I solve problems.
Talks and workshops by Dan Willis, a UX consultant who spends entirely too much time talking and workshopping.
We’re going to spend the next decade trying to figure out how to design cross-channel, multi-device experiences that don’t suck, so it’s probably a good time to come clean and admit that the goal of making those experiences “seamless” is just plain silly.
Read MoreThe future of UX is the user who begins a task on one device, continues through many more interfaces across many platforms and many more devices and completes their task with little recognition of, or interest in the complexity involved. To stay relevant in the development of digital products, we need think at a higher level than screens or sites or devices.
Read MoreHow do we open the design process to everybody, while protecting the expertise of each team member?
Read MoreDesign is not magic and it does not take place in a vacuum. Like it or not, organizations create successful user experiences, not designers. This talk will outline what an effective UX professional should be doing long before a single pixel has been designed. Participants will walk away with specific bottom-up tactics to more accurately define the organization, adjust team structure and tweak process.
Read MoreThose sweet days of delusion when we could act like our users’ experiences were contained within a single interface on a single device on a single platform are over. And don’t kid yourself, we’re not going to get away much longer with the comfortable (and just as delusional) concept of “cross-channel” design. There’s only one channel, the user’s, and everything we create is just content sliding into and out of their field of vision. So how the hell do we deal with all that?
Read MoreAs we squint into a bright future, let’s first glance back at the user experience industry’s well-meaning, but mostly murky past. UX’s foundation is a sordid mix of lies, shams and idiocy: We never designed experiences and things like mobile have always been adjectives, no matter how many times we sold them as nouns. Now we’re hyperventilating about designing responsively across channels, like that will change everything. We’re still talking about users and those bald apes haven’t changed in thousands of generations.
Read MoreIt's not a platform, it's not a kind of design, it's not a strategy - in fact, it's just a fad. But that doesn't mean it's not important.
Read MoreAn intense study of "I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me" (in other words, be a humble designer) and other gems offered by A.A. Milne's famously simple bear and applied directly to designing user experiences.
Read MoreUser research? A fad! Personas? Like I don't know enough real people and have to make some up. Usability? Hey, if that shopping cart was good enough for Amazon, I'm sure it'll work just fine for us. Not everything requires user testing, okay? We learned plenty long before we read any of those fancy books or paid for conferences just to have late-night drunken conversations about taxonomies.
Read MoreAn exploration of the basics and potential of Gov 2.0 without the hype and in a language tailored for Web professionals including guidance on how to get involved early in what may be the most significant U.S. movement of the early 21st century.
Read MoreData is empowering when presented well, but can be burdensome when presented poorly. This session will cover data management and visualization technologies that can greatly improve user experience and, as a result, customer satisfaction.
Read MoreJust as early filmmakers struggled to break free from the conventions of live theater, after more than 10 years Web designers are still trapped in the structures of the past. Forget pages, linear text and other archaic vestiges of design's print ancestry; the separation of content from presentation has already changed everything.
Read MoreThis presentation will deconstruct an illustrated fable about an intrepid little creature who introduces user goals to a development process that would have otherwise been dominated by royal business owners and technological black magic.
Read MoreWhether you're preaching to the faithful or trying to convert the masses, one of the information architect's biggest challenges is to make necessarily complex solutions easily understood.
Read Moredan [at] dswillis [dotcom]
