This project explored sketching for remote collaboration, with the goal of enabling the design agency Idean to use sketching actively in their remote workshops. To achieve this goal, the focus of the project was on developing a toolkit for sketching in remote workshops. The development of the toolkit was divided into three phases - a research phase, an experiment phase and a synthesis phase.

In the research phase several benefits of sketching that the toolkit should promote were found, as well as drawbacks of sketching that the toolkit should mitigate. The Integrated Creative Problem-Solving theory was studied, to identify how the toolkit can be integrated with the creative process of Idean’s workshops. Remote collaboration was studied in order to identify which considerations had to be taken into account when moving from face to face to remote workshops. In addition to this, the Theory of Planned Behaviour was studied, in order to figure out how the toolkit could promote the use of sketching in remote workshops.

The experiment phase was conducted through three sprints where the toolkit was developed. The first sprint was concerned with the practical challenges of creating and collaborating by means of sketches in a remote workshop. The second sprint tackled the challenge of creating meaningful activities around sketching in remote workshops. Finally, the third sprint further developed the activities, in addition to tackling how to warm up the participants’ sketching abilities and how to capture the value of the sketching activities for use beyond the workshop.

In the synthesis phase the different solutions that were developed in the experiment phase were revised based on the insights from all three sprints, and the solutions were compiled into a toolkit.

The toolkit includes sketching instructions, a method for creating and collaborating around sketches, sketching activities, guidelines on how to structure the activities and guidelines on how to capture the value of the activities for use beyond the workshop. The different components of the toolkit provide structure to the different aspects of including sketching in remote workshops, while promoting the benefits of sketching. In this way, the toolkit provides both the facilitator and the participants in the workshop with the control needed to use sketching in remote workshops, in order to achieve meaningful outcomes.