At heart, I’m an optimist. I believe technology knows no bounds. This year, I’ve been privileged to work in India and Africa, assisting Amnesty International build an Android app. Amnesty is a global movement of more than 3 mil. activists who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights. They requested the company I work at, ThoughtWorks, build a mobile app that would allow activists out in the field to safely contact a guardian network during periods of emergencies. I was the experience designer on that project. Using customer journey mapping, user-test driven development & continuous design, we built an app that has now been tested in the field. I want to share the learnings behind building technology for human rights – from the collaborative design process we used in Bangalore to the user testing we conducted in Nairobi to the strategic envisioning we’ve done from London. This is a story about how to create a mobile strategy based on real user empathy & understanding. It’s a global story about how software plays a role in building a better tomorrow.

Questions answered :
What is technology’s role in human rights?
What does it mean to better humanity through software?
How do socially conscious organisations put their expertise to work by collaborating with humanitarian-driven organisations?
How can a corporate consultancy promote social justice?
What is the relationship between individuals and organizations when driving social change?
Why are networks important in driving forward a better tomorrow?

This talk explores the way digital tools enable the design and production of new forms of sentient space and attempts to fluidly show more slides per second than hitherto thought sensible.

Questions answered :
What does digitality mean for architecture? What’s changed? How could future architecture look and feel?

A look at what motivates us and how we can use this information to design experiences that are more evocative, more human, and create more value as a result.

Questions Answered:
What are our psychological motivators?
How can we apply this knowledge to what we design?
How might we develop this knowledge in the future?

A branding operation extends way beyond the simple execution of the visual design of the logo and the coordinated image. A proper brand strategy will require a certain set of elements to be in place, but even more in the recent years we need to understand better the social component of it. This talk will give a quick introduction to branding, focusing then on a few aspects that drive the social element of them and how you could use it in your professional environment.

Questions Answered:
1. What is a brand?
2. What are the central elements of a brand strategy moving toward social?

A look at what psychological drivers consumers have, and how we can use this to design more engaging, evocative experiences.

Questions Answered:
What do we know about what psychological motivators people have?
How can we apply this knowledge to what we design to make people connect and click more?
How might we develop this knowledge in the future?

Newcycle is a full service digital agency created in 2009 with
the objective to move brands online. We conceptualise, design and build
digital platforms,
applications and utilities that create user engagement and drive business
results.

Questions Answered:
Dani, one of the partners from our Buenos Aires office, will introduce you
to the the agency and how we can help your business in the UK with our
team of highly skilled designers and programmers in Argentina, our
capabilities and the process.

With kids now consuming interactive experiences from ages as early as pre-school, this session explores how user experience, design and technology has shaped the learning process.

It looks at how we, as digital content creators, are now be expected to build new and more innovative ways to capture the hearts of minds of kids and a look at what kind of experiences they’ll expect in the future.

Questions Answered:
Future technology,

Design is about problem solving and our traditional approach of conducting research and implementing surveys may contain common pitfalls. Often, users are unable to describe accurately what they actually need, instead we are limited to what they have previously told us they want.

Our client is having a hard-time expressing their requirements during the design process because until they see and experience the final solution, they don’t know if it is in fact the right one. At this point, a lot of time and resources have been been dedicated to the development project and the customer ultimately ends up unhappy with the solution proposed.

This talk is aimed at exploring the issues around this particular topic and will describe how you can use a rapid prototyping technique to help improve the end-users ‘experience’. This rapid prototyping process has been implemented many times and has enabled us to gain a great deal of understanding. At the same time, we are gaining an insight into the clients’ particular problems and this ultimately acts as an indispensable guide.

Questions Answered:
Problem with market research & surveys.
How to gain knowledge around the clients’’ requirements which won’t actually work
How to deal with human nature, whilst dealing with the fact that requirements, ideas, needs aren’t static.
How can we adapt and deliver the right solution through a deep understanding of their needs and successfully express it through a rapid prototyping process
An explanation of the rapid prototyping tools
Example case studies

>> People reuse and customise things, even if they do not always realise it.

>> Reusing is more effective than recycling and higher in the waste hierarchy but nobody works towards that.

>> Recycling is good
but works within the system that creates the problem: over-consumption.

>>Design goes open
and the roles of designer and user are merging.

These are the foundations of Design for Repurposing (DfR), a system that aims to:

1. Provide designers and users with proper design tools, cultivating democratic quality.

2. Create a digital space where users and designers can share and evaluate ideas.

3. Brand and communicate repurposing properly.

Questions Answered:
How can open design change human behaviour towards sustainability?

The talk will cover a number of aspects regarding user experience within the digital and physical space.

Questions Answered:
What do users want?
How can we ensure awesome user experience?
What is biodigital jazz?