Interaction Week 18 journal
I recently had the chance to go to Interaction Week 18 in Lyon, organized by the Interaction Design Association or IxDA. From the things I learned, to the people I crossed paths with, at Interaction18, I realized that in the end, it is all about human interaction.
—Interaction Week 18 has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my career.
For this year’s Interaction Week 18 “reflected on how technology and design are shaping the world moving forward by building bridges across cultures, disciplines, and industries to reach shared goals”.
Interaction Week 18 is divided into many events: Workshops, Keynotes and Talks (sessions) that conform the Interaction Conference, but it also contains the Local Leaders Retreat, IxDA Board Retreat, and the initiatives: Education Summit, Interaction Awards and the Student Design Challenge.
Although I didn’t go to the Interaction Design Education Summit, I went to the Local Leaders Retreat, I took a full-day workshop and attended the 3-day conference, so I almost had the full experience. Below you’ll find a journal of Interaction Week 18 with a short description and my takeaway notes.
Day Zero, Travel
After a long 26 hour trip that included three delayed flights, I landed in beautiful Lyon, France. When I was about to leave the plane, the person who was sitting next to me, asked: “are you going to Interaction18?” — yes! And just like that, I started a friendship with Tin Kadoic.
Then I went to an Airbnb close to the Interaction Week 18 conference venue and grab some delicious local food.
Day One, Becoming an IxDA leader
The Local Leaders Retreat is a full-day meeting to talk about the future of the IxDA and all the local chapters. I joined the Local Leaders Retreat on Sunday, February 4th, 2018, to hear more about becoming a local leader, and I was warmly welcomed as the new local leader for Medellín, Colombia.
We reviewed what every chapter has been doing, their success stories and what can be improved. We had some interesting workshops and I could see first hand, the great team behind the IxDA and the strong bond they have, how passionate and how truly engaged they are. My previous experience in Vancouver as VP of Communications for the Graphic Designers of Canada made me realize the importance of giving back to the community, the amazing people you get to know and the many things you learn and this was my main motivation to become a local leader.
Takeaway
Being part of a community as a Local Leader or Volunteer pays off in many different ways, obviously don’t expect it to be jobs or money but at the end, all that experience and networking build can pay off. But again, you’re not part of the community because of that kind of return, you’re part of a community because of human interactions.
Day Two, Workshop
I choose “How to (Build and) test conversational / spoken UIs” from a long list of great workshops.
My intention was to learn everything I could in a hands-on workshop and Stacey Seronick didn’t disappoint. The workshop started with everyone’s introduction and then it moved to the main lecture “Creating for speaking/listening, not for typing/reading”.
The rest of the day went like this:
- Group activity: Given a scenario, brainstorm and write down the major conversation components and cluster as needed
- Break
- Breakout Group activity: In small groups, start trying to have this conversation — one person is the UI, 1 is the user, 1+ is the note-taker
- Group Activity: Regroup on what was observed, learned, worked, and didn’t
- Lecture: Intro to Tools; Mural and Twine
- Break
- Lecture — how to test prototyped conversations
- Breakout Group activity — test your conversation many times
- Breakout Group activity — iterate your conversation
- Breakout Group activity — put your revised conversations into Twine
- Break
- Lecture — how to test conversations in Twine
- Breakout group activity — game plan for a lo-fi robot prototype
- Breakout group activity — test Twine conversations
- Break
- Breakout group activity — iterate conversations
- Group activity — regroup, share, questions
Takeaway
It was a perfect balance between lectures and group activities. Stacey was super experienced and she never over complicated things, she also had a great sense of humour and was easy to talk with. From what I heard everybody seemed to enjoy the workshop and with the group I worked with, everyone liked it and said they learned valuable skills at the end of the day: keep on designing, prototyping, testing & iterate, and start as many times needed.
