Charla Pereira is the lead designer for all authoring on Dynamics 365 Guides. Dynamics 365 Guides, or what Charla will refer to as "guides" is a mixed reality application for the Microsoft HoloLens, that allows an enhanced learning ecosystem by providing holographic instructions within the flow of work, when and where employees need it. So imagine putting together some complex machine on an assembly line, having the worker wearing a HoloLens device, and having a series of step by step instruction cards with image and video visually tethered to the areas where the work needs to be accomplished - ultimately leading to fewer errors and greater retention of learned skills, and we'll talk much more about that in the discussion.

Charla has been in tech for just about 20 years, and she began her career as a graphic designer. Charla joined Microsoft 11 years ago, and she's shipped everything from Microsoft Office to Microsoft Fresh Paint (a project originating from in Microsoft Research, that simulates oil on a digital canvas). Charla spent her time in academia focused largely on graphic design, including some time both at Capilano College in Vancouver, and the Art Institute of Seattle, and she has such an incredible passion for design and talks about how important things like empathy and love are in her ethos, and how these values help her know who her users are in an intimate way.

Discussion themes:

-Charla's biggest professional lesson, incurred at Microsoft, about the importance of knowing how to sell yourself and change your mindset - which for her, was about being more data centric in her design advocacy to team members

-What Design personally means for Charla:

Love, empathy, humanity, and fighting for what is needed for your customer

And, inherently, knowing what your customers need, not just what they want.

Basic design principles: Is it discoverable, usable, authentic, desirable, likable

-The differences between the different technologies; VR, MR, and AR, and specifically how her newest product, Dynamics 365 guides, helps people learn by doing, and she tells some real stories about spending time with first line workers in a high paced manufacturing environment, and all the nuances of working in a factory that she discovered that helped her understand how to design a better product.

-Learning, the importance of giving people the opportunity to make mistakes, some data driven observations about learning, and how workers should and will be learning in the now and soon to come future.

Thanks for listening!

How to connect with Charla:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlapereira/

Resources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIJM9xNg9xs&feature=youtu.be

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/business/microsoft-hololens-job-training.html

https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/mixed-reality/guides/

https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=288bc3e1eb8d4514f6ed1fd1dcbb9c20

Learn more at www.thedatabinge.com

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