UX Camp Winter 2023

We'll open the doors a little early and let folks in. Sometimes, we have surprises, sometimes, we play music, sometimes it's a little quiet. Get there a little early to be ready for kick-off!

Starting the event!

Just imagine…” ”What if…” “How might we…”

Working through difficult situations often involves some element of fantasy. It’s through make believe activities that we become free to play and explore the boundaries of a situation. Pretending to be someone other than our self (or stepping into an imagined situation) creates more space to say and explore things that might otherwise go untouched. And—as ironic as it may seem—it's through make believe that we can be more honest with ourselves and others. These elements of fantasy are implicit in much of our work (think ‘pre-mortem’ activities or ‘role-playing’ exercises), but use of fantasy as a facilitation technique has not been addressed directly, until now. Stephen will share what he's observed, as well as a number of facilitation and coaching activities—all based in fantasy—that anyone can use to quickly establish a psychologically safe space to share and exchange ideas.

15 minute break.

So you want to be a UX research manager? Congratulations on this important step in your career! In this talk, we'll look at what's going to change when you take on a management role, how you can thrive, and what to consider before you take the plunge. We'll cover issues specific to the UX research world, like strategies for coping with a hybrid manager/lead role, and best practices for using your user-empathy skills to help you become an empathetic people manager. By the end of this talk, I hope to leave you with some key reflections on whether a management role is the best choice for you.

15 minute break.

All too often, large research projects take place, but strategy and design decisions are still made from assumptions on consumer needs and behaviours. The research effort to value doesn’t seem to match up. ImpactSense will share findings from our recent study on the effectiveness of research and show ways of making research more actionable for UX and Product Design.

15 minute break.

Small visual design tweaks can dramatically improve the usability of your product. Whether your background is in UX or visual design, it always helps to have a handful of visual design principles to lean on when iterating on your designs; so this talk will go over a few rules of thumb, and then how to apply or even break those rules to create the best possible user experience for your users. We will discuss how to bring your users’ mental model into the final touches of the design process, what questions to ask yourself, and what scenarios to watch out for. By the end of this talk, you should feel confident making even the tiny design choices with intention—knowing your users will be navigating an experience tailored to their needs.

15 minuted break.

Deceptive design patterns are real and can create short term engagement and profits, but they also result in long-term pain for users and online experiences. This can leave users feeling tricked or cheated and can have a lasting impact for a brand.

UX Designers have the ability to influence a user through good design, or manipulate them through deceptive patterns, similar to how the Jedi and Sith have to decide how theyଁre using the Force. Weଁll discuss the top ten most deceptive design patterns and the negative impacts they have, as well as smart alternatives that can be used to benefit users, build trust, and make for better experiences.

15 minute break.

Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) are a rapidly growing segment of the US healthcare ecosystem, enabling providers to perform same-day outpatient procedures in a safe and cost-effective environment outside the hospital setting. In 2018, ~5700 ASCs performed 23 million outpatient procedures and generated $35 billion in revenue. However, Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are clunky and ill-suited to the needs of these centers, causing many ASCs to turn to paper charts scanned into the EHR.

In 2021, a Product Lead and UX Lead were tasked to define a purpose-built ASC solution that enabled our clients to document surgical cases within the ASC, seamlessly sharing information between the patient’s surgical chart and their clinic chart. Through collaborative site visits, service blueprinting, and interviews, we:

arrived at a clear human-centered vision and roadmap for the product
coordinated across functions to align on strategy, scope, and resourcing
prioritized and validated a list of near- and longer-term requirements
built and socialized an investment case for resources
In this presentation, we will share the process we went through to arrive at a successful, human-centered product vision and roadmap. We will also share lessons learned, such as:

How do you build and maintain effective, impactful partnerships between UX and Product while crafting strategy?
How do you convey findings that engage an audience that ranges from C-level executives to sales professionals to scrum teams?
How do you maintain a human-centered lens while discussing product tradeoffs and prioritizing investment?
How do you stay in touch with the higher-level strategy while empowering the teams who have to take on the work to own the problem space?
Expect to leave the presentation with a few new tricks up your sleeve, some interesting lessons on stakeholder management, and a bit more information about surgery coordination than you thought you’d ever need.

Wrapping up the day.