Ideational workshops are practical team meetings conducted according to a fixed scenario, applying selected research and design methods and techniques. The goal of such a meeting is generating ideas for products and services by a team composed of designers and non-designers.
Some designers have been faced with the challenge of conducting ideational workshops online due to the COVID-19 crisis, while the remote environment poses many restrictions. The article discusses issues important to conducting effective ideational workshops online, including relations in the virtual environment, role of moderator, energy and focus management, work organization and tools. It shows how to apply various theories from the areas of design and social communication to conducting remote workshops and how to overcome limitations of the online environment. It also proposes a typology of tools for conducting online workshops. In the summary, the article compares and contrasts various aspects of ideational workshops in their online and stationary versions.
It is to be expected that the design and research practice will increasingly involve online workshops, and for new design techniques and methods to be developed on the basis of the potential of digital technologies.
Keywords: remote collaboration, online workshops, design and research workshops, creativity, ideation