This is how it works
First, you will decide on a design question. Then you invent and prototype an innovation to turn your vision into a reality. At the same time you’ll come up with a story of how your idea comes into the world. Playing cards guide you to write a narrative with obstacles and drama, a climax, and some cyber punk if you want. To win this game, everyone is required to co-operate, not compete.
A bit of theory
The narrative design of the workshop is modelled after Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. Both the story’s protagonist and each participant are heroes and heroines. Their paths become entwined as they tell their story while working out a solution to their shared problem. At the same time the participants are guided through a typical design process. This involves user-centric methods, such as formulating a problem statement, investigating stakeholders and context, brainstorming and rapidly prototyping ideas. Following a narrative, the workshop game resembles a typical design process, which works because story and design draw on the same principles to create meaning. A story follows four steps: challenge, conquer, change and prevail. A design process follows four similar steps: analyze, ideate, develop, test.
