Enterprise UX 2016
This was an eye-opener for me, not in a revolutionary kind of way, but in ways that reflects how closed off I have been -- whether by my choice or by context.
There were good talks, with highly intelligent and successful individuals sharing their thoughts. But the highlight is a heighten awareness of what is out there. The talks from these people left a deep impression in me:
Sam Ladner: Understanding the value of data exhaust (data you collect from your system). And understand you are designing for the user not the customers.
Fredrick Matheson: Finding the balance between burden carried by User, Tools, and Systems in regards to the complexity.
Russ Unger: The design language should encourage consistency > uniformity. (i.e. the sites should have the same look and feel, but not all the same. Think branding – you can tell if a certain product is of a brand even with different styles.)
Steve Baty: Any change introduces uncertainty. The solution to defending your idea is to come up with many ideas/concepts.
XPLANE Challenge Sprint on cross-team collaboration: Using activity to showcase potential problems, and therefore capable of collectively generate organic solutions.
John Maeda: Leaders can only lead those that wants to be lead. The word design is a poorly designed word. In Japanese, however, its meaning is more explicit – design and plan. There are around 4 light bulbs in our lives, take the next step.
Andy Polaine: Digital products are not products, they are part of the service. What is the end product/experience? Use tools to extract insights, opportunity/idea, and ultimately concepts.
At a personal level, its about doing more, and to look at problems from a macro-perspective. As John Maeda had said better design leader > better individual contributor. It’s not a matter of importance, but a matter of influence. But of course, things are not handed to you. You need to grow into the role. And this conference had helped me to understand what that may look like, and equipping me with tools to put them into action.
