Front-End Camp 2017

I am a Visual Designer in corporate America; I am also on the Autism Spectrum. I’ve thrived in my career using self-awareness as a tool for bringing out my best work and approaching design from a different direction. Growing a neurodiverse design team has its hurdles, but the pros far outweigh the cons. I will talk about improving work environments, identifying communication styles, and being a great team mate to those that are wired a bit different.

Key Takeaways:

Discover the benefits of hiring those with atypical brains
Learn how to best collaborate with individuals that have ADD, ADHD, Autism and more
Make your team work environment healthier and more flexible for all employees; both neurotypical and atypical

In my talk, I’ll discuss the role of content strategy in a project and how usability, no matter how researched and executed, stands and falls on the shoulders of content. This includes what user experience designers need to know to perform content strategy functions – even if the project doesn’t have the budget to hire a dedicated content strategist.

I’ll describe how content strategy contributes to a project, including a structure for creating a project goal and plan, from message architecture through editorial calendar to style guidelines. I’ll give examples of how content strategy can help accomplish business goals without leaving the users behind and help you think about how content will be sourced, managed and measured.

I’ll also give cautionary examples of what happens when you don’t include content strategy in your planning and when you put content last, instead of first.

Finally, I’ll talk about how UX and content strategy folks can help enhance the other’s work and collaborate for better results.

The reality of domestic violence doesn’t disappear when people leave enter the digital world. Abusers use technology to exploit and control their victims, meaning that technologists have a responsibility to ensure that users of our products are empowered to protect their safety. How can we prevent people with violent intentions from forms of abuse and control that are digital, such as browsing a victim’s computer, finding sensitive information about them online, or creating fake content in their name? How can our products that involve real people, such as software for building managers, protect against an abuser talking their way past a building’s doorman whose uses software to track approved guests? While there’s no simple answer and ultimately no way to ensure our users’ safety in all situations, thoughtful considerations and small changes while designing and building products can and does result in meaningful contributions to people’s safety. This talk will explore how to think through a lens of safety, create those thoughtful considerations, and advocate for an emphasis on safety.

This presentation will deal explicitly with domestic violence and may be triggering for some attendees. Please do not hesitate to leave the room at any time should you need to.

Mired in deliverable purgatory, and possessed of strategic skills that are continually undervalued, UX professionals are further humiliated by hiring requirements that include portfolios. I will explain why portfolios are entirely wrong for evaluating the worth of a UX professional, why hiring managers can’t seem to stop demanding them, and propose a path out of this quagmire.

As designers, we care about trying to bring things into the world that positively impact people’s lives. In trying to achieve our goals, sometimes we hold on tight to a lot of ideas about the way that we do things, the tools that we use, and how we work together. But what if getting what we want had to do more with letting go of things that are familiar in order to bring others into the design process. We’ll explore how embracing the idea of letting go – and what specifically we should try letting go of — will actually help us to be more effective within our organizations.