Danielle DuMerer

CIO & Commissioner of the Department of Innovation & Technology, City of Chicago

Danielle is CIO and Commissioner of the Department of Innovation and Technology. Most recently Danielle was the City’s Chief Technology Officer, leading efforts to leverage data and technology to make government more effective, efficient, and innovative.

During her tenure at the City, she directed many of the City’s digital transformation initiatives, established the City’s internationally-recognized open data program, and led digital inclusion efforts to expand access to technology resources and digital skills training.

Before joining the City of Chicago, Danielle developed K-12 educational technology products at the McGraw-Hill Companies. She also worked in the Library and Archives field, serving a variety of educational and non-profit organizations to promote equitable access to and preservation of information resources.

Danielle holds a Master of Library Science from the University of Maryland, College Park and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Rhetoric from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

She lives in Chicago with her husband and daughter.

For more, keep up with Danielle on Twitter as @danielledumerer.

Don Bora

Co-Founder & Principal of Technology, Eight Bit Studios

Don Bora has been a professional software developer in Chicago since 1990. In his career, Don has started 6 companies two of which he sold and two of which are still alive and making a lot of noise.

Don is a cofounder of Eight Bit Studios, a leading web and mobile application firm in Chicago. At Eight Bit, we blend design, UX, and software development collaboratively to deliver digital products to our customs. If we do it right, everyone has a great time and walks away with a smile on their face.

In addition to his Eight Bit responsibilities, Don frequently mentors young entrepreneurs and students alike. Don also serves on the board of CodePlatoon.org, an immersive bootcamp for military veterans.

Don has been an outspoken advocate for women and girls in tech, seeking to bridge the technology gap by exposing the fun and creative side of programming. He frequently mentors both high school and college students who display an interest in technology and coding.

For more, keep up with Don at eightbitstudios.com or on Twitter as @dbora.

Jason Kunesh

Design Director, City of Chicago

Jason Kunesh finds simple solutions for gnarly problems wherever people meet technology.

He is the Design Director of the City of Chicago, helping ensure the city’s products and services work well for all Chicagoans. Jason is a cofounder of PublicGood.com, and a veteran of the Obama for America 2012 tech team, Orbitz, Groupon and other startups. He’s taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and DePaul University.

He’s spoken at companies including Google, Intuit, and Microsoft and at conferences like SXSW, UX Week, BAYCHI, Web Visions and more. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, BusinessWeek, TIME, Forbes, Crain’s, the Chicago Tribune and others.

For more, keep up with Jason at jdkunesh.com or on Twitter as @jdkunesh.

Alina Cvetkova

Product Designer, XING

Alina Cvetkova is a product designer with a passion for user-centered design and setting up UX processes. Originally from Latvia, Alina has at the moment settled in the sunny Barcelona. Currently, Alina is working as a Product Designer for the B2B side of the social business network XING, where she, together with the rest of the team, is providing design solutions to help recruiters hire the best talent possible.

For more, keep up with Alina on Twitter as @nuacco.

Anticipating User Needs with Data

These days it is not enough to simply provide an interface for the users to reach their goal: users expect so much more from products. It’s essential to address user needs in a smart way, and sometimes there are needs which the user hasn’t even expressed yet.

Anticipatory design and smart data help address this. We’ll explore a practical way that shows how to identify and use data that can help users reach their goals by boosting their journey with useful and helpful information.

Alissa Ampezzan

Director of Design, Tempus

Alissa is Director of Design at Tempus. Her work has always been driven my impact—currently it’s cancer, but before it was progressive politics, K12 educational technologies, and non-profit marketing. She’s taught at Startup Institute (also an alumna) and General Assembly. She spends free time reading Fleetwood Mac biographies and trying to understand the human genome. Oh, and giggling to @weratedogs.

For more, keep up with Alissa on Twitter as @alissaampezzan.

