Experience Documentation
Experience documentation is an effective means to make own experiences available to others and facilitate their learning. The objective is to create a retrievable memory, which in turn promotes accountability.
Experience can be documented through an individual or team process, lasting some hours to several months. The storable product may vary: text in print or digitalised, photos, videos or any combination of the above.
What is key to all forms of experience documentation is that potential future users are identified from the beginning and the product is shaped to their needs.
How to go about it?
- Assessing needs: Clarify the aim and motivation for the documentation, identify potential future users and expected re-sults to address their needs.
- Planning: Decide on core focus and five to ten guiding questions; define the form of the product and clarify the roles of all stakeholders.
- Documenting: Describe the process (including successes and failures), involved actors, contextual factors influencing the experience, and main results. Use an attractive way of writing; illustrate with pictures, graphs, personal stories and quotes.
- Facilitating future use: Decide on how to make the documentation available and how to inform others about it.
Further information ...
