Looking for ways to engage my quirky client who found it difficult to get involved in the grit of interaction design. Usual suspects, reams of A3, coloured pencils and quick sketches were encouraging, but one flippant comment set the tone for future design sessions. Fuzzy felt. Felt personas, shiny interaction buttons and Silverlight sequins.

A presentation by a trio of developers on how to get usability done by hook or by crook in a large and slow moving environment. Getting people on your side, maintaining interest, and aiming for outcomes that produce stability.

Having trouble creating useful User Experiences? You’re probably bad at expressing your (UX) emotions. Discover why finding the right words for the right things is one of the most important things you can do when designing your next User Experience. And yes, there might be a few Madonna references.

Giving and taking critique are fundamental design skills. In the UX field a common source of design critique is from usability studies. My talk addresses how we can deliver the results of research in a way that builds up the design, rather than just points out flaws. As UX professionals, how can we make sure we critique rather than just complain?

There is an endless list of wickedly complex systems that thousands, millions, billions of people interact with every day. Think of the medical system, the school system, the tax system, the transport system or the voting system. Users come into contact not just with one or two, but with dozens aspects of these societal systems every day. Wide design is about how designers who work for or with the Government can practically design wide system evolutions that work for people.

Join Stephen on an epic journey analysing the Gordian knot of over 400 customer centred design projects for Westpac. Learn about the journey, the challenges and the insights that come from such a task. Help start the discussion how consultants and CX teams can build stronger relationships through ongoing research that crosses the boundaries of individual projects.

The way businesses perceive design is changing. Businesses are awakening to design as something that can help solve organizational problems, drive meaningful innovations and inform business strategies. Or at least that’s what we’re being told by the popular business press.

Anthony Colfelt, Creative Director at Different will show how to form a solid, visionary yet credible experience strategy by becoming a protagonist in product development. He will explain how this interleaves with a product strategy or a business strategy; and how this can benefit you and your organisation or clients.

We often discuss the need to be designing for an experience. And we talk about the importance of experience design - and design generally - playing a strategic role in business decisions. But we're less forthcoming when it comes to discussing what is an experience strategy?

… Or everything I know about social network personas I learned from Sesame Street