The line up of impressive speakers included big names such as Facebook, Google, Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe, The Home Office, and the Big Lottery Fund who took centre stage with expert UX consultants and authors to deliver insight into best practice for creating first class customer experiences.
The event was partnered by Dorset Growth Hub, who funded a number of local SMEs delegate places as part of their business support packages, and The Video Club who documented the event on video. Attendees were treated to breakfast pastries, morning and afternoon baked goods by Heather Brown Catering and dined at the Hermitage Hotel for lunch. Afterwards a free bar at Aruba Bournemouth meant that attendees could network with each other and meet the speakers.
Ali Carmichael, host of UX Insider and Co-Founder of Experience UX had this to say on the event :
“ As with all of our events we conducted a post event feedback survey to assess where we can make improvements and have been overwhelmed with the positivity from delegates. The calibre of speakers was first class and we had always been confident that they would deliver insightful and entertaining talks and we weren’t wrong. What was great about the day is that we had a real mix of local and regional industry professionals but also plenty of business owners who perhaps don’t have as much UX knowledge. The content was pitched at a level that meant everyone got to take away insights from the day. The next step will be to host various workshops to keep momentum going, including one with our event Partners Dorset Growth Hub to make sure that local businesses who want to take the next step to improving UX are given a practical grounding in how to do that. “
A round up of the talks from UX Insider 2018:
The day kicked off with a vibrant presentation from Jonny Rae-Evans, Head of Product Innovation at the Big Lottery Fund. His thought-provoking talk about design ethics asked us to consider the intent behind designs as well as the impact they have, both good and bad.
Rob Johnson, Manager of the User Research Team for Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe offered us a fascinating insight into user research for video games, taking us on a virtual tour of their user testing facility and explaining how they measure the highly subjective concept of fun.
Experience UX’s Co-founder and Director Damian Rees was the third speaker. He delivered an insightful talk about human behaviour and its impact on the adoption of services and products. A key takeaway from his presentation was to think about technology as an enabler rather than a starting point.
UX Consultant Anna Dahlström explored the role of narrative structure in experience design. She revealed that every page or service has a story, UX designers have a role to find that story and tell it effectively to users. Anna also shared some tips on how to apply cinematography principles to UX design.
James Lang, Lead Researcher for Google’s publisher products, shared his years of experience about what works for him when getting a wider organisation to buy into and embrace user research. He stressed the importance of building relationships, earning trust and balancing idealism with pragmatism in the world of user research.
David Harding, Research Ops Lead at the Home Office, talked through the creation of the Home Office’s research repository. He stressed that getting your files in order is just one part of the picture. Analysing that data to find insights and ensuring these land at the right level in the organisation is where the real value in this tool lies.
Brooke Baldwin, UX Researcher for Emerging Markets at Facebook gave a fascinating insight into the incredible level of prep required to conduct research in emerging markets and offered practical tips from her 18 years as a researcher on how to make things run as smoothly as possible.
Paul Boag, a leader in the field of digital transformation, rounded off the day with a lively presentation on how to start a user experience revolution in your organisation. He talked about the challenge of bringing about change in organisations established in the pre-digital age, but gave us hope that it is possible if you play the long game.
Some feedback from delegates about the day:
“Brilliant event in every way. Please keep the mix of good ground level UX insights with the ‘UX in your organisation’ stuff, as we UX focused agencies need the core knowledge share. Thanks again it was amazing!”
“Terrific event and as UX experts you guys know how to please the audience. I don’t have a UX background but these talks sure helped me take something back to team.”
“Excellent day! It’s been great to be able to get even more of an understanding of the UX world and listen to successful professionals from different sectors! Would definitely recommend and will definitely be returning.”
To find out more about UX workshops, events and training please call the Experience UX team on 01202 293652