RE:DESIGN Conferences

RE:DESIGN/UXD 2014 Brooklyn Schedule

Below is the schedule for RE:DESIGN/UXD which will take place at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn on April 28 + 29, 2014.

You’ll find the speakers and conference info on the main RE:DESIGN/UXD page. We’ll be plugging speaker info into each slot as speakers confirm their times.

Note that many time frames have 2 or 3 choices to select from. In the spirit of our small-scale discussions, some rooms may fill up. Be open to trying other sessions.

The Conference Site
The conference will be held at the Wythe Hotel in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, one train stop from Manhattan. This amazing space, housed in a former factory on the Williamsburg waterfront, is the perfect setting for RE:DESIGN’s unique small-scale discussions.

Sponsor of Loft and Exhibiting Sponsor

Exhibiting Sponsor:

 
Monday, April 28
8:30am – 9:15am
Registration and Mingle

Coffee sponsored by InVision

9:15am – 10:10am
Opening Session with Christina Wodtke
10:25am – 11:20am
Lou Rosenfeld Founder, Rosenfeld Media Designing a Better You
Chris Pallé Founder, Wisdom & Craft, Inc.

Britt Hudson Director of Content Productions, Wisdom & Craft, Inc. Designing Better For-Profit Companies
Luis Daniel Rodriguez UX Designer, Queen and Clarendon, LLC Smart World Stories Are The New Design Stories
11:35am – 12:30pm
Randy Hunt Creative Director, Etsy Data-Informed Design
Steve Berry Principal, Thought Merchants Good Enough is Better
Meredith Noble Director of Interaction Design, Catalyst Group How to Handle the Stress of UX Work BETTER
12:30pm – 1:40pm
Lunch – Join us for lunch at a nearby location (information will be given onsite)

Co-sponsored by:

1:40pm – 2:35pm
Abby Covert Information Architect, Abby the IA Making. Better. Meaning.
Justin Bakse Director of Digital, Brand New School Sean Dougherty Creative Director/Director, Brand New School Pitching Experiences
Charlene McBride Sr. Experience Designer Better Living Through Sensors and Devices
2:50pm – 3:45pm
Christopher Fahey VP of Product and User Experience, Big Spaceship Design Prioritization: When Better isn’t Obvious
Anders Ramsay www.andersramsay.com How Understanding What Developers Do Can Make You A Better UX Designer
Ajay Revels Design Researcher, Politemachines Do Better: Designing for Transformation
4:00pm – 5:00pm
Group Discussions
Group Discussions
Group Discussions
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Bowling at Brooklyn Bowl

Co-sponsored by:

 
Tuesday, April 29
9:15am – 10:10am
Peter Koechley co-founder, UpworthyDesigning A Better World
Andre Plaut UXDi Education Product Manager, General Assemb.ly The Design of Learning
Julia Keren-Detar Art Director and Game Designer, Untame Smart Tutorials: Teaching by Design
10:25am – 11:20am
Bryan Hamilton VP, User Experience, Razorfish Better Companies
Erin Hoffman Lead Game Designer, GlassLab Sophia: Designing for Learning through Emotion
Donna Lichaw Principal, Greatnorthelectric Take My Job
11:35am – 12:30pm
Tim Riley Director of Online Experience, Warby Parker How To Better Understand Your Users
Vincent Higgins Executive Director, UX, DDB California and Tyler Wilson Senior Planner, DDB California Age Of The Alchemist: A D&D Approach to UX Design
Sharon Morris Principal Consultant, Nfinity Consulting of New York Talking to Users: A Better Way to Demystify Technical Terms
12:30pm – 1:40pm
Lunch – Join us for lunch at a nearby location (information will be given onsite)
1:40pm – 2:35pm
Jeff Gothelf Principal, Neo Innovation Jim Kalbach Principal UX Designer, Citrix Online There Is No Such Thing As Mistakes: Surprising Insights From Jazz Improvisation
Nick Whitmoyer Senior Consultant, Whitmoyer Designing a Better Process for UX
2:50pm – 3:45pm
Steve Johnson VP, User Experience, LinkedIn Conversation with Steve Johnson
3:45pm – 5:00pm
Cocktails

Co-sponsored by:

