Liz and I went to our first design conference representing our new company. It felt fantastic to proudly state who we were and where we work. We were winning before a presenter had even got up on stage.
Holy Moly we are flash
The conference was called UX design day (http://uxdesignday.org/wellington/) It wasn't just your bog standard design conference, there was a lot of non-design folk there too. It really emphasised the importance of user centric design and design thinking.. and it felt great to hear how important that sort of thinking is to every aspect of business.
Speakers included Ruth Brown from Trade Me, Philip Fierlinger from Xero, Phillipa Dawe from Alexander Rose, Duncan Nimmo from Wingnut Films, Gillian Hemphill from Kiwi Bank, Matt Ellingsen from Empathy, Martin Bulmer from Optimal Experience, Anais Ardid from Pikselin, Tuigamala Tauafiafi from Taupou Tatau, Annabel Goslin from CriqHQ, Marcus Brown from Resn, and Wesley Yun from Samsung.
The calibre of speakers was very high.. as was the Ruth pretty lunch, yum snacks and the fact the whole day ran to time.
Take aways from this epic day of goodness include (in no particular order):
- Developing an app that fits up to 50,000 video clips/rushes/VFX and super hi res images that can be viewed remotely and securely on an iPad is genius (Well done Wingnut Films and Factorial)
- That advertising what you do within your company is important ("I am really good at educational design Liz", "I am really good at educational design too Jodi) .. Ok maybe that wasn't so relevant now. But Gillian from Kiwibanks focus on CX and UX and constant search for improvement was a great NZ business story.
- As a designer, change is our job, change is constant, and we are there to guide people through change in a simple way. (Xero)
- As a design team its important to not design screens. Design experiences. There can't be any distinction between UX and UI. Don't start with site maps, you should create pieces that solve a problem and then see how you can piece them together. (Xero)
- F*ck sprints and F*ck agile. You don't have to be a perfectionist (Xero)
- F*ck Lorem Ipsum. You should be thinking about what will be written in that space. (Xero)
- F*ck style guides. They make stop thinking of solutions if you are just drawing on the same old widgets. Your latest best work should be your guide (Xero)
- Video your user with your design/product for real, well documented feedback (said everyone)
- If you want to test a product on children you should arrange to go and do this at a school (Annabel Goslin from CricHQ) (This made us laugh so much, as that was a lightbulb moment it would seem)
- Research is becoming a siloed discipline. Needs to be part of the process throughout with quick prototypes and iteration (and let the client know this at the beginning) (Pikselin)
- We are getting too focused on the document. When clients ask to see this it becomes the output, and it is hard to not get too focused on that. (Pikselin)
- "Design like you know everything and then listen like you know nothing" (TradeMe)
- Keep thinking big – even with small teams (Resn)
- Take comfort in updates – take advantage of being able to refresh. Focus on the launch and then getting feedback. (Resn)
- Designers and developers can be mates (Resn)
- Enthography doesn't create value for a client/company – interpretation does (Empathy)
- Innovation isn't about creating crazy new stuff with technology, it is about creating new value. (Empathy)
- Quite often a project fails not because of the design, but of other business tensions and issues. (Wes Yun)
- Using design for good is important (Wes Yun)
So True Wes. Bolster is feelin' ya