Zoom in for Success

I Zoom into web video conference calls during the workday and Zoom out for social contact with friends in the evenings. Zoom calls are a great way of communicating and connecting. But how can Zoom be used as a design tool?

Yes. Collaboration is a design tool.

The Collaboration was spontaneous and unplanned while working in an office. Now I schedule and plan collaboration while working at home in solitude. This effort has magnified the importance of collaboration in my design process.

Sharing is caring. Collaborating with others has expanded my horizons by simply hearing other people’s ideas. Discussing designs with someone else helps reveal obvious options I might have missed in solitude while keeping work fun and energetic.

Suddenly my ideas are not singular, isolated, or lonely.

This process seems natural to designers. We are trained to collaborate in school. It seems like a creative, artful way of learning but research has proven that people actually think they see the world the way that it really is. But that’s not necessarily true. Collaborative problem solving is the antidote to this problem.

There’s a principle in psychology called automaticity — the idea that what we see, instantly triggers, our reactions. Think about stepping into the shower in the morning — you consciously step in but the rest of the shower is an automatic reaction. There’s great power in this knowledge if we know and realize that what we’re looking at is going to shape how we react, how we behave. The choices we make can be used to our advantage.

We can design a better way of solving problems by expanding our minds while narrowing our focus on a successful design with the creation of collaboration teams.

Group thinking helps clarify my judgments and reactions. I often overthink the design details at the same time as visualizing the perfect outcome. Sound familiar?

Heather Barry Kappes, a Social Psychologist at The London School of Economics, studied what happens to our bodies as we set goals. She had a group set high-level goals. Next she asked the group to think about what it’s going to be like when they achieve the important outcome that they are working towards. Then she examined their bodies as they visualize that desired end state and coupled it with thinking of low-level details. Heather found that people stopped at visualizing the desired end state. The group showed signs of physiological demotivation and demobilization. The volunteer’s bodies were chilling out — no stress, no success.

Simply focusing and visualizing the perfect outcome derails the drive to complete the project successfully.

This is great info to adapt to how I can increase the likelihood of an effective solution? I collaborate on an action map detailing the steps needed to get from where we are right now to that desired future end state. A focused plan achieved with detailed actions.

Still, judgment errors can be made — even in a group. I’ve created an intersection on my action map with a list of common judgment errors. I use the list as a guide when reviewing with my group. The statements on the list quickly and effectively direct the group towards a positive solution. It helps assess the validity of my design decisions.

Common Design Judgment Errors

1. Loving the Look Tendency
2. Ego Tendency
3. Risk Avoidance Tendency
4. Over Optimistic Tendency
5. Derivative Tendency
6. Over Designed Tendency
7. Reciprocation Tendency
8. Client Pleasing Tendency
9. Influence Tendency
10. Reward Tendency

The list narrows my focus on the design and its intended user. It keeps the focus clear.

I encourage group brainstorming and reviews done via Zoom. A quick 15-minute call saves me hours of overthinking and directs me towards a successful, future-focused solution. We’ve started to meeting daily during lunch to review our work, brainstorm, and laugh. Don’t forget to enjoy collaboration.

Fun work is good work.