(January 2012) Global UX: The challenges of designing across the planet

Sorry, this event has been sold out! Also, please note the venue change below.

Thursday January 19, 2012
5:30 to 7:00 pm
VENUE CHANGE:
Desire2Learn
Meet in the lobby of the Tannery building in front of the elevators
151 Charles St. W., Suite 100 in Kitchener

“It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it.”

It’s true: designing user experiences for (or in) a global context can pose an enormous challenge. But it can also present enormous opportunities and rewards. This month, we’re joined by the authors of Global UX, a recently-published book that acts as a travel guide for UX teams tasked with blowing away borders and boundaries. Whitney Quesenbery and Daniel Szuc based their book not just on their own professional experience (which is considerable), but on dozens of in-depth interviews with design professionals who represent over 60 countries and 25 languages.

So needless to say, this will be a great event for anyone thinking about global design and UX.

What to expect

In the spirit of a connected world, Whitney and Dano will join us via Web conference in one of Communitech’s most tricked-out AV rooms in The Hub. Whitney will connect from her home in the Eastern US. Daniel currently lives in Hong Kong, but will dial in from London UK. So we’re going global in almost every sense!

Whitney and Daniel will lead us through a discussion of how UX practice is changing and how UX practitioners and teams around the world are designing for a global context. Their goal is to share what people are thinking about how they work in UX practices in global, cross-cultural, distributed team environments. They’ll challenge us to think about the process of understanding people from different countries and cultures. And they’ll share insights into how other teams have tackled the challenges of working on global products.

These glimpses into global practice may serve as either a mirror, reflecting your own work — or as a beacon, showing a path ahead. Either way, this event will both inform and inspire you!

About the presenters

Daniel Szuc (@dszuc) is Principal Consultant at Apogee, a usability consulting Services Company based in Hong Kong. Dan previously worked on a usability team for Telstra Australia. He is currently VP of the International UPA (Usability Professionals’ Association) and has lectured about UX in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, the USA, Israel, New Zealand, and Japan. He co-wrote a “Usability Kit” with Gerry Gaffney, which is an implementation guide providing best practices and guidelines for usability teams. Dan holds a BS in Information Management from Melbourne University in Australia.

Whitney Quesenbery (@whitneyq) is a user researcher, user experience practitioner, and usability expert with a passion for clear communication. She works with organizations from the National Cancer Institute to IEEE, Sage and The Open University. She has been president of the UPA and served on two national advisory committees for usability and accessibility. She enjoys meeting people around the world and using those insights to design products where people matter. She is the author of Storytelling for User Experience (with Kevin Brooks, Rosenfeld Media).