Orita Sinclair’s Serious Play Workshop Streamlines Information with LEGO
By Amrita Sareen
Orita Sinclair School of Design recently conducted a workshop on how to create an organized structure that can be applied to a range of situations, called Serious Play. From sorting out masses of information for marketing campaigns to helping people distinguish simple buttons from one another, Serious Play aims to simplify the process.
Instead of using conventional tools like Venn diagrams and complicated excel files, Serious Play uses a unique medium – Lego! As the workshop unfolded, people soon reacquainted themselves with the scientific marvels, struggling to curb long repressed childhood instincts.
The session began with a note on interaction design, pointing out the essential need for it in daily life. It emphasized how art, craft & design can be implemented to create a system of grouped tasks. Attendees were made to describe 10 things about the Lego bricks placed in front of them. Using these 10 criteria, groups of 5-6 people were given half an hour to experiment with and sort piles of Lego.
Each group came out with its own organizational structure that best represented a solution to the problem. While some sorted bricks based on color, others did the same across size. The activity’s aim was to create a transparent and diverse system that could be stacked and expanded. For example, if someone hypothetically used Lego that hadn’t been categorized, the system would help allocate the best fit for it based on structural design. And though this may sound a little tricky to get around, the processes involved in grouping these bricks can be used to tackle plenty of everyday problems.
Don’t worry if these workshops sound a little high-brow at first. Once you visit one, you’ll soon find that it only takes a few seconds to catch on! To know more about upcoming conceptual workshops Orita Sinclair has to offer, visit http://www.orita-sinclair.edu.sg/
