Speaking at Future in Five

I was humbled that someone wanted to hear the words that came out of my mouth about designing exceptional user experiences through strategy.

WHAT:

Future in Five, a series of short presentations on design, followed by a group panel. Presented by IDSA.

WHEN:

Thursday

July 25th, 2013

7:00 p.m.

WHERE:

People of Resource

828 Ralph McGill Boulevard

Unit W6

I delivered a quick speech about how I believe the future of design is based heavily on collaboration and is moving away from traditional design schools as we move into an area of increasingly rapid deployment and a need to adopt new technologies.

Design foundations exist to be sure, but to adapt and remain agile, peer events like Future in Five serve as low-cost, accessible and inspirational platforms to promote and distribute critical discussions about design thinking and to share information about new trends and methodologies.

Meetups, Creative Mornings, peer-led seminars (especially low-cost or free seminars) break down barriers to entry for design students interested in breaking into the field, and I shared my personal anecdote about how I – a relatively young woman with two degrees in English – am now working at a Fortune 30 company as an experience architect because of the opportunities, mentorship and insights I’ve received through these events.

I concluded by saying that we owe it to our community to advance great design by fostering that sense of curiosity in others, and to not pull the ladder up behind us or to lock our knowledge behind firewalls or password-protected sites or in-house style guides, but to share, share and share some more and engage in meaningful criticism and discourse.

Note: Can we also please pause and notice how everyone there looks we’re auditioning for a GAP advertisement? I too was wearing a chambray shirt.