Green Screen UX and Discuss Design Without Losing Your Mind

*** TALK HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO A LATER DATE ***

Opening Talk

Creating a film scene takes several things into account such as who the actors are, where they’re placed, and what they are doing. All of this creates the context for the scene. The same principles can be applied to designing UX.

We’ll look at three specific types of context (Person, Place, and Problem) and draw the parallels between cinema and UX design. Examples of good and bad implementations of these types of context will be examined and we'll explore what these stories mean to UX.

Attendees will walk away knowing how to look at their designs like a green screen and design for great context in their UX.

About The Speaker

Justin Smith is the Senior UX Architect heading up the UX department at Cartoon Network. He works on entertaining web, mobile, and gaming products for Cartoon Network and Boomerang. He's practiced UX for 8 years with most of that designing for kids. He has both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Georgia Tech in Computational Media and HCI, respectively.

He's a huge Georgia Tech and Atlanta sports fan and a music fan of many genres. He currently lives in Marietta with his wife, daughter and daughter-on-the-way (ETA July 2015).

Headline Talk

Collaboration requires us to share our work; to communicate our ideas with one another and to collect other’s thoughts in order to know whether the designs and creations we’re producing are meeting the objectives of the project. But often we wrestle with collecting feedback. We get comments that are less then helpful because they seem irrelevant or unclear. Or we find that we’re getting feedback and reactions at inopportune times rather than points in the process where they would have been useful in informing design decisions.

Our ability to critique speaks directly to the quality of the conversations we have with teammates, whether they be designers, developers, stakeholders, etc. Designers frequently complain about the quality and uselessness of the feedback they are given, but we rarely examine our own processes to identify how to collect useful feedback and make the discussions around our designs more productive.

In this talk we’ll explore critique as both an activity and an aspect of any communication or collaboration. Attendees will walk away with:

• A clearer understanding of critique is and why asking for “feedback” is problematic.

• Methods for gathering useful feedback from clients and teammates.

• Ideas on how to introduce team members to the idea of critique and get everyone using it.

• An understanding of where critique fits within the design processes and how to incorporate it into projects.

About The Speaker

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Adam Connor is designer, illustrator, author and speaker obsessed with the creative process. And with stories. No matter how utilitarian a tool may seem, at its core lies a story. Uncovering that story is the key to a successful design. As a designer with Mad*Pow, Adam uses his design and illustration talents, 12+ years of interaction design experience, and a background in Computer Science, film and animation to create effective and easy-to-use digital products and services.

Adam never tires of explaining how critical collaboration and critique are to the creative process.

In recent years, he has made helping design teams improve their processes and creative cultures a focus of his work at Mad*Pow. There, as the lead of the Organizational Transformation & Training practice, he has helped establish training and organizational consulting services that aid teams in examining and overcoming obstacles to their creativity.

Occasionally, he shares his perspective and approach to design at adamconnor.com (http://adamconnor.com/) and discussingdesign.com (http://discussingdesign.com/).

This Event is Brought to You by:

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Polygon (http://polygonatl.com/) is the new tech, web, & creative event space in Midtown Atlanta. It's the perfect spot for meetups, hackathons, workshops, and plenty more (http://polygonatl.com/). We can hold up to 150 people in a theater setting, are close to 17 delicious restaurants, right around the corner from the Twelve Hotel, and are close to any other amenity you might need. Since we are in Atlantic Station, we have plenty of parking and valet. Our rates are affordable too! Check out the site and get the full scoop here:http://polygonatl.com (http://polygonatl.com/)

We also offer sponsorship packages to put your brand in front of hundreds and hundreds of Atlanta's smartest people every month. Put your logo on the wall and get their attention!

We look forward to seeing you at Polygon soon!

What to Expect at the Event:

Arrive around 6:30pm

Event will begin at 7:00pm

We will have beverages and light snacks available for you during the event!