Now published: Research That Scales by Kate Towsey!

The Basics of Automotive UX & Why Phones Are a Part of That Future

In this session with James Rampton, dive into the automotive UX industry, the types of screens that go into cars, and the impact that tech companies like Apple and Google have had on the industry with products like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Discover the role phones play in shaping the strategy for companies designing software-defined vehicles. Learn what to call that screen in front of you while you’re driving and why car companies struggle to make good experiences. Plus, James speculates why Apple gave up making a car and guesses what future experiences will look like for both everyday drivers and those who can afford to have the car drive itself.

Leading Teams That Execute: A Chat with Phillip Hunter

What does an interdisciplinary enterprise team need to focus on to ensure customer satisfaction? Lou talks with Phillip Hunter, Head of UX at Alexa Skills, about the unique challenges of growing and leading enterprise UX teams to success. Phillip Hunter is the Theme Leader for Leading Teams That Execute at 2017’s Enterprise UX Conference.

Exploring the DesignOps Definition: A Chat with Dave Malouf

Dave Malouf has worked with Rosenfeld Media to curate our EUX program, but did you know that he’s also active in the DesignOps movement? Lou sat down with Dave to talk about the emerging framework of DesignOps, and how it’s more than just design combined with operations.

From Users to Shapers of AI: The Future of Research

Discover the transformative power of shifting from passive users to active shapers of AI in Tricia’s compelling closing keynote. Unveiling the insidious “User Trap,” Tricia exposes the pervasive sense of powerlessness entrenched in our tech-driven world. She champions a radical shift in the researcher’s mindset, advocating liberation from the confines of being “user researchers” to versatile professionals adept at navigating the complexities of human-tech interactions, especially ones that force people into becoming users. As AI tooling improves, Tricia envisions a future where human ingenuity stands as the cornerstone, complementing and enhancing the capabilities of advanced AI tools. In this world, researchers who can truly understand human beings, gather thick data, and communicate complexity and context-loss with clarity, will become even more indispensable.

Getting to the “So What?”: How Management Consulting Practices Can Transform Your Approach to Research

As the first-ever user researcher at McKinsey, Megan Blocker pioneered the practice of UXR at the firm, establishing and growing the team to more than 50 researchers, data analysts, and data scientists. But “growing up” as a user researcher in management consulting meant she was unburdened by many of the expectations researchers face in more traditional contexts – instead, she was able to combine the best of management consulting with research and design practices to break barriers for how and where research was applied.

In her talk at Advancing Research, she’ll share how she applied core management consulting practices to her research work and how those same practices can help you succeed from study to study as well as when scaling research across your organization.

Research After UX

Moving the research function out from UX can transform how insights influence product-making in an organization. In this talk, Nalini explains how and why she led this shift for her team at Salesforce, as well as the move’s effect on their work and impact. Nalini will also share lessons learned in the process – “the how to’s” and the “absolutely how not to’s” – that may inspire and guide leaders and individual contributors alike.

Keeping the Body in Mind: What Gestures and Embodied Actions Tell You That Users May Not

Conventional in-depth interviews and observational research place a premium on what people say and the way they interact with a product or design as a means to understand user needs. However, the bias in Western thought that spoken language is a synonym for expression overshadows the essential role of non-verbal communication to convey meaning. In this talk, Dr. Dane DeSutter will show you that the physical components of our expression—gesture, body posture, gaze etc.—offer researchers a unique perspective on people, our social systems, and the ways we engage with our designed environments. This talk will broaden your awareness of the embodied mind and demonstrate the value of studying the body when untangling high value problems in design and beyond.

Beyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion

Most efforts at advancing research to be more inclusive focus on methods or methodologies or participation. Though helpful, those efforts have unfortunately not been sufficient for inclusion and we continue to be constrained by stronger forces which go to the root of what research means and the definition of inclusion. To be fully unconstrained and reach true inclusion we must learn to let go. Do we have the ability to do that? Let’s talk about that. Join us for a half-hour of becoming undone, joyfully.

How Technology Can Empower Marketing: a Chat with Theresa Regli

Does your company struggle to find and use video, audio, and image assets after you’ve created them? Do they disappear into a dark netherworld on your server? In this episode, Theresa Regli, author of Digital and Marketing Asset Management, breaks down what to ask before buying kludgy and expensive software. And which vendors rank highest on her list of otherwise lackluster DAM vendors.

Animation for Better UX: a Chat with Val Head

As a designer since the early days of Flash, Val Head knows first hand how animation design has evolved to become a powerful tool for creating better user experiences. Hear Val’s insights from her book Designing Interface Animation––for how using motion to enhance your brand, and mobile UX.