UX Design: Expectations vs Reality

Descriptions:
Join us in this meetup to hear from different community speakers about what it’s like working in UX Design. Learn from their perspective and advice to help you better prepare for your future or current UX role. This event is for everyone regardless of your level.

Agenda:
6:00-6:30 pm Mingling, Food & Drinks
6:30-8:00 pm Community Speakers
8:00-8:30 pm Mingling, Food & Drinks
8:30 pm Wrap Up

Speakers:

Kelly Xu
Kelly is a UX designer at Best Buy, focusing on the retail mobile experience. Blending her curiosity about people and how they interact with the world around them, she found herself on the road of UX since her bachelor's in HCDE at the UW. Her desire to understand others' emotions and experiences blends well with the user-centered mindset when working on new projects at work and in her everyday life.

Prerna Sitomer
Prerna Sitomer is a UX Designer at C-SATS, a company that provides an assessment platform for surgical skills. She is in her second year in the industry after graduating with a Bachelor's Degree in Human Centered Design & Engineering from the UW College of Engineering. Prerna's personal philosophy is "active compassion," and she seeks to incorporate this philosophy into her career, believing in design as advocacy for positive change. Prerna is also a martial artist and a musician.

Alison Bukowski
Alison is the junior UX designer at iSpot.tv, a data analytics startup in Bellevue. Her background is wide and varied, encompassing everything from teaching to technical writing and training to owning a small business in the health and fitness space. Alison is a mid-career switcher and her experience allows her to have a unique perspective throughout the design process. She is very happy to be on a small, tight-knit design team that continually supports her never-ending quest to improve her skills.

Rayn Vonderhoya
Rayn is a senior experience designer at projekt202. With a BFA in Communication Design from the University of North Texas, Rayn’s experience and skill set ranges from traditional graphic design and marketing to complex enterprise software and user experience. Her passion for enterprise design systems, designops, and design culture has led her to become a trusted UX consultant for companies such as The Container Store, PWC, FedEx and Amazon.

Chris Durbin
Chris Durbin has been at Amazon for 5 years and is currently building a UX team that practices human-centered design at Twitch Prime. They are responsible for shaping the Prime experience for over millions of gamers. She's taking a deep look into Gen YZ, specifically examining delightful patterns in video games and applying them to the everyday web experience. She's experimented with a slew of design processes and has worked on teams ranging from 1-100+ in her 10 year career.

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A message from Best Buy:
We at Best Buy work hard every day to enrich the lives of consumers through technology, whether they come to us online, visit our stores or invite us into their homes. We do this by solving technology problems and addressing key human needs across a range of areas, including entertainment, productivity, communication, food, security and health.

Best Buy’s Seattle office opened in 2015 as a place to experiment and create new digital products, services and experiences – focused on designing mobile apps that connect the digital world with our brick-and-mortar stores. What started with 4 employees in an unfinished workspace has grown into a fearless team of 150 with a wide diversity of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.

Location:
Best Buy Seattle Technology Development Center
Seattle Times Building
1000 Denny Way, 8th Floor
Seattle, WA 98109

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Parking:
There is no parking garage in the building, please check the surrounding area for street or garage parking.