UX Strategies in Agile Environments & Designers as Disrupters

Our March talk is kindly sponsored by Xwerx in the Digital Depot, The Digital Hub, Roe Lane in Dublin 8.

Strategies for UX adoption in Agile environments by John Mooney

John Mooney is the Head of UX at Xwerx, a UX Consultancy agency that provides User Experience and Service Design services to a range of clients.

Over time, the agency has developed practical strategies for UX adoption whether for a startup, an established organisation with a UX practitioner of one or a large enterprise adopting a UX process for the first time.
This talk will review techniques Xwerx employed and lessons learned through a number of case studies.

John will talk about how to avoid pitfalls and conflict, address adopting design culture in a non-design led enterprise, manage expectations and maintain the "long wow”.

Topics covered include setting the scene, the value of vision, scaling sprint 0, UX spikes and UX runways.

‘Designers as Innovators & Disrupters' by Frank Gaine

Frank Gaine has been a User Experience Designer since 2001, having worked in Ireland and abroad for organisations large and small. Frank became frustrated with poor UX in recruitment and brought some Design Thinking to launch UXswitch in 2014, a careers platform for designers.

He argues that UXers are in a strong position to see the bigger picture of how an industry/product works, have an innate desire to improve things, as well as possess the skills to visualize those improvements and bring the project to fruition. Frank will discuss the value of thinking outside of our comfort zones and developing side projects that benefit our careers and potentially create a business.

Finally, in a Dublin UX exclusive, Frank will be introducing an exciting international competition for designers.