Getting the F-U Out of Cross-Function

All those job postings and career pages that taut the fun of working on a multi-disciplinary team… to solve the world’s greatest problems… in the trendiest office space you’ve ever seen… are full of it. It’s hard. It’s easy to sing kumbaya and talk about togetherness on your culture blog. In reality, effective cross-function is a daily struggle. But it’s critical to building successful products. Increasingly, the role of the designer on a pod/squad/scrum seems to be peacekeeper, translator, or even therapist. “Empathy” takes on a whole new meaning when it’s a fussy internal subject matter expert and not your idyllic external user. As a group, we’ll share real examples of working across domains and the macro and micro approaches to building consensus in order to make real progress day-to-day.

Amanda Weller

Senior UX Director, Ipsos

Amanda has over 10 years of experience designing and executing custom projects that deliver creative, insightful solutions to complex problems to create intuitive, innovative, useful, fun experiences for people around the world.

Fluent in various methodologies to deeply understand users needs, pain points, and behaviors. Adaptive and empathetic moderator whose thoughtful analysis produces actionable results. Passion for tech and finance with strong cross-industry experience including consumer products, media, apps, IOT, healthcare, packaging, and service design.

Snigdha Sah

UX Director, GfK

I combine my passion for user-centered qualitative research with my ability to work effectively in collaborative spaces to propel my commitment to enhance the everyday experience of users. In doing so, I adopt creative, strategic and collaborative approaches to research, with the goal of understanding and analyzing user choices and the experiences that drive purchasing behaviors, customer satisfaction and loyalty.Over the span of the last 7+ years, I have worked in a wide variety of consulting and project management roles to clients across industries that include information technology and services, healthcare, automotive, consumer packaged goods, energy services, education and non-profit. I use my training in anthropology to understand product or services-related research questions and work closely with clients to deliver compelling, customized, viable and actionable recommendations for product/services enhancement.

Amanda & Snigdha present:

Crossing Cultures: Making Global Research Work

It has become imperative that companies and corporations that are committed to enhancing the user experience consider the unique challenges and perspectives of users across the globe. As the world becomes smaller, and markets shift and consolidate, opportunities expand.

But conducting research on a global scale carries some unique challenges. For example, how do you conduct ethnographies in India, or manage a usability test in a country with low Internet penetration? What is the best method for reaching the underbanked in the Philippines? How do privacy laws effect research in Germany and Japan? How do you test successfully in markets where participants are likely to sign up for research only for the incentive? What about navigating different approaches to live, simultaneous interpretation?

We’ll discuss the expanded focus of research to global and newly emerging markets such as the Middle East and North Africa; the value and importance of a global perspective and the indispensable nature of localizing research and specific challenges and best practices for managing and executing a global project. You’ll walk away with actionable takeaways on practical approaches geared towards successful global projects, including but not limited to management of cultural differences and tips on smart recruitment and communication. We’ll also include a couple of case studies for illustration.

Brian Montana

Senior Interface Developer, Conversant

Brian Montana has an MFA in New Media and works as a Creative Technologist at Conversant. He’s a former Marine, cancer survivor, organizer of CodePen Chicago and museum adventurer.

For more, keep up with Brian at brianmontana.net or on Twitter as @brianmontanaweb.

Web Animation API-llusion of Life

Animation in applications and on the web are much more commonplace, however, whether or not they are an enhancement to the user experience is suspect. The first question we need to ask ourselves is “do we need animation?” and if we decide the answer is yes, then we need to know where to begin to craft an effective animation experience.

Animation has become a strong way to telegraph intent to users and give personality to products. There’s an amazing world of principles to learn from and rich history to investigate that will shape your vernacular and purpose when working with animation. We’ll start with the beginning of animation usage and move into the foundations that lead to believable and useful animations. Then, we’ll get current and learn about how to implement UI/UX animations and the Web Animation API that leverages a more performant approach to dynamically animating UI.

There will be animation, code and friendship!

