Emerging a User Experience Strategy: people, pencils and post-its

Emerging a User Experience Strategy: people, pencils and post-its is the title of the presentation @michellegilmore and I will be giving at UX Australia at the end of August. The conference is happening for the first time this year and there is an excellent range of speakers. The event will be a much appreciated addition to Australia’s calendar of UX and HCI events. A brief outline of our presentation is provided below based on our submission.

Michelle and I will be talking about the process of emerging a User Experience Strategy (or getting from fluffy to something). The approach we’ll be sharing emphasises collaborative and light-weight design methods (people, pencils and post-its). Drawing on a recent case study we’ll highlight experiences and techniques evolved over a number of projects and influenced by IxD and agile development methods. Continue reading…

Seeding: prototyping ‘in the wild’

Over the last few years I’ve experienced a real change in the kinds of design services that might be needed by, or offered to, clients – especially working in the not for profit and community sectors. As we all know, more and more organisations are beginning to see the potential for social technologies to engage with new audiences, or engage with their audience in new ways.  In such cases the design work can become more about re-configuration of existing technologies than creating something from scratch. Design-time is often spent on developing strategies for extending a client’s online presence through existing platforms, tools and channels. While we may be moving away from an emphasis on actual building and designing pixels in this version of design practice, our responsibility to successfully seed participation and engagement is growing.

Continue reading…

LEGO Serious Play – Microsoft Geek Girl Dinner

Lego Serious Play

Next week is the first Lego Serious Play for women event in Australia. As part of Mays Sydney Geek Girl Dinner, Microsoft are hosting the event which will include an evening of Lego, Xbox-ing and networking. The even has been organised by the lovely Catherine Eibner.  It looks set to be a fantastic event (registration info here) and I’m excited to one of the facilitators.  Lego Serious Play is a process developed to support innovation and communication which apparently focuses on “thinking through your fingers”, which as someone who is always scribbling, waving hands and constructing things in meetings  – I’m really looking forward to experiencing.

WHEN? Thursday 14th May 2009
WHERE? Microsoft Building, 1 Epping Rd, North Ryde

RSVP Here