The Conference Location
The conference will be held at the Wythe Hotel in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, one train stop from Manhattan. This amazing space, housed in a former factory on the Williamsburg waterfront, is the perfect setting for RE:DESIGN’s unique small-scale discussions.
The small print stuff: All speakers and times subject to change. Note RE:DESIGN is focused on small scale discussions and some rooms do fill up, so please be open to checking out other sessions. Cancellation policy: Up to 90 days before event: we will refund total amount paid less $50 processing fee. Up to 60 days before event: 50% refundable or we can transfer your registration to another person or future event (equal to the amount paid). Within 60 days of the event: no refunds, but we can transfer your registration to another person or event (equal to the amount paid) if you are unable to attend.
The Design of Learning Creating a positive learning experience is very similar to the UX design process. Teaching not only gives back to the community but allows you to explore a topic you thought you knew in more meaningful ways. In this session, we’ll discuss creating great learning experiences and set some teaching goals.
How Understanding What Developers Do Can Make You A Better UX Designer For most non-technical team members on a project team, what developers do tends to be a black box. You hand them some wireframes or sketches or whatever and then they go off and do… something. Maybe you have a general idea of what’s involved in building software, but unless you actually are a developer, that’s usually about it. In this session, we’ll explore what it actually means to write code, how you don’t need to be a “coder” to understand what developers do, and how understanding what it means to code can empower you as a UX designer to be more effective at integrating your work into the actual product implementation. We’ll take a non-developer view of techniques commonly associated with coding, such as pair programming, refractoring, test-driven development and continuous integration, and show how understanding them can offer riches in terms of improved collaboration, and healthier and more effective working relationship between designer and developers.
Better Living Through Sensors and Devices In 2013 I began an exploration of how my home could be transformed by employing a selection of sensors, devices and services that detect presence, monitor and change conditions and report back. In this session, we’ll explore how these services impact living and we’ll discuss how we can use the potential of the things in our homes to design better lives.
Take My Job. Only designers are qualified to craft amazing user experiences, right? We spend years learning, doing, and honing our craft as a reaction to non-designers designing digital things that were difficult to use. But you know what a lot of product managers with little to no design training are now responsible for? The user experience. They do things like talk to users, whip up wireframes and mockups, build interfaces and flows, and determine feature sets and functionality. You know what developers, founders, even executives never stopped doing and don’t think twice about doing? Designing stuff. After years of working as a designer, manager, and developer, Donna finally learned the secret to designing great digital products and user experiences: teach everyone *else* on the team how to do it right and do it well. Join Donna as she shows you how to inject some pedagogy into your work life so that you can effect change, improve quality, and better create awesome things with a team. See how outsourcing and open-sourcing your job not only fosters an environment of creativity, but renders the designer and design team invaluable and indispensable.
Making. Better. Meaning. We have all had that moment when someone we are trying to communicate with is misunderstanding what we mean. These moments can be frustrating and lead to upsets of the heart as well as the mind. When we make physical or digital things, our intended meaning has to project to the user without us being there to show the way or shine the light. For this session, Abby Covert will provoke us about the topic of meaning, daring us to ask ourselves: What do we mean when we say what we say?
Designing a Better You What do you want to do? It’s a deceptively hard question to answer. But your past–your personal story–can help suggest your future direction. We’ll work together to tell your story and create a mission statement for you, one that emphasizes what you can, should, and want to do.
Designing Better For-Profit Companies The demand on businesses to think “socially” is evolving at a rapid pace. What was once good marketing to include something about a social cause on your Web site is no longer as impactful as threading it into the fabric of how you do business today. Come share in this conversation about B-Corporations and the implications pursuing this designation will have on your organization.
Designing a Better Process for UX Whether you’re working in-house or in client services, there are a number of great processes and methodologies at your disposal. In this session we’ll discuss ways to customize a better process for UX teams
Good Enough is Better Description coming.
Do Better: Designing for Transformation Objects could be better if they were designed for transformation instead of for obsolescence. User-centered design is too narrow and too focused only on human beings. We need ecosystem-centric mental models, methods and design tools. Here’s why: from one point of view the Earth is seen as an inert resource to be used until depleted. This is a parasitic perspective in which energy & materials flow in one direction, toward the extractor and away from the source. Another view is the symbiotic orientation which assumes that the energy & materials we use to create new products flow in multiple directions, are useful to several user types, and will transform over time before returning to a fundamental organic state again. This applies to many products like clothing, furniture, vehicles, construction materials, food containers, digital hardware among others. What would we need to do in order to begin designing for transformation instead of obsolescence?
Better Companies Successful companies make a difference by being better. Over the last 100 years we have seen this happen across spectrums of quality, price and experience as a means to prove they are better than their competitors. Today we are seeing a new breed of companies that pick established customer experiences, imagine a simpler way, and build a business around delivering it. These are new ideas that form new types of companies rather than just new products. Lets explore some of these revolutionary experiences across banking, transportation, shopping and hypothesize what we currently experience that is ripe for a new type of company.
Data-Informed Design It’s not a destination. It’s a journey. Making informed design decisions is hard work. Harder still is fast-moving, always changing environments. Do you listen to the numbers? Do you listen to the people? If you want to listen, how do you do it? How do you get started?
Design Prioritization: When Better isn’t Obvious If you’re passionate about your product, you probably have more ideas than you know what to do with. Whether in-house or working for a client, *someone* decides what you’re going to work on. Don’t just go ahead and work on what the team, or even the boss, thinks is the most exciting. Work on the things that will make a difference, the things that are worth working on. How do we identify what those things are? We’ll discuss various prioritization methods and how they integrate user research, business understanding, and collaboration with multidisciplinary teammates. This discussion is especially for UX designers who find themselves taking on product management and strategy responsibilities.Description coming.
Pitching Experiences What’s the difference between a winning pitch and a winning pitch that’s chosen?
How to Handle the Stress of UX Work BETTER Working as a UX designer can be incredibly stressful. Our work is constantly subject to intense scrutiny and debate from clients and colleagues. If we’re consultants, we have the added pressure of constantly proving our worth to clients. Even the fast pace and ill-defined nature of the field itself can lead to stress: we can suffer from impostor syndrome and general insecurity about where we fit in our own profession. I’ve suffered from all of the above, and I suspect many others have as well. I’ll discuss the design process, identify common stressful situations and thoughts, and present concrete techniques for coping with that stress.
There Is No Such Thing As Mistakes: Surprising Insights From Jazz Improvisation Great team collaboration is the secret sauce of successful companies. At its core, collaboration comes from the culture of your company and the dynamics of your team. In this entertaining presentation, Jeff (on piano) and Jim (on bass) will perform a couple of jazz/blues tunes (yes! we will be playing live music!) to illustrate collaboration tactics key to the success of great bands. Through our performance and explicit callouts we will illustrate:
  • - the importance of an iterative form for the way your team works
  • - the power of listening to your colleagues
  • - how knowing your role on the team provides a high level of individual freedom while pushing the team forward
  • - the benefit of immediate feedback
  • - how great collaborators never make mistakes
Join us for this fun musical adventure!
Age Of The Alchemist: A D&D Approach to UX Design