Opening Party
The Opening Party was held at the Musée des Confluences, at the Crystal Space and this was definitely a perfect venue for a party. The food was delicious and the wine too: you could see the excitement and expectation for next day’s conference was high. Eduardo Aguayo, Latin America’s Regional Coordinator, introduced me to a lot of people and I had a chance to talk with other local leaders that I couldn’t talk with earlier, at the Local Leaders Retreat.
Takeaway
Delicious food, drinks and networking, equals fun.
Day Three, Conference: Micro — The details that matter
Conference Venue
The main venue is an old and beautiful sugar warehouse used for exhibits, concerts and other events. The venue had a great layout, was spacious and my only complaint is that it was confusing to get to the top floor. The food was delicious and apart from a little incident with stocking water to the snack bars, the catering was really good. The mezzanine had sponsors and some big tech companies were present giving nice goodies and wanting to talk with you (or recruit).
Talks
Even though, I’m interested in ethics and I believe in the importance of designers practicing good and ethical principles, I choose talks where I could learn more tangible knowledge, so I could transfer it to my team an local community.
Also, I can only talk about those keynotes and sessions I went to, but I heard from others that the quality and the content of the conference was more than great and everybody was satisfied.
Keynote, The Oppenheimer Moment by Alan Cooper
The description for this keynote in the Interaction 18 site says: “Everyone knows that technology products should not be evil. The problem is that few people know how to make that happen. Alan Cooper is addressing this challenge the same way he tackled interaction design a quarter of a century ago. In this provocative talk he will present the results of his most recent groundbreaking work.” — I could say it was exactly that…
Takeaway
This was an eye-opening moment, not because I didn’t know about the “Don’t be evil” principle, which was dropped by Google a couple of years ago. It’s not that I don’t believe in being a good citizen or having ethics about creating products and services today, it was more because I was impressed about how Alan Cooper had come with a plan; we’ll see in the not so distant future how this plan comes to fruition, but I think he’s being a pioneer with his ideas and he’s taking actions. Maybe Alan Cooper should meet Tristan Harris if he hasn’t already.
From blank page to world stage by Cheryl Platz
“Take a groundbreaking NUI-enabled product from concept to reality while keeping your customer at the center of it all.”
Takeaway
I really enjoyed Cheryl’s talk. I found her talk to be kind of “meta”: a story about her process to build and design a product using storytelling. She is a very experienced and avid storyteller.
Design versioning — Perspectives on situated design by Pauline Gourlet & Louis Eveillard
“How to design with a developmental mindset? We present a situated approach to design that weaves human development with product development to foster meaningful and embodied social transformations.”
Takeaway
A very interesting approach to designing and the process of learning through an iterative process using the “developmental mindset”.
Words and sounds for a thoughtful home by Jennifer Bush & Steven Clark
“Learn from Nest’s lead writer and audio designer how audio, voice and writing come together to create thoughtful, delightful products for your home.”
Takeaway
Great talk about the process to get Nest to its present state. Interesting how, with the effort to maintain its brand, the core message is felt on the service the specific product provides, that is in a good way.
Talking with machines? — Voice UI and conversation design by Stuart Reeves
“Is talking with Amazon Echo really much like an actual conversation? I’ll use audio recordings of Echo actual use in the home to explore just how people ‘talk’ with machines.”
Takeaway
An incredible research about the real way people talk and interact with machines, in this case, the Amazon Echo. The transcriptions are funny and give a perspective in what kind of environments VUIs should be tested if we ever want to have real functional conversational UI’s.
Embracing friction by Zoltan Kollin
“What if I told you that friction is not necessarily a bad thing? What if I told you it may be an efficient experience design tool?”
Takeaway
In his talk, Zoltan walked us through examples and referenced case studies on how to know when to break the rules of UX to actually create friction so the user gets the appropriate output or result.
Keynote, Make things Unknown by Kenya Hara
“The ideas of “emptiness” and “ex-formation” are starting points for describing the design methodology that has inspired me in recent years.”
