Sunday, October 19
Dan Hon
Designing Away the Empathy Gap
Find out why empathy is a core business value—and why, far from being a “mushy” emotion, it’s the key to designing user interactions that result in increased sales and satisfied customers.
There’s a shift happening in the world. If you pay attention, you can see it in the way that Silicon Valley is building the new products that will change our lives, in the way that established businesses are operating and in the way governments are deciding to interact with us.
Some of these organizations are learning the hard way, whereas others are making decisive moves. But all of this points to an inescapable fact: there’s a gap in empathy between these organizations and us, as audiences, citizens, consumers and individuals.
What’s the empathy gap?
It’s the gap in understanding between an organization and its audience.
A recent example of the empathy gap might be Google’s introduction of new consumer technology like Google Glass, an augmented reality piece of headgear that provides a constant (and arguably useful) connection to the internet in the corner of your vision. But Google’s Glass also comes with a camera that can take stills and video, and the product ignited controversy when people felt the device violated social norms by appearing to encourage users to record others in their vicinity.
In the case of Google Glass, it’s easy to mount a defense: there was nothing different, its proponents say, between a person using Google Glass to take a photo and using a mobile phone to take a photo. But there’s undeniably something visceral and physical in the reaction that certain audiences had to a head-mounted camera, able to surreptitiously record. The science fiction writer Neal Stephenson, in his book Snow Crash, called such wired, always-recording individuals Gargoyles—hardly a warm and inviting description.
The empathy gap doesn’t just apply to Silicon Valley and stereotypical (and untrue) accusations of autism spectrum disorder engineers releasing new technology into the world. It turns out that, rightly or wrongly, this gap is experienced everywhere from the world of travel, where an airline’s customer service can frequently feel indifferent to the needs of those on a long journey; in government, when theoretical legislative policy reaches implementation; and in finance, where the entire world is struggling with income equality.
The situation we find ourselves in is not that the empathy gap is a given and that it must exist. It’s that the existence of a gap is indicative of a choice.
It exists when parties’ interests aren’t identified and are misaligned.
It exists when one party doesn’t understand (or willfully ignores) the other’s needs and emotional state.
What’s worse is that it doesn’t look like the empathy gap is narrowing. Like financial inequality, the gap is instead widening: despite more tools and technology that allow us to connect, the businesses, organizations and government bodies that we interact with every day are feeling more and more distant.
This session is the story of how a more connected world made it easier for some organizations to widen the gap of understanding between themselves and their audience, and what other organizations are doing to combat it.
3 Main Takeaways:
- See the consequences of an empathy gap.
- Find out how organizations are using our ever more connected world to narrow the empathy gap
- Learn how you, as an individual, can narrow the empathy gap through design.
Clarissa Peterson | Co-Founder, Peterson/Kandy
Designing Responsive Websites
Responsive web design allows you to create websites that provide an optimal user experience across devices. In this session, you’ll learn why the process for designing a (good) responsive website can be very different than the traditional web design process—and how to change your workflow to create a great responsive site. Discover why responsive sites need to start with a content strategy, and why performance needs to be part of your site's design. Learn why a mobile-first approach is the most effective way to make sure your site works well across different devices and device types. Find out how your team can successfully work together to create websites that will look good and work well on any device.
3 Main Takeaways:
- Learn strategies for designing responsive sites as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
- Find out some of the key user experience considerations when creating responsive websites.
- Discover why a content-focused, mobile-first approach is the most effective way to create a responsive website.
Cap Watkins | Design Lead, Etsy
Etsy's Product Design Principles
Get a behind-the-scenes look at how Etsy balances a culture of continuous deployment with a quality-obsessed design team in this talk with Cap Watkins.
Etsy is a company obsessed with moving fast and breaking things. Cap’s talk will encompass Etsy’s product design principles, illustrated with a variety of stories from inside the company. Peer into teeny-tiny feature design, successful (and unsuccessful) launches and how Etsy tackles design problems every day.
3 Main Takeaways:
- Find out how to scale a design team.
- Learn how the iterative process works at Etsy—and how you can adapt the process for your own team.