Claire Mallory

User Experience Specialist, Centralis

Claire Mallory is a User Experience Specialist at Centralis, where her endless curiosity, critical thinking, and deep listening skills make her a valuable asset on research and design projects. Claire has helped optimize the user experience for clients in the health care, consumer products, and non-profit sectors. Prior to joining Centralis, Claire was a Designer-in-Residence at Designation. She loves making pottery, gardening, and hanging out with cats. She hates running but does it anyway.

For more, keep up with Claire at clairemallory.com or on Twitter as @claire3mallory.

Don’t Fear the Recruit!

A solid recruit is essential for good research—UX cannot exist without research, and research requires participants. And yet, recruiting can seem like a daunting or insurmountable task. As the foundation of successful user research, recruitment deserves careful attention.

In this talk, we will focus on the many possible (and varied) ways to secure research participants. We’ll share the pros and cons of each approach, from scrappy DIY methods to outsourcing your recruit to the professionals. We will also discuss best practices for defining your target audience, writing a screener, and compensating participants. You will leave with an understanding of the tools and techniques necessary for a successful recruit, putting you in the best position to conduct successful UX research.

Colleen Pellissier

UX Researcher, Groupon

Colleen is passionate about collaboration, human-centered research, and a holistic approach to creating products. She’s currently a UX Researcher at Groupon; bringing a customer-focused lens to teams and initiatives across the organization with a fiery heart and quick wit. Colleen leans into her experience as a storyteller to inspire, educate, and communicate customer insights. After work hours, Colleen can be found wearing big headphones while moving bits of audio around to tell compelling stories for various audio projects.

For more, keep up with Colleen at colleenpellissier.design or on Twitter as @cr_pellissier.

Neil Jacobsen

UX Designer

Neil is a Chicago transplant working as a podcast producer as well as a teacher’s assistant and design mentor with Designation. He loves the design research process, talking to users, then bringing back ideas to them for testing. Neil moved to Chicago to learn the art of long-form improvisation at the Second City and iO theaters; he’s currently performing, coaching, and teaching around the city. He’s happy to facilitate a corporate improv workshop with anyone reading this. Literally, anyone. Neil loves to ride his bike and make furniture from reclaimed wood (aka garbage).

Colleen & Neil present:

Telling the Best Story All the Time, Every Single Time. Forever.

Storytelling tools and methods help throughout the design thinking process, while executing a UX practice, and sharing deliverables. How can we share design choices with clients or stakeholders? How did we arrive at the design decision we made?

You’ve done the work and now need engaging ways to frame or present your findings. Being able to tell a good story supports and enhances your presentations, deliverables, and meetings. We’ll also look different mediums used to tell your story, from verbal to visual and how to engage and effectively communicate with your audience.

By the end of this presentation, we aim to leave the attendee with actionable strategies to tell better stories, anecdotes to share over dinner, and a fierce desire to get around a campfire and tell a tale.

Dale Sande

Senior Design Technologist, Alaska Airlines

Dale Sande has worked as a Senior UX Engineer with companies like Getty Images, BestBuy, Microsoft, REI, AppDirect, and others. He currently leads UI development for the Orion Design System as a Senior Design Technologist with Alaska Airlines in Seattle. Dale continues to be involved in the front-end community, both locally and nationally. He and a colleague were the inspiration behind SassMeister, co-authored two books on Sass, appeared twice as a guest instructor with Treehouse and continues to write instructional tutorials.

In those rare moments when Dale can actually put the computer down, he enjoys spending time with this wife and two daughters biking, hiking and generally being outdoors in the Pacific North West.

For more, keep up with Dale at blog.anotheruiguy.com or on Twitter as @anotheruiguy.

Empowering Your UI Design Systems

It’s time to dispell these misconceptions about building design systems, their role, and issues with maintenance. This talk will also propose new ideas in the industry in regards to building a design system that is integrated into the production development workflow. After all, the more you can involve the whole team in a process, the more likely you will create a process that outlasts the members of the team.

This talk will cover conceptually what a design system is and how to best abstract UI elements from a design and apply to an application. Tools such as Fractal and Pattern Lab will be reviewed, while integration tools like styled components and React Styleguidist or Storybook will be discussed in detail for how to properly weaponize and maintain your UI across your whole team.

