutic to build a model that reflected it.

It was very interesting to look at the pieces spread out before you and see what ones spoke to you for each exercise. For example, someone at my table picked up a mini-figure with a broken hand because it reflected how she felt broken when being divided. I think we all found that the more we sat with our models and played with them the more they evolved.

Exercise #4: What would unify the divided? (4 mins)

We were instructed to not take apart our models after this exercise because we would be building upon them as part of the next one. For me, coming up with a model that reflected a way to unify people was a challenge. I was a bit stumped when looking at the pile of legos at first, but I eventually became drawn to the white and clear LEGO bricks because I wanted to build something that represented clarity and purity — a place for divided people to go and be free from all the distractions so we could truly hear one another. I also saw others using the LEGO pieces to form physical bridges between the divided parties. Everyone had their own creative solution to fit their own scenario.

Exercise #5: Build a Landscape (4 mins)

For this last exercise, each table had to take their individual models from the previous exercise and create one landscape — a single model that bridges together the story. It was explained that landscapes help us to see the big picture, create meaning, and identify and common patterns. Building the landscape together demonstrated how this is a storytelling tool that’s safe and inclusive.

My Thoughts

We spent two hours doing this workshop and the time just flew by! Without a doubt, I believe this is an excellent method for eliciting needs and feedback from end users during user research studies. To me, using LEGO® Serious Play® for UX research is a lot like running a collaging exercise. I’m a big fan of projective techniques and I think both of these methods provide a great way to get rich data that you may not otherwise get through a traditional in-depth interview. I’m anxious to get more training in this method and add it to my UX Research toolbox!

PixelMEDIA Rocks!

Thank you to PixelMEDIA for sponsoring and hosting this wonderful meeting! We could not have asked for a better meeting space for this wonderful workshop and the food and drinks they supplied were awesome. Thank you for always supporting the NH UX community and helping us to grow and learn!