Collage
Collage is a research and expression technique in which each participant builds a collage in response to a prompt and then explains what it means. The explanation matters more than the artefact: talking through why a picture was chosen brings out values, associations and feelings that direct questions rarely reach. IDEO.org describes it in its Design Kit as a way to learn from the people you are designing for.
Facilitation script
- 1
Lay out the materials, explain that this is not an art exercise, and give the prompt. Say how the collages will be used and who will see them.
5 min - 2
Let people browse the images and tear out anything that catches their eye before they start arranging.
5 min - 3
Individual building time. Stay quiet, do not comment on work in progress, and announce the last five minutes.
20 min - 4
Each person explains their collage. Ask what an element stands for instead of offering your own reading, and write down their words.
15 min - 5
Look across the collages together, name the themes that recur, and agree which ones the next step of the work should pick up.
10 min
Tips
Take notes on what people say, not on what you think the pictures mean.
An image of a mountain can stand for ambition, exhaustion or a holiday, and only the maker knows which.
Keep the prompt narrow enough to answer on one sheet, and give a time limit so people choose by instinct instead of searching for the perfect picture.
Common pitfalls
Interpreting the pictures yourself. The facilitator's reading replaces the participant's meaning and the research records an assumption
Using a narrow image pool, such as three business magazines. Participants can only express what the pictures allow, so the results mirror the supplies
Asking a broad prompt like 'your life'. The collages become decorative and the explanations stay shallow
Cutting the explanation short because building ran over. The artefact without the story is close to worthless as data
Keeping the collages but not the notes, so nobody can reconstruct later what the images stood for
Variations
In one-to-one research the collage replaces the opening of an interview and takes 15 to 20 minutes. In a team session, hang all collages on a wall after the individual explanations and look for themes that repeat. For a remote session, share a folder or board of images that participants drag onto their own frame; keep the image pool large, because a small pool steers the answers. A before-and-after variant asks for two collages, the present and the wished-for state, and uses the gap between them as the conversation.
Where it fits
When to use it
Interview answers stay polite and general, and you need another route to what people actually value
Participants find it hard to talk about a topic in the abstract, for example trust, health, money or belonging
You are researching with people who speak different languages or have very different levels of confidence in speaking
A team wants to describe its identity or its hopes and the usual wording exercise produces slogans
You want a warm, low-pressure start to a longer research session
When not to use it
You need facts about behaviour, such as what people do and in which order. Observe or shadow them instead
The goal is one shared visual direction for a product or brand. Build a Mood Board together instead of individual collages
You have less than 30 minutes. A Photo Check-In with ready-made image cards gives a similar opening in a fraction of the time
Participants would experience cutting and gluing as childish or as a test, and you have no time to frame it properly
Related methods
Frequently asked questions
What is Collage?▾
Collage is a hands-on research and reflection technique: participants cut and arrange images in response to a prompt and then explain their choices. It is used in human-centred design to learn about values and feelings that people find hard to state directly. The spoken explanation is the real output.
How is a collage different from a mood board?▾
A mood board is usually one shared board that sets the look and feel of a concept, so the board itself is the result. In a collage exercise each person makes their own piece in answer to a personal prompt, and the result is what they say about it. Use the first to align on a direction and the second to understand people.
How long does a collage exercise take?▾
Plan 30 to 60 minutes. Building takes about 20 minutes, and each explanation needs two to four minutes, so the sharing round sets the total. With more than eight people, share in small groups with a note-taker in each.
What makes a good collage prompt?▾
A good prompt is personal, concrete and open to more than one answer, such as what a good visit to the clinic would feel like. Avoid prompts that ask for an opinion on your product, because people then try to please you. Test the prompt on a colleague first and check that the answer fits on one sheet.
Can you run a collage exercise online?▾
Yes. Give each participant a frame on a shared board and a large pool of images to drag in, or let them search for their own. The explanation round works the same way as in person. Building online is quicker but less tactile, so allow extra time for the conversation.
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Try it freeMethod descriptions on Workshop Weaver are original content written by our team, based on established facilitation practices. This method was inspired by work from IDEO.org Design Kit.