Fei Ren

UX Product Designer, Cappex

Fei is a UX designer and researcher at Cappex in the Chicago area. He likes to hear and share stories and tips regarding UX. Fei has worked with a variety of large companies, small businesses, startups, and non-profits within the user experience design and research field. Fei is strongly interested in learning and sharing about information architecture, user research methodologies, interaction design, and design process.

For more, keep up with Fei at feiren.me.

Understanding & Improving Information Architecture

Information architecture is the art and science of organizing information in the digital world. A lot of times, UX designers and researchers take the responsibility of understanding and improving information architecture of a product. However, it is tricky because users may categorize information differently. This presentation will cover the research methodologies, tools, and skills to study and refine information architecture. Also I will cover the common biases on IA research methodologies.

Jeff Eaton

Partner, Autogram

Jeff Eaton helps large organizations understand, model, and manage their content. For 25 years, heଁs tackled digital publishing, web development, and content strategy problems for organizations large and small.

Whether he’s fixing problems with CMS architecture or editorial workflow, his work sits in the overlap between design, communications, and technology. Today, heଁs a partner at Autogram, a strategic consultancy focused on the intersection of design systems and high-variance content.

For more, keep up with Jeff at angrylittletree.com or on Twitter as @eaton.

Hi, {{FIRSTNAME}}!

Personalization is hot: Whether you’re a designer, a developer, an information architect, or a marketer, you’ve probably had *someone* tell you your next project will need it. Beneath the products and the hype, though, there’s a tangle of complex assumptions and challenges that can make the difference between success and failure. In this session, Jeff will explain the basic conceptual building blocks shared by most personalization techniques; explore two projects that used those techniques in simple and complex ways; and give you a checklist of things to ask when your boss – or a salesperson – tells you Personalization Is What You Need.

Karmen Kaufmann

Lead Designer, Moment

Karmen is a Lead Designer at Moment where she helps clients envision, create, and evolve digital products through research and strategy.

For more, keep up with Karmen at karmenkaufmann.com.

How to Shut Up & Listen

When conducting research with users, designers are always thinking one step ahead. “Should I take them down that thought path? How much more time do I have? What’s the next question I should ask?”

Unfortunately, this is how most people have conversations in their daily life as well—completely one-sided, selfish, and focused on the next time they get to talk. That just doesn’t work when you’re trying to get genuine stories out of people.

Using the Constructivist Listening Dyad (a tool developed for educators), design researchers can uncover greater insights through listening, and not just thinking one step ahead to guide the conversation. By forcing yourself to remain silent and fully dedicate yourself to listening to your users, you will empower them to speak their truth. In the end you’ll have honest insights from your users that will guide your design.

In this session, participants (anyone from designers, researchers, and strategists) will walk away with a refreshed empathy for their research subjects, a new method to apply to their generative research, and refined skills in active listening.

Katie Swindler

User Experience Strategy Manager, Allstate

Katie leads the experience strategy for Allstate online marketing products including the Allstate.com quoting experiences and My Account. Originally educated as a theatre director, she brings a unique perspective to digital work. She believes if brands wish to truly connect with consumers they must combine emotion and utility, storytelling and technology to create experiences that go beyond satisfaction to delight. Prior to joining Allstate, Katie was a UX Director at FCB Chicago where she was the UX lead on the 2016 global redesign of JackDaniels.com as well as leading experience design for many other clients such as Cox Communications, and Toyota Financial Services.

For more, keep up with Katie at katieswindler.com.

Animation in UX: The Subconscious Influence of Motion

If you’re not leveraging interface animations to influence your users, you are missing a critical component of UX design. Like body language, motion design supplies a rich, often-subconscious layer of meaning and personality to every micro-interaction. Digital products can leverage the same techniques used by cartoon animators, actors and dancers to convey personality, improve comprehension and influence behavior through movement. Learn the right animation styles for your brand, users and product.