I bloody love design (conferences).
It never occurred to me that we designers (usually the fun ones at parties) could have such a white-collar business ritual as a conference. But actually, it was incredible.
My brief summary and takeaways of the 2022 UX Australia conference held in Melbourne, Naarm, Australia.
Assembling to our seats against a backdrop of hissing coffee machines and a chorus of doc-martens scurrying down the aisles, I had no idea what to expect. Filled to the brim with presenters and a big two days ahead of a neck workout, I’m glad it was so, so worth it.
Here’s why you too, should consider attending one (hint: it’s not just the catering and free coffee.). First here’s a summary of just a few of the talks I enjoyed, plus a few simple takeaways from the event.
📣 Talks
Lara De Sousa Penin
Associate Professor Transdisciplinary Design
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lara-de-sousa-penin-0070252/
⚖️ Thinking Design for this Century.
Designers have the privilege of seeing and authoring ‘imagined futures’. An ability that can be, and should be used as a tool to effectively intervene in pressing social and political issues through transdisciplinary design practice. A Service design-led approach emphasises public and partner-led design exploration, not through traditional extractive discovery methods, but by forming relationships at different scales of perspective. So our practice, as reflective designers, is as socially, economically, and politically inclusive as possible.
Ted Drake
Intuit’s Global Accessibility Leader
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/draket/
🔎 Inclusive design for cognitive disabilities, neurodiversity, and chronic illness.
Ted discusses decades of wisdom within inclusive design practice, suggesting there may be no single or easy solution to build an inclusive experience. Rather, everyone is totally unique, we must consider an extended set of inclusive principles and heuristics to improve the ability of people to use our products independently.
Read here about the UX Principals that include accessibility.
Importantly, we have an ability to be inclusive right from the start during research, by including and considering the needs of those who are neurodivergent, perhaps have cognitive or mobility impairment or highlighting any economic or cultural diverse perspectives.
Natasha Ballantyne
PWC National Experience Design Director (Principal)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natasha-ballantyne/
🚧 The life-changing potential of digital inclusion
Natasha shared insights for a more inclusive design experience, and the curb cut effect — when you innovate to include disability, you benefit everyone.
Accessibility is not just disability, it’s also vulnerability such as the systemic circumstances and context of user interaction. Today, around eleven percent of Australia’s population is still excluded from digital experiences, our responsibility as designers must be to help remove those barriers. Moreover, further consider how we might design digital experiences, without disenfranchising or removing choice from those who seek a different medium or in-person experience.
Tim Yeo
IBM Australia Design Director
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timyeo/
🙈 Design Leadership for Introverts
The traditional leader archetype is seen as being an extrovert, and success in such roles is not always designed to consider introverted leaders. Tim shared how we can succeed in a remote working world, to use our introversion as our superpower.
Connecting in a group session or call can be difficult and tiring for introverts. Facilitating 1:1 conversations and natural communication before meetings or through a-sync communication can help bring about connection, without feeling burnt out. We should embrace our own proclivities and try to understand how we can find workarounds to succeed.
As introverted managers and leaders, we need to consider how we can hire to balance our teams and achieve a mix of passive leaders, and active contributors rather than just hiring someone else like us.
Rich Brophy
Strategic Designer & Co-founder (Pickle Inc)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardbrophy/
💀 Death to “best practice”: The journey to cohesive design practice at scale
Suggesting death to best practice, Rich takes us through how we might enable effective progress in our organizations — Starting with how we talk about change.
Words are important and they shape and have an impact on the way we subconsciously accept change, and we should consider this especially, as professional empaths. The term ‘embed best practice’ can be perceived as negative, each word on its own has a negative subconscious meaning, and we should analogise this principle to our own way of writing and talking.
To improve operational design success, the focus should lie on the sweet spot between reality and the ideal — called effective progress. Applying effective progress to an organization should be simple, connect those who excel with those who want to excel and nail the value exchange between the parties.
🔑 4 Key Takeaways for your next conference
Whether your speaking, or just listening and meeting new people.
- Have a unique idea, perspective or story or simply make a point.
We’ve seen enough double diamonds and post-it notes already, trust me. As an audience, what we really want is simple; we want to hear your unique ideas and your world perspective. We want to hear your stories, understand your experiences and connect with you, so (selfishly) we can learn from your journey and incorporate that knowledge into our lives.
2. Less text, the better.
No one actually wants to read. Your audience wants to feel connected to you and your story, having a focus on your face and your words will bring authenticity to you and better engagement to your story. Using techniques like emphasising tone and pitch to affect your voice, as well as body language is much more effective than words could perhaps ever be. We’re humans after all.
(Bonus: here is one of my favourite takes on the art of public speaking and actionable tips you can use too!)
How to Speak, Patrick Winston — MIT
https://youtu.be/Unzc731iCUY
3. Everyone feels the same.
Am I really good enough? You are! Reach out and make a connection, other people are just like you! Afraid to take the step and talk, instead hiding in a corner on our phones. You have the rare opportunity to mingle with your own flock of people, which may create relationships that mutually benefit you for the rest of your careers — or just to send design memes, whatever.
4. Draw professional breadth from analogous learnings.
What you do while not designing is just as important as what you do while pushing pixels. The wonderful ideas and words shared by presenters have meaning in other intersections of your life and professional development. Think about how you can leverage these situations and apply them to similar or completely different parts of your life and practice.
I’m looking forward to my next conference, and hopefully soon presenting a story of my own!
Talk Soon x
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