Ben Kertman - Zooming Out: how to contextualize concepts like behavioral economics, game design, tiny habits, nudge, and more, into a single, cohesive UX strategy (
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We hear a lot about the potential of using strategies from behavioral economics, or applying what we learned from a course on B.J. Fogg’s Tiny Habits, but how do we know when to use one vs. the other? How do concepts like game design relate to Thaler’s Nudge? Are there other behavior change strategies out there that we don’t know about? It’s all a bit confusing when rummaging around in the details of behavior science.
In this talk, I hope to zoom out to a bird’s eye view so that we can place all of these concepts in relationship to each other, and more importantly, in a way that helps us strategize when to use one behavioral strategy over another. My hope is that by the end we can all walk away with a mental framework for contextualizing and discussing what these behavioral science concepts are and how we might go about integrating them into our work.
Liz Harris - The Four Pillars of Effective Design-Development Collaboration (
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Seasoned Product Designers understand that design is all about co-creation, but when you’re just starting out, it can feel like designers and engineers are on opposing teams. With the Four Pillars I’ve learned to live by as a Product Designer, collaboration and understanding are made easy from kickoff through design handoff. They outline tried and true ways to work together that lead to growing a successful product and building something amazing. In this talk, we’ll look at processes you can start using right away to collaborate more openly and successfully with development counterparts. We will talk about:
- The how’s and why’s of involving development in the discovery period
- The cadence that designers should align with development throughout a project
- Empathizing with development by learning the basics of front-end code.
- The power of staying organized, from kickoff through hand-off
Dan Zollman - Questions for the ethical practitioner (
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As human-centered designers, we want to do good—we hope that our work will improve the lives and experiences of others. But in our complex technological world, it’s hard to know what’s right. Current events in our industry show that consequences are difficult to predict, and ethics are not straightforward.
As designers, how do we know what’s right, and how can we incorporate ethics into our practice? I will discuss some of the big questions and challenges for the ethical practitioner. In design, “ethical practice” means engaging in ongoing dialogue and seeking new answers in each new context.
This talk advances a vision for our profession—that ethics are at the core of our practice, and that every practitioner is able to do ethical work—and we will end with next steps to continue the conversation beyond today’s conference.
