Diaporama

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Produce a shared visual narrative or concept sequence through collaborative card or slide creation.

Use it when: Use when a group needs to explain a multi-step process, synthesize a shared learning topic, or present a case study using imagery rather than dense text.

Skip it when: Skip when the group needs rapid verbal alignment, when individual analytical work is required, or when teams lack time to create multiple visual assets.

Group arrangement: 2 to 4 teams of 3 to 6 participants

Timing: Source recommends 40 to 60 minutes; set to 50 minutes to allow drafting, full presentations, and debrief.

Materials and tools

• 40 sheets of blank A4 or letter paper (10 sheets per team)
• 4 packs of colored markers or colored pencils
• 4 glue sticks and assorted magazine cutouts or stickers (optional)
• 1 roll of painter's tape for wall display
• 1 digital countdown timer
• Digital whiteboard platform (Miro, Mural, or Google Slides) for remote or hybrid sessions
• 1 smartphone or tablet per in-person team with internet access to upload photos in hybrid sessions

Before participants arrive

1. Clear table space for up to 4 separate teams.
2. Distribute 10 blank sheets of paper and markers to each team workspace.
3. Designate a wall or whiteboard strip for each team to tape up their cards in order.
4. Write the guiding prompt clearly on the main display.
5. For remote or hybrid sessions, set up a shared digital whiteboard with 10 empty slide frames pre-drawn per team.

Say this to open

Welcome. In this activity, each team will create a diaporama, which is a physical slide show told through a sequence of 5 to 10 visual cards. Your prompt today is: 'Show the journey of a user facing our main problem and finding a resolution.' Each card must feature a central drawing, symbol, or graphic, with no more than one short caption sentence. You have 25 minutes to plan, draw, and tape your sequence in order on the wall.

How to run it

1. Form teams and assign roles 5 minutes

   Divide participants into 2 to 4 teams of 3 to 6 people. Cap the total room at 4 teams so all presentations fit the schedule. For example, 12 people form 3 teams of 4; 24 people form 4 teams of 6. Read the opening script and prompt. Invite each team to select an illustrator, a timekeeper, and a narrator. Narrators will speak during the showcase, but everyone assists with ideas and drawing.

2. Draft and build the slide sequence 25 minutes

   Teams outline their narrative arc into 5 to 10 distinct scenes. Members sketch each scene on a separate sheet of paper. Every sheet must show a visual graphic and at most one sentence of text. When finished, teams tape their sheets in horizontal sequence on their assigned wall section.

3. Present diaporamas 12 minutes

   Gather the whole room. Each of the up to 4 teams takes up to 2.5 minutes to present their visual sequence. The narrator steps through the cards in order while pointing to each image. Allow one clarifying observation per team from the audience.

4. Debrief visual storytelling 8 minutes

   Facilitate a structured whole-room review using the questions below. Take 2 or 3 participant responses per question.

Debrief questions

• Which individual card conveyed its point fastest without reading the text, and why?
• How did limiting each card to one image and minimal text change the way your team organized the story?
• Where did your team spend the most time: agreeing on the narrative or creating the visual elements?

Finished output: A physical or digital series of 5 to 10 sequenced visual panels per team illustrating a common prompt.

Remote

Run in breakout rooms using a shared digital whiteboard tool such as Miro, Mural, or Google Slides. Pre-populate each team's space with 10 blank rectangular frames. Teams paste icons, shapes, sketches, or brief captions into frames 1 through 10. Bring all groups back to the main room and have each narrator share their screen for a 2-minute walkthrough.

Hybrid

Form separate in-person and remote teams of 3 to 6 people, keeping total teams to 4 or fewer. Remote teams build cards directly in digital whiteboard frames. In-person teams draw on physical paper. At minute 20 of drafting, the in-person timekeeper uses a smartphone to photograph each paper card and uploads the images into their team's section on the shared digital whiteboard. All presentations run from the shared digital screen so both audiences view the same visual artifacts.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may contribute by writing captions, arranging layout, or tracking sequence time rather than drawing.
• Any participant may pass on narrating to the room and remain in a supportive production role.

If the session gets stuck

Teams spend 20 minutes debating the story and have not drawn any cards.

Intervene at minute 10. Direct the team to write card titles on scrap paper immediately, divide the drawing tasks, and begin sketching separate sheets in parallel.

A team writes paragraphs of dense text instead of using visual cues.

Remind the team of the one-sentence limit per card. Ask them to pick one focal object or symbol to draw and replace the text.

Terms used here

• Diaporama: A slide show or sequence of still images arranged to tell a coherent narrative.