Today, brands need, and want to place the consumer at the center of all marketing activity. However, maintaining consistency and ensuring the greatest brand expression possible means getting specialists from multiple disciplines, and agencies on the same page. This integration is easy in theory, but incredibly challenging in practice.

The solution: Age of the Alchemist, a Dungeon Masters approach to designing brand experiences. At the intersection of brand communication and UX design lies “Communications Alchemy” a methodology of transforming forgettable experiences into meaningful ones using agility, charisma and wisdom. While “Communications Alchemy” might be new to Advertising & Marketing, it is old news to fans of RPG such as Dungeons & Dragons. By taking cues from this immersive game and leveraging dynamic technologies of today, we can foster better consumer connections by delivering personalized, tangible, and rewarding experiences.

For more information please visit: http://vimeo.com/70815786.

Smart World Stories Are The New Design Stories

How do we link Human Experiences to systems of engagement, (IA Architectures, Data APIs)? Supporting “curating, ripping and sharing” between humans and machines? And support a world where humans cannot escape the consequences of their actions? and how do we design for tomorrow’s “creative native generation” that creates what they want (3D printing)?

In this session Designer Luis Rodriguez will share ways to see beyond today’s design stories made up of context, system, usability and visual design components. Lead your cross-functional team to go beyond building desirable and usable to connected and purposeful products and services by fitting them into digital and physical ecosystems that put emphasis in connectivity and purposeful design.

Sophia: Designing for Learning through Emotion

Is learning more than a concrete process? An emotion? And if it is, how do we evoke that emotion? Studies have shown that emotional state strongly influences learning uptake; in this session, game designer Erin Hoffman explores the concrete emotion of learning and how interfaces evoke discrete emotions.

Smart Tutorials: Teaching by Design

Central to this discussion is my learning process in designing the tutorial system in a game called Mushroom 11. I’d like to share what I’ve learned about this process, how to design better tutorials in games as well as other general design issues in UX. How can a game’s process of teaching people be different from physical product UX or web UX? We’ll compare and contrast different methods for implementing good first UX for various products as well as user testing and implementing feedback.

Talking to Users: A Better Way to Demystify Technical Terms

Using everyday life to break down the complexities of technical terms.

How To Understand Your Users Better

Knowing who you are designing for and what problem you are trying to solve for them can make or break an experience. We’ll explore all of the ways you can become educated on the needs of your end users—with a bigger focus on testing ideas with users earlier in the process and refining solutions over time.

Designing A Better World