Bootcamp for a UX Team of None
This workshop will introduce you to affordable user experience design methods for getting user input and feedback throughout your design and development process. These methods, like guerrilla research, gamestorming, and progressive prototyping, will allow you to do just enough UX design to get you started in the right direction. They will help you get in touch with your users efficiently and use their feedback and insights to influence your design decisions.
But why should you care? Your code is gold. Your business model is solid. You should care because having a good UX is no longer a differentiator; it’s an expectation. What you need is a good UX designer. Of course, they’re rare and expensive right now. Is it possible to fix your UX without one?
Yes.
You won’t go home from this workshop with your own UX designer, but you will be armed with the knowledge that will enable you to enable you to attract next year’s most sought after angel investor.
Presenters
Today Brynn Evans is a UX designer on Google+. She fell into design after doing UX research for many years — much of it on people's social interaction patterns online. As a designer, she's worked as a freelance consultant, UX director at a tech startup, and a "gamestorming" facilitator.
Brynn is also an active speaker and writer, and is involved in community events such as hackathons, workshops, and conferences that bring together designers, developers, and entrepreneurs.
Fred Beecher is a Lead User Experience Consultant & Business Analyst with Evantage Consulting. He has been passionately engaged in the User Experience Design field for the past 12 years. Fred has worked with clients in a diverse array of industries but maintains a particular focus on the Healthcare and Medical Device industries.
A recognized expert in rapid prototyping and user experience design process, Fred speaks frequently on these topics at national professional conferences and local user experience group meetings. Past presentations include the Information Architecture Summit (2007, 2009), Interaction (2010), Web 2.0 Expo (2010), and the Webdesign International Festival in Limoges, France (2010). In 2007, Fred developed the official training program for the Axure RP Pro rapid prototyping tool at the request of its makers. He has since trained additional consultants to give the courses and currently leads a broader Axure training program for Evantage.
Fred has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Minnesota and an Award of Achievement in Web Analytics from the University of British Columbia. Fred is an HFI Certified Usability Analyst and belongs to the Information Architecture Institute and the Interaction Design Association.
Krista is an experience strategist focused on making things work better for people, and making people work better on teams. Over the years, Krista has worked in web and mobile interaction design, service design, user research, marketing, product strategy, and professional team development.
Recently, Krista kickstarted the Hybrid Factory, a series of free monthly workshops in Silicon Valley designed to promote cross-pollination between UX, development, research, and product strategists. She's also on the board for the Awesome Foundation (San Francisco chapter), co-organizes OverlapSF monthly meetups, and co-curated Overlap 2011 (annual conference).
Russ Unger is a User Experience professional in the Chicago area. He is co-author of the book “A Project Guide to UX Design” for Peachpit Press (Voices That Matter) and is co-authoring a book on guerilla research methods with Todd Zaki Warfel due out in 2012. Russ is a co-founder of Sketchcamp Chicago with Gabby Hon. Russ is also on the Advisory Board for the Department of Web Design and Development at Harrington College of Design.
I have been hand crafting elegant designs and user experiences for over 15 years. I’ve been leading research and design teams for 10 years. My work on large scale websites, applications, mobile, and transaction systems has created measurable impact for hundreds of companies from hot little startups to fortune 500s and is used by millions of people around the globe every day.
A designer at heart, I blend art and science to evolve and innovate products. As true craftsman, I'm not satisfied with anything less than pushing currently accepted standards and establishing new ones. I am an internationally sought after speaker and educator on the topics of research, interaction design, prototyping, and the latest techniques in mobile first, future friendly design.
I have authored two books: Prototyping: A Practitioner’s Guide; Guerrilla UX Research Methods. I plan to write a third book before I retire.
Monday, March 12
