Talk given by leading software professional Dorothy M Danforth of Danforth Media to the Philadelphia New Technology Community on 12/19/2014.
Every entrepreneur wants to see his or her vision become a huge overnight success. But, there can be a heavy price for moving too far, too fast. How big, and how quickly you can grow and still produce a successful company will depend on many things. In her talk, Dorothy shares stories from her experience working with high growth Silicon Valley startups, and later as a product strategy consultant. She explores how to “grow well,” offering ideas to help you define a pace and scale that will support a healthy, sustainable outcome.
Seminar by Dorothy M. Danforth for the IEEE Computer Society Leading Professional Seminar Series. – 30 minutes
It’s a common scenario: A company is planning a new product or significant redesign. There have been various discussions about how the product should have a “great user experience” and “focus on the user.” But, there are also conflicting ideas on what a great experience might entail, along with competing priorities for what the product absolutely must do to be successful in the marketplace.
Where to begin? How do you break through the confusion and move towards a clarified product vision? Whether a large established corporation or lean start-up, organizations struggle with progressing from early ideation into clear requirements and a tangible design phase. This webinar will explore ways to leverage user experience design methods in the very early stages of the product life cycle.
This session covers the following:
An overview of practical user research and design planning methods useful for early stage products and redesigns
Strategies for leveraging these methods to refine a product’s vision and ensure features are tied to user goals
Examples of how keeping a focused eye on user needs can help resolve conflicting priorities and promote product team alignment
User Experience Design (UX) is a hot term in software these days, but as a relatively new and evolving field there has been confusion as to what this discipline entails and how it relates to other design practices. In this talk, Dorothy will provide an overview of current user experience design and research best practices, touch on how these methods have evolved in recent years, and discuss what many practitioners believe to be core philosophies behind “User Experience Design” as an approach to software design. In addition, Dorothy will walk through a software product lifecycle using case study examples to illustrate how common UX methods can be leveraged to improve a product. The presentation will be followed by an open discussion about where User Experience Design methods parallel or counter other human factors and ergonomics practices.
Takeaways – Participants will walk away with a clear understanding of User Experience Design as a practice, an overview of current methods, and insight into how these practices might relate to broader human factors and ergonomics approaches.
User Experience professionals are commonly called upon to fix a problematic design or help drive product enhancements. There is a wealth of research methods to help assess the success of an existing interface. But what about the early phases of a new product or concept? Do these same methods still apply? How can you best tailor your approach to gather useful input when your product and/or company are still in the formative stages?
For this presentation, Dorothy M. Danforth will discuss various low overhead, high-impact research methods available to Web Designers and UX professionals when creating new products, scenarios for when and how to use these methods, as well as general insights on how to get the most out of early stage R&D processes. Some illustrative examples and ideas from past product-concept research efforts will be provided.