Talks

Miles Davis – Musical Legend, UX Designer & Design Thinker?

Miles Davis was one of the most influential people in 20th century music. He hated labels and also had many destructive problems with general structure and society. Focusing solely on his approach to his art form however, we can see that he valued innovation, collaboration and experimental communication above most things. It’s fairly likely that he would not have liked being labelled as a design thinker (or any other label) however I think there are many things we can learn about his approach to creativity that can fuel our own drive towards designing for exceptional experiences, embracing exploration and celebrating failure.

In this talk I share some of the principles that my team & I have taken from this way of thinking. I give real world examples of how these ideas have helped inspire us to craft more pleasurable mobile experiences for our users and embrace new user centred ways of working.

What Banks Can Learn From Mortal Kombat X

In this presentation we’ll have a closer look at one of the most popular franchises of all times, Mortal Kombat X, and review it from a UX perspective – its use of language, cross-platform integration, community building, virtual currencies and rewards to inspire user engagement.

Preventions and Cures

By now, we’re used to thinking we ought to test what we’ve designed to know if it’s usable. But how do you know whether you’re optimising the design of something that fits an genuine unmet need, or obsessing on a symptom — a solution in search of a problem?

In this talk, Steph will share some pragmatic approaches on how to balance preventions and cures: how to understand user context in depth and develop longevity for your design research beyond usability testing.

A few of Aesop’s (a handful of tips about Mobile UX)

Aesop’s teachings have been embedded in our culture since it’s beginning, and even in our day to day lives as designers he is as relevant as he has always been. What does Aesop have to say to us? In this talk we will look to a few of his fables and learn how to apply them to our Mobile UX process.

Some are born mobile, some achieve mobility, and others have mobility thrust upon them.

We are building a powerful Planning and Analysis, self-service, cloud based application, which has been born into a mobile world. It is based on an immensely complex 20 year old product which has rich and complex capabilities and business applications, and is therefore having mobility thrust upon it. Worse still, such is the scale of our users’ data, we have to seriously consider whether some or all it of it can ever achieve mobility.

I will talk you through our design experience and some of our solutions.

Behavioural Models and Their Hidden Uses

Persuading people to perform a particular action has more to do with psychology than with design, therefore designers need to understand what triggers users to take action.

Motivational design can be used to create successful products. However, it has another often-overlooked use; infusing and improving the design culture of a company.

In this talk, I will be walking you through my experiences using motivational design patterns and illustrate examples of where it has been successfully applied.

User Experience Map – why should every mobile app start with one?

User Experience Mapping is an easy technique that will change how you tackle today’s complex mobile user experience challenges. In his interactive talk, Peter will share his passion for User Experience maps and cats. He thinks, that while it’s entirely possible to create a mobile app without a cat, having a UX Map is essential. From the very beginning of the ideation phase experience maps are critical communication and strategy tools. They help to solve the problems you have and get closer to understanding your users. Through a fun and easy-to-follow case-study, you will see how UXM helps you save time and money while building better mobile experiences.

Designing for Alien Life

Designing outside the consumer space is a hard shift: Can one even understand the use cases behind Mergers and Acquisitions lawyers or FX Traders let alone grasp deeper motivations or build empathy for them? And how then can you optimise for mobile where hard choices and simplification are key? If you cannot understand them and you cannot easily observe them then how do you succeed? This talk will explore the challenges of being a user centred designer in this environment and identify some strategies to successfully deliver.

How mobile phones can change the world of giving

In this short talk we will look closer at how mobile devices have influenced the world of giving and are driving social change. We’ll look at the impact this has had on JustGiving as a business. Did it change the way we think about our offering? Does it influence our future? I will attempt to give you tangible examples of how JustGiving shifted to being mobile and experience first especially over the past year and a half.