- Discover how you can roll the iterative process into your company, not just your product.
Gregory Ng | Chief Marketing Officer, Brooks Bell
Data and Design: Incorporating Testing Into Your Design Process
In this session, you’ll learn new techniques for incorporating quantitative and qualitative research methodologies into your design process.
Great design empowers people, helping them to accomplish their goals. But the role of designers in this process is changing. Testing and optimization are the latest tools designers can use to develop innovative solutions relevant to specific audiences and users. Gregory Ng will demonstrate how continual, iterative optimization is the new standard in interactive design.
3 Main Takeaways:
- Learn the fundamentals of testing and optimization for designers.
- Find out why quantitative research in your design process is no different than the qualitative research you’re familiar with.
- Explore how incorporating optimization into your design methodology will position you for the future.
Monday, October 20
Sara Wachter-Boettcher | Content Strategist, Editor and Writer
Orchestrating Content
Templates, trainings, threats: Sara Wachter-Boettcher has tried everything to get content from clients sooner—and mobile hasn’t made things easier. But in this talk, she’ll teach you practical approaches and activities anyone can use to bring harmony to the content process.
Instead of planning pages, now we’re asking stakeholders to prioritize and manage a million bits of modular content. So how do we keep our subject-matter experts from feeling overwhelmed, prevent carousel-obsessed executives from endless homepage arguments, and get the content we need to make design and development decisions?
The answer is in using content strategy as a means to orchestrate, not dictate. Orchestra conductors don’t control all the instruments or the people playing them. Instead, they:
- Unify performers. Learn how to get your ensemble cast of content producers rallied around shared priorities and goals from the start—and see how understanding their politics and processes can improve design and development, too.
- Listen and shape. Having a great ear will help you hear problems sooner, so you can better allocate time and resources to the areas that will most shape the content’s overall quality.
- Keep the tempo. It’s hard to focus on the notes in front of you and think about where the song is heading. Learn to help your players stay focused on the details, while showing them how their part helps the whole piece come together.
3 Main Takeaways:
- Unify performers.
- Listen and shape.
- Keep the temp.
Catherine Farman | Developer, Happy Cog
Designing Responsively: Tips from a Developer
Learn what’s possible in responsive design and what’s a pain from a development point of view—and how to change your workflow to design more responsively.
In the age of smartphones, tablets, e-readers and smart TVs, responsive design has become the status quo in web design. But designing responsively requires more than just shrinking your website to fit small screens. Widths, heights, and images all become fluid, challenging your painstakingly created Photoshop grid layouts. Beautiful desktop designs become slow and unwieldy on mobile devices.
In this session, you’ll get tips that will allow you to partner with developers to make lean, lovely, responsive websites that will reach more users than ever before.
3 Main Takeaways:
- Find out which tried-and-true design techniques no longer work in responsive designs, and how to adjust your strategy.
- Learn why fast website performance can and should be designed.
- Discover how collaborating with developers will make your designs more successful.
Cameron Moll | Founder, Authentic Jobs, Inc.
Design Across Platforms
More information to come.
Kevin M. Hoffman | Information Architect and Design Strategist
Co-Design Not Re-Design
Learn how service design thinking, lean approaches to user experience, and co-design processes offer an alternative to the money pit, and deliver experiences that delight your users.
Organizations continue to pile features and fixes onto the redesign process. Companies that overlooked mobile are making big changes in a panic, while those with designs suitable for any device aren’t sure what to do next. One thing that won’t change is that people crave easier, faster, and more widespread access to their information and tools. Join Kevin M. Hoffman to find out how you can deliver that—while engaging in a smooth collaborative process.
3 Main Takeaways:
- How to manage and improve stakeholder and user collaboration in the design process
- Using visual listening to improve innovation between collaborators
- Agreeing on hypotheses, not working from assumptions
Matthew Muñoz | Chief Design Officer and Partner, New Kind
Designer as Catalyst
Find out how you can balance both the craft of design and how design processes fit into the big picture in this session with Matthew Muñoz.
