Design Warm Up

30 minutes, weekly

Goal: Inspire creativity, build team collaboration, and develop new skills through focused design exercises at the start of each week.

Format

  • 30 minute session per week
  • Large or small groups (3-5 people)
  • Facilitator for prompts and timing

Sample Prompts

Quick Exercises (10-15 min)

  • Create an icon
  • Redesign a UI
  • Explore a new Figma feature
  • Rapid wireframe exercise

Extended Projects (across sessions)

  • Create a design system component
  • Practice animation and microinteractions
  • End-to-end UI flows
  • Accessibility improvements

Collaborative Challenges

  • Pair design exercises
  • Team interface assembly

Process Guidelines

  1. Preparation

    • Facilitator prepares the prompt and any resources
    • The prompt is shared with the group at least 24 hours before

  2. Session Structure

    • 5min: Prompt explanation
    • 25min: Design time
    • (Optional) Share-out and feedback

  3. Follow-up

    • Archive exercises in shared spaces (Slack, Coda, etc)
    • Specifically call out new techniques and skills
    • Track skill development

How do know if it's effective

  1. Team participation and engagement
  2. Skill adoption and knowledge sharing
  3. Quality improvements