Structure aids collaboration and helps achieve consensus. If everyone is participating in a structured environment, you begin with a greater level of understanding. Using a design studio as a process can get everyone on the team communicating and moving in the same direction.
Adam explains a design studio, and breaks it into three steps: sketch, present, and critique. Both Aaron and Adam believe that critique is often a misunderstood part of the process. Anyone can give feedback, or have a gut reaction, but critique is a more thoughtful and deliberate process. Critique is more analytical and needs to be measured against goals.
Critique as a tool is all about arriving at understanding. Understanding why a designer made certain color choices, or layout, for example. Within a design studio, critique is a powerful evaluation method that you repeat multiple times. Using these techniques will get the team understanding and designing together.
Adam and Aaron discuss these methods with Jared Spool in this podcast. They will be presenting one of the daylong workshops at the User Interface 17 conference in Boston, November 5-7. Learn more about the speakers and their workshops at uiconf.com.