Inclusive Design: Design for 7 billion, design for one (w/ Sarah Morris)

Human diversity -- Is it a strength to product design or an obstacle to be mitigated? When creating products and services, businesses constantly face a critical question: Can one product be meaningful to billions of people? Human beings have been at the center of design practices for a long time, yet technology is poor at adapting to their unique needs.

Join Sarah Morris from Microsoft’s inclusive design team for an interactive hour exploring how designing for human diversity can unlock more meaningful experiences for each of us, and result in better technologies for all of us.

For a sneak peek at what’s to come check out http://www.inclusivethefilm.com and read about it on FastCo Design.

SCHEDULE

6:30 | Doors open

6:30 - 7:00 | food & drink & spontaneous conversation

7:00 - 8:00 | speakers & questions

8:15 | clean up!

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Sarah Morris (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahlynnmorris) is a storyteller, strategist, and a natural connector of ideas, concepts, and people. She believes passionately in exploration and building human connections. She has brought this passion along with a drive for more personal experiences and cutting edge efficiency into a breadth of roles in the technology sector.

Sarah is a senior design strategist on the Inclusive Design (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/design/inclusive?ocid=inclusivethefilm) team at Microsoft. She partners with product teams across Microsoft as well as organizations and education institutions around the world to bring inclusive design (http://www.fastcodesign.com/3054927/the-big-idea/microsofts-inspiring-bet-on-a-radical-new-type-of-design-thinking) practices and thinking into their projects and teams. In the Fall of 2015 Sarah partnered with 20th Century Fox creating an inclusive design challenge (https://news.microsoft.com/features/microsoft-brings-the-martian-to-earth-with-hacking-mars-design-challenge-bing-watney-home-map-experience-and-more/#sm.00000755f0fnmyf9twju8hwkzsh9b) for students inspired by The Martian. She brings her passion for storytelling to life managing the Microsoft Design community and communications (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/design/contact-us) channels. Prior to joining design, Sarah was a senior product manager from planning through launch of Windows 10.

Sarah has been an active Skype in the Classroom mentor since 2014, mentoring STEAM students from schools around the world. She has represented Microsoft at industry events such as MWC, CES, //BUILD, and SMB Nation since 2010. Her constant curiosity and passion for building empathy has brought her around the world working on research projects with a diverse set of business and consumers, influencing a diverse set of products across Microsoft. She is currently sponsoring a hackathon team building a solution aiming for greater inclusion and participation for people with a range of hearing abilities.