I have a confession to make. Up until last week, I had never attended a conference on user experience. Or technology for that matter! In my former life as an educator, I’ve attended my fair share of higher education conferences. Hell, I’ve even been a speaker at a few! But in terms of content, higher ed and tech conferences could not be more different (well, except for this one… or this one).
Lucky for me, Organic sprang for a ticket to UX Thursday in Detroit and I finally got to spend all day in a conference center geeking out on all things UX. As a fairly new endeavor, the illustrious Jared Spool and his team at User Interface Engineering partnered with Vitamin T to bring together the local UX community and provide a platform for local leaders to share their work and point of view.
One of the most notable things about UX Thursday is that it offered a diverse collection of talks, from design to research to content strategy. For a one day conference, they really did a great job of showcasing the multi-disciplinary efforts that UX encompasses. A few highlights:
- Jared Spool talked about the Kano Model, which I plan to take back to Organic and school everyone on.
- UX research master and DWDUX member Jodi Bollaert spoke about lean usability research.
- My super-fave UMSI prof and TUG principal Dan Klyn spoke about defining what good means. I used what I learned in this talk the very next day!
- ProQuest UXer Chris Farnum taught us all about using infographics to communicate important information among project teams. I plan to use this approach in the very near future.
Not only did I get to see a bunch of excellent talks, I got to reconnect with some UMSI buddies and meet a few new friends. It really was a great day! If you’re interested in a more comprehensive and social-fueled look at UX Thursday, check out Deborah Edward-Onoro’s Storify about the event. It kinda rocks. And I’m not just saying that because I’m in it.