Theme 1: Design Practices in Times of Crisis
How does change around us affect how we respond, adapt and transform as a practice? On Day One, we’ll join together to explore:
- Trends and hot topics based on in-depth surveys and interviews conducted with UX thought leaders over the past two years.
- What design maturity means in a time of transformation and change and how we need to approach design maturity from the change management perspective.
- Different management models that support transformation and result in successful outcomes.
The Future of Research: Bridging the Gaps (Videoconference)
During this call, Advancing Research 2021 conference curators invite a special panel of researchers to discuss the future of research. In particular, panelists share their perspectives about the research practice and how they expect the discipline to evolve. To provide additional grounding for our conversation, we discuss, broadly, results from the survey we recently launched, which is designed to learn more about the topics and themes that you, the community, believe will be important to advancing the research and insight industry over the next year. Our esteemed panel of cross-disciplinary researchers, includes: Steve Portigal (Principal Researcher & Rosenfeld Media Author), Dr. Gloria Osardu (Senior Researcher at Amazon), Alba Villamil (Principal Researcher and HmntyCntrd Facilitator) and Sam Ladner (Principal Researcher at Workday). Dr. Jamika Burge (Entrepreneur and Head of Experience Products & Platforms Research at Capital One), one of our AR curators, will be moderating the discussion. Join us!
Empowering Communities Through the Researcher in Residence Program
We are excited to welcome Xenia Adjoubei, Research Specialist in territorial analysis, sustainability and emergent tech, and Associate Director at Studio intO to our upcoming Advancing Research session on Wednesday, 29 March at 9:45am-10:15am.
Xenia will share her insights and experiences on a range of topics, including the power of community-led research, the democratization of knowledge, and the impact of new-old tools in promoting social good.
Her talk will be an engaging and thought-provoking exploration of the role of research and innovation in addressing humanitarian crises and promoting social justice. We invite you to join us for this inspiring and informative event, and to be a part of the conversation about the future of research and innovation in our communities.
Scaling Accessibility Through Design Systems
Incorporating accessibility can be seen as a daunting task, especially for products that have already been released. Alexis Lucio, Senior Accessibility Lead at Splunk, will share her journey in making accessibility a first-class citizen within Splunk Design System. Topics include: how to advocate for accessibility, utilizing use cases to optimize design and dev, how to utilize user input, and ideas on how to collaborate with cross-functional partners.
UX Metrics That Matter and The Future of our Design at Scale Conference: A Community Conversation (Videoconference)
At our September Enterprise Experience Community call, we host a double-header of topics — “UX metrics that matter” and “The future of our conference”. First, we have Jack Moffett, well-known design leader currently at Boeing, in a conversation about identifying and advocating for measurable user experience for enterprise apps and services.
Unconference Networking and Learning: Find Your Next ‘Aha’ Moment
Drawing inspiration from the conference themes, share your ideas, new learnings, and expertise during a virtual unconference session. The rules are simple:
- You set the agenda and topics (anything you want to talk or learn about!)
- Engage in meaningful conversations while networking with your UX peers
- Walk away with newfound relationships and ‘Aha’ moments
Distributed DesignOps Management (Videoconference)
- Selecting meeting/project collaboration tools
- Maintaining healthy team culture
- Inclusivity
- Managing critical meetings
- Dealing with feelings of isolation
- Consistent documentation and processes
So You’ve Got a Seat at the Table. Now What?
For the past year, “Having a seat at the table” has been one of the most widely-discussed topics in the research community. However, what happens once that seat has been won? What we’ve typically seen is researchers struggling to discern between the specific needs and expectations of senior leadership and stakeholders, and those of the product teams they’re grown accustomed to working with. This presentation will distill, from several previous studies, lessons to guide researchers in how to go from just having a seat at the table, to actually using it towards influence strategic decision-making.
Operationalizing Responsible, Human-Centered AI
AI-enabled systems that are responsible and human-centered, will be powerful partners to humans. Making systems that people are willing to be responsible for, and that are trustworthy to those using them enables that partnership. Carol will share guidance for operationalizing the work of making responsible human-centered AI systems based on UX research. She will share methods for UX teams to support bias identification, prevent harm, and support human-machine teaming through design of appropriate evidence of system capabilities and integrity through interaction design. Once these dynamic systems are out in the world, critical oversight activities are needed for AI systems to continue to be effective. This session will introduce each of these complex topics and provide references for further exploration of these exciting issues.
Distributed Design Operations Management
Long distance relationships are hard – and managing Design Operations for a global team is no exception. Even with the best collaboration tools (and occasional late night phone calls), teams can struggle with isolation and lack of motivation. But there is a way to avoid bad break ups and international team malaise, and Jilanna Wilson knows how. She keeps the love light burning for a team that is spread across 5 continents and 8 time zones. In this session you will hear practical suggestions for topics that are challenging many DesignOps leaders, such as how to manage your team’s critical meetings, maintain consistent onboarding and documentation practices, select effective collaboration tools, and achieve a healthy team culture in a distributed environment.
