Innovation vs. Best Practice – Conflict or Opportunity? Guest Speaker:Eric Reiss

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Our Guest Speaker: Eric Reiss

Topic: Innovation vs. Best Practice – conflict or opportunity?

Eric Reiss has been actively involved in the creation of menu-based programs, hypertext games, multimedia, and online projects for over 30 years. Following a long career as a copywriter for one of Europe’s leading business-to-business advertising agencies, he has worked almost exclusively with online communications since 2001.

In November, 2000, his book, Practical Information Architecture, was published by Pearson Education. His second UX book, Usable Usability, was published by John Wiley & Sons in 2012. He is co-instigator of the IA Slam and author of Web Dogma ’06, a design philosophy that has since been translated to over two dozen languages. His articles and contributions have been published in the Journal of the American Society for Science and Technology, Johnny Holland Magazine, Fortune, and Business Week, as well as in various textbooks, including Designing Web Navigation (Kalbach), Pervasive Information Architecture (Resmini and Rosati), and the online Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction.

Eric Reiss is CEO of the Copenhagen-based FatDUX Group, which designs interactive experiences, both online and off. The company maintains offices throughout Europe and North America. He is a former two-term president of the Information Architecture Institute, serves as Chair of the European Information Architecture Summit, EuroIA, and is on the advisory boards of the Copenhagen Business School Department of Informatics, the Kent State University IA|KM program, and the Romanian Institute of Information Architecture. Reiss was also Professor of Usability and Design at the Instituto de Empresa Business School in Madrid, Spain from 2009-2011 during which time he received numerous awards for his teaching, including the coveted “Best Professor” prize in 2009.

More about Eric here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Reiss

linkedin.com/profile/view?id=782687&trk=tab_pro (http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=782687&trk=tab_pro)

https://twitter.com/elreiss

slideshare.net/ericreiss (http://www.slideshare.net/ericreiss)

The Presentation:

“Best practice” implies doing things in the best possible manner, based on past experience. But we like to think of ourselves as innovators in a dynamic industry – we want to go where no one has gone before. Thus, “best practice” and “innovation” are like oil and water – they don’t easily mix.

How can we, as user-experience professionals, balance the need for consistency that “best practice” provides, with our on-going mission to improve the quality of our products? How can we create genuine improvements – and when have we been seduced by the evil twins, Fad and Fashion?

“Innovation vs. Best Practice” is a highly interactive 45-minute exploration of the elements that make up these two ends of the user-experience spectrum. It’s a combination of demonstration and common-sense review, in a single, high-powered, bullet-point-free session.

During the presentation, we’ll take a closer look at the popular definitions of both innovation and best practice – and discover why these are frequently inadequate, misleading, or both. Why is a “standard” not always a “best practice”? And if “invention” can be spontaneous, why is “innovation” always planned?

We’ll also take a closer look at some of the worst reasons to innovate, which are also some of the most common, plus the Japanese concept of “chindogu” – “useless innovation.” Perhaps most important of all, we’ll see how User Driven Design helps us avoid harmful innovation in comparison to the more common User Centered Design methodology.

Want to learn the four Laws of Innovation? Want to be able to recognize the three danger signals of Fashion and Fad? Want to know why usability guru Jakob Nielsen may actually be right 37% of the time?

Eric will be conducting a full day workshop on Saturday September 21st - A must attend event! Details to follow.

What people are saying:

“Eric L. Reiss is like a one man army and is simply the most talented, creative and structured marketing professional that I have ever worked with. I simply lack words for describing how strongly I recommend Eric.”

Michael Seifert, CEO Sitecore A/S

“Many write, but few inspire. Listening to Eric speak, reading his books or his articles, or watching him engage a room full of listless, dull-eyed technologists makes you realize just how special he is. A true thought-leader in information architecture, business communications, and user experience, Eric exudes confidence, competence, and a clarity of purpose hardly anyone comes close to. I would recommend Eric with utterly no reservations.”

Joe Sokohl, HCI, Iconmedialab

“Eric is a brilliant thought leader – he's creative and inspiring, smart and technically savvy – plus he's one of the best presenters around. Eric engages his audience in the same way that he works with his clients – by designing the best possible user experience.

Lisa Colvin, Director, User Experience, Adapt Technologies

“We have had the genuine pleasure of having Eric as a keynote speaker at several conferences, e.g. "Usability Dagene 2005" (Usability Days 2005) and "Usability Dagene 2006". Eric has always received the best score among our keynote speakers, since his contributions are both highly relevant for usability professionals and motivational.

Jes Allersted, Senior Consultant, Danish IT Society / DANSK IT

”Eric Reiss is the Jon Stewart of user experience”

Grace Morgan, London

“Eric is a fabulous presenter, definitely one of the best I have encountered. He can engage his audience and get across a very clear, memorable message with inspiring ease. In addition to his experience with creating thorough and innovative web strategies, he brings valuable marketing insights into user experience and is without doubt a master of the message!”

Priyanka Kakar, Information Architect , Vanguard Financial Services

“Eric is not only one of the most charismatic figures in Information Architecture today, where he is a de facto living bridge between the Americas and Europe, but he is also a brilliant and engaging speaker who can captivate the audience, never lose his pace and goal, and bring the message home. His broad views, deep understanding, personable ways, and long standing professional position encompassing IA, UX, design and the business side of things make Eric a leader you want to work with.”

Andrea Resmini, Chair, Italian IA Summit