Matthew will delve into questions like: Why can a designer serve as a catalyst for broader impact? How do we bring a design mindset to organizational opportunities and wicked problems? Why is a design-driven approach useful to aligning interests, uncovering mindsets, and creating common ground? How do we create a space where people can focus on forming the future with intent?
3 Main Takeaways:
- Explore key areas of the design thinking process.
- Discover a broader role designers can and should play.
- Find out how to bring diverse groups of people together into a creative space.
Tuesday, October 21
Christopher Butler | COO, Newfangled
The Future of Web Design
This session with Chris Butler will put you ahead of the trends in web design so that you can position yourself for success.
It's time we reframed our entire concept of web development. First, in terms of widening the scope of what websites do today and second, in terms of understanding what web development as a discipline is becoming. Sophisticated web development is no longer about creating discreet applications, but doing information logistics.
In this session, Chris will explore the history and trajectory of web design and development and offer a glimpse of things to come.
3 Main Takeaways:
- Front-end design techniques are stabilizing and are headed toward commoditization.
- As web platforms become more complex, the use of APIs is becoming more central to web development. This is where information logistics comes in...
- Designers can position themselves around the change. This session will cover how...
Cassie McDaniel | Lead Designer, Mozilla Webmaker Project
Seven Successful Habits of Designers and Developers Who Actually Like Each Other
Designer and developer skill sets are complimentary, but often the personalities are not. In this highly practical session, you’ll discover opportunities for increased productivity, strategies for creating more harmonious teams, and collaborative habits that produce stellar work.
Whether you are a manager, team lead, developer or designer, getting two stubborn characters to play nice is an exercise in walking on eggshells. This session will take a look at the intricacies of these working relationships.
Cassie is an interactive designer who grew up surrounded by programmers—her dad and two geeky older brothers. She also ended up married to her favorite developer (who has since turned into a designer). Over many years in a variety of work environments—which has included leading a team of designers and developers at the fiercely independent and dev-driven Mozilla Foundation—she has picked up a thing or two about how to successfully navigate this fuzzy realm of interdisciplinary work. She’s delighted to tell you everything she knows.
3 Main Takeaways:
- Learn the best workflows for designer / developer cooperation.
- Find out how to develop work habits that will allow you to get the job done, even if you can't stand your colleagues.
- Get tips for a happy “marriage” between a designer and a developer.
Haig Armen | Founder & Creative Director, LiFT Studios
Mapping Experiences
Learn how to map and analyze the entire journey of your customers or users across time and space in this eye-opening session with Haig Armen.
Today our roles as human-centered designers include understanding experiences across multiple interconnected channels and touchpoints. How do we address issues and gain insights about this ever-expanding canvas?
Experience maps are a framework for mapping human experience across multiple places, times and interactions. This talk will introduce the experience-mapping framework by presenting a number of principles and case studies.
3 Main Takeaways:
- Discover guiding principles for designing services and products across time and space.
- Receive a useful framework for mapping human experience.
- Learn the best tools to use to create concepts for meaningful contextually-aware services.
Andy Fitzgerald | Associate Design Director and UX Lead, Deloitte Digital
Information Design
In this session, Andy Fitzgerald will share approaches that will help you craft cohesive information systems and articulate those systems smoothly across touchpoints in order to effectively design for the ease and consistency your users expect.
Users increasingly expect multi-device and multi-session consistency when they engage with digital products. At the same time, delivering a consistent experience grows increasingly complex as services and touchpoints diversify and add capabilities.
The information design techniques we’ve learned from the web have provided a good starting point, but the holistic information environments of the multi-device and cross-channel present demand a greater degree of understanding, flexibility, and precision than has ever been needed on the desktop web.
This talk will examine the rich potential of embodied and multi-modal perception—two methods for processing information through the body and senses—and offer solutions for how to design information systems that leverage these perceptual opportunities in effective, contextually appropriate ways.
3 Main Takeaways:
- Understand the importance of symbolic modalities and embodied perception in interaction design.
- Learn how to use taxonomies to create cohesive information systems across contexts.
- Find out how to leverage embodied perception in meaning making and information design.
