It feels like we are experiencing a fascinating “Powers of 10”-style paradox with experience design and the digital design community — where we’re excitedly pushing beyond interface on many levels — attacking multiple interfaces at once with responsive and adaptive design and seriously embracing the massive world of service design and that broader brand and customer “experience” — yet also pushing deep into the extreme details of interface on other levels — tackling unique design rules tailored for the nuances of individual device models and OS flavors, dreaming up insightful ways to visualize unique data sets and bespoke stories, or even trying to wrap our minds around the constraints and conventions of dizzyingly different, is-it-fish-is-it-fowl “experiences” like iTV, ebooks, phablets, events, and the like.
So, to help us make sense of this ping-pong, broad-to-narrow game we need to play today as experience designers, we wanted to go back to the thing that unites and inspires us all: our users. They are the glue that connects us as a practice — and also connect our broad and narrow thinking, our wild flights of expansive concepting to the late-night detailed design sessions. In taking a step back and discussing what they’ve taught us, we get to see a different perspective on where the work is heading — and hopefully, catch a glimpse at what’s coming next.
RE:DESIGN/ is an empowering set of conferences because it brings the design community together as a real thought leadership practice — asking us all to examine the work and actively debate and discuss where it’s going and how we want to help shape that. The size, the format, and the mix of speakers and topics create such a fun opportunity to directly contribute to the industry’s evolution, while also setting an expectation that we take our role and responsibility in that seriously, too.
RE:DESIGN/ UXD, with a focus on small-scale, salon-style discussions, eschews the typical panel format. The result is an atmosphere where attendees can interact, network, and learn from each other. This conference will bring together user experience thought leaders from traditional design firms, interactive agencies, in-house groups, journalists and beyond. This year, the conference is taking place in Silicon Valley on April 29+30. Our symposiarch for this year’s event is Marisa Gallagher of CNN.
Register now and use code UXBA for $75 off the advertised rate.