P.E.I Design 2019 - Q2: Design Thinking & Narrative Design

Hello design thinkers!

Come out and socialize with designers, developers, and individuals in the community interested in creating a more inclusive and human-centered design community.

This month we cover an Introduction to Design Thinking from Veteran Affairs Canada's first Service Designer Farzad Sedghipour , and a look into the world of Narrative Design from the founder of Minotaur Creative, Summerside native Brendan Henry.

We'll provide food, beverages, and discussion. You just provide great conversation!

AGENDA

• 6:45: doors open
• 6:45-7:15: social time; enjoy snacks, coffee, and conversation
• 7:15-9:00: keynotes & discussion

TOPICS

1. Design Thinking from the mind of a Service Designer

Are you frequently asked to come up with more efficient solutions? But wonder whether the problems you've been given are the right problems to focus on to begin with?

Design Thinking is a mindset and a methodology for tackling complex challenges.

In this talk, Farzad Sedghipour - VAC's first Service Designer - will introduce Design Thinking, and outline how it can be applied to help tackle the right problems and improve service outcomes for users.
Farzad Sedghipour is a Service Design Manager at Veterans Affairs Canada.

He has 10 years experience leading design strategy, research insights, and innovation projects for mid- large scale organizations and consultancies.
He enjoys tackling complex challenges, bridging divides, synthesizing solutions, and a tasty Americano.

2) Narrative Web Design Theory - A Rabidly Interdisciplinary Approach to Web Interaction

The user’s narrative begins at their first point of entry to a website. Are they forced to go to the landing page to orient themselves? Can they get their bearings through navigation and content elements? When they travel between pages, has the juxtaposition of elements been taken into consideration? How far will their eyes travel to reorient on the new page? Has the user been led to a page under false-pretenses by a CTA?

Taking established narrative, juxtapositional, and compositional techniques from film & television production and applying them to how we refine user experiences on the web. A theory in development, it currently tackles a few low-hanging fruit such as ‘plot threads’, ‘red-herrings’ and, most importantly, ‘viewer/user-orientation’.

By framing the user’s experience as a linear narrative, you can approach common interaction problems from a different perspective and begin revealing existing problems with how we coax users through interfaces.