Procedure

1. Decide on the concept the group will sketch. The concept needs to be defined well enough for the group to start sketching quickly, while still allowing creativity.
2. Decide on the participant list and invite participants to the braindrawing session. Include a variety of perspectives to encourage creative ideas. Similar to brainstorming, the ideal group size is likely between five and twelve participants though it is possible to do braindrawing with both larger and smaller groups.
3. When the meeting begins, describe the general concept that the group will be drawing and allow a few minutes for questions and answers. Also, provide an example of braindrawing that shows the participants that you do not have to be artistic to be a contributor.
4. Explain the procedure for the session, including the time allowed for each round and the procedure for passing the drawings to another participant. Encourage the group to focus on getting ideas down quickly rather than on perfecting their drawings; rough sketches are the goal.
5. Make sure each participant has paper and a drawing implement.
6. Each round of braindrawing proceeds as follows:
   1. Start the timer for the round. Time limits should be relatively short: for a simple problem, the first round or two might be two minutes long with subsequent rounds lasting one minute. For a more challenging problem, the first rounds might last ten minutes, with later rounds lasting five minutes. (Subsequent rounds can be shorter, because everyone has started drawing and there are ideas available for inspiration.)
   2. Each participant begins drawing ideas for the concept.
   3. When the time expires, each participant passes the paper with his/her sketches to the person next to them. (A variation on this step is for the facilitator to collect and redistribute all papers to preserve the anonymity of the participants.)
   4. The next round of braindrawing begins.
7. After several rounds, collect all the papers and arrange them on the wall or a table so the group can review them.
8. Facilitate a group discussion of the results, noting good ideas, themes, possible requirements, and challenges. Assign a note-taker to record the group's comments.
   1. Pass the notes and sketches on to the person who is responsible for the final design. Archive the results by taking digital photos or making scanned images since some ideas might be useful in the next round.

Participants and Other Stakeholders

Participants can include anyone from the project team as well as other stakeholders. Including individuals with different roles or different points of view may increase the variety of ideas that result. People from any of the following groups are candidates to participate in braindrawing:

• Engineers/software developers
• Usability or human factors specialists
• Interaction designers
• Marketing specialists
• Technical writers and editors
• Graphic design specialists
• Quality assurance
• Project managers
• User representatives or surrogates (e.g. technical support staff or technical sales consultants)

Materials Needed

Braindrawing requires a location where the group can sit at tables to draw, and be close enough to pass the drawing to the next person. Materials required include plenty of blank paper and pens or pencils. Variations such as the Gallery Method call for stations with flip charts on easels or a large roll of paper hung on the wall, and markers for drawing. Braindrawing also requires a way to keep time for each round, such as a watch, clock, or other timer.

Who Can Facilitate

Anyone with basic facilitation skills can facilitate a braindrawing session. Through the use of rounds of individual sketching, the method avoids some of the challenges related to social dynamics that can occur with brainstorming and other group methods. A usability or human factors specialist is in a good position to facilitate braindrawing.

Common Problems

• "Fixation" can be a problem since the first round of drawing is the only round where all ideas are original. Participants in the same “chain” of passes may start drawing variations on one theme based on an early drawing on the page. The facilitator should encourage creativity.
• Some participants may be shy about their drawing skills. The facilitator should be aware of this and encourage the group to focus on rough sketches. Keeping the rounds short limits the time available to polish and refine drawings. The facilitator can also collect the pages and redistribute them after each round to provide a level of anonymity.
• The group may run out of new ideas after a few rounds. One solution to this is to stop the session at this point and review all the resulting sketches (as you would for the final debrief); then start with clean pages for several more rounds of braindrawing.
• It is possible that the order of individuals in the “passing chain” may inhibit some participants; for example if staff members are seated so that they pass their drawing on to their manager, they may feel pressured to produce good ideas or polished drawings. Facilitators should avoid inviting participants in hierarchical relationships or take care to make sure they are not seated next to each other. Collecting and redistributing the pages after each round or allowing participants to put drawings into a pile in the middle which is shuffled by the facilitator may also address this issue.

Data Analysis Approach

Affinity diagramming – As with other brainstorming data, the resulting sketches can be grouped into an affinity diagram by the braindrawing group or another group. After the affinity groups are formed, they can be prioritized so the best ideas emerge.

Participants can vote on, rate, or rank visual ideas according to a set of criteria. For a formal rating of drawings, you could scan in each drawing and have people choose sketches based on important criteria.

Next Steps

After the braindrawing session, the best ideas from the many different drawings can be combined or used as input to design problems. The facilitator should also follow up with participants to share the results of the event, as appropriate given the situation.