Design the box is an exercise that can be useful as a way of uncovering ideas that stakeholders might have about a redesign, without explicitly asking them to draw the new site.

The idea is that everyone takes a bit of time to think about how the product of service you are about to design digitally would look if it were to be a physical product on the shelves of a supermarket.

To make this work, it’s best to take along pre-prepared blank boxes to the session – just turn some cereal packets inside out – a great excuse to buy copious amounts of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes!

If some of the participants find this exercise a bit fluffy, don’t sweat it. It’s just a quick way of seeing how they’re thinking about the product at that moment in time. It will generate conversation and drawing out issues that need to be resolved.