Takeaway
What can you say about Kenya Hara’s talk apart than it was beautiful?
Well. it was inspirational and it made me think about the difference between emptiness and simplicity, and the value of making things unknown again. I think the importance of going deep into the meaning of what we produce as designers hasn’t been studied much. How humans interact with objects and digital products in a ritualistic and ceremonial behaviour on a day to day basis today, whether you are religious or not, has been definitely overlooked. Yes, there’s literature about it but not much (if you have a list of books about this subject, I’ll be delighted if you can share it in the comments)—this is only a point of view from my lack of knowledge in anthropology.
Day Four, Conference: Systemic transformations
Keynote, from the Minitel to the Nabaztag — Lessons from French design icons by Nicolas Nova
“Why do you think there’s a Google project called Jacquard?”
Takeaway
This was a great talk, I really liked the way Nicolas Nova linked products and objects of the past with the present, and why you should know about history to learn how to improve and innovate. He states at the end of his talk — “History doesn’t repeat itself but often rhymes” As Mark Twain (may have) said.
Design to Ignite — Design sprints for transformation at scale by Tomomi Sasaki & Milan Guenther
“Push the limits of #ixd by embracing systems #complexity and going after rapid #transformation with #designsprint”
Takeaway
“Enterprise Design Sprint Flavours”: I always thought that sprints should never have the same approach, but now it does makes a lot of sense to categorize the sprints in four “flavours”.
- Engagement Sprint: to onboard people and drive collaboration
- Strategy Sprint: to align and devise a direction
- Experimentation Sprint: to generate and validate new solutions
- Realization Sprint: to develop a shared roadmap
You’re not a designer, you’re a coach by Katja Forbes
“Multidisciplinary team members are all using the tools of design means you aren’t just a designer, you’ve got to be a great coach too!”
Takeaway
An inspiring talk about being committed and truly altruistic to your profession and why you should coach others. Coaching is not teaching and preaching design, and it is definitely not mentoring. Coaching is about building people’s confidence in order for them to have the ability to find the answer they need on their own. Coaching benefits everyone.
35 million dollars in 30 seconds — Designing a cryptocurrency by Jonathan Lewis
“The role of design in creating cryptocurrencies and blockchain enabled products/services.”
Takeaway
Jonathan Lewis’ talk raised some important questions about the role of design and why not everything could and should be turned into blockchain. He talked about Fundraising Platforms using Blockchain, Network Activation, Distribution and Tokenization Ethics.
At the end of the talk he presented the core questions creating a cryptocurrency:
- What does it look to fundraise with responsibility?
- How do you get tokens into the hands of people who want to participate and not to speculate?
- What redistributive mechanisms we should consider?
- How will attaching an interaction to crypto transactions change that experience?
He closes his talk with “money doesn’t lie”.
Beyond banks by Marco Pesani
“Cryptocurrencies are here to stay. How to help people with the transition from traditional services to a new financial paradigm?”
Takeaway
As Marco stated — each “crypto” has a unique value proposition. And this translates in why your product should look and behave differently from other apps and services based in blockchain.
A Pattern Library for Teamwork by Hertje Brodersen
“Hacking destructive collaboration patterns at work”
Takeaway
Hertje Brodersen’s was a great talk. With tools we already use in our industry, we can apply known techniques to the sometimes dysfunctional teams we work with. And with humour and wit, we can identify those patterns in our daily office dynamics.
Keynote, Innovating technology for a diverse world by Haiyan Zhang
“Technology can be an empowering or alienating force, bringing us new forms of expression and connection, or creating new barriers to use. How can we leverage technology to create a diverse future for all?”
Takeaway
A great and inspiring keynote, starting with the quote “A single act of design is also an action to change the world”, going through “As designers we constantly tell and re-tell ourselves stories about the future and through designing that future we make it real”, and finishing with “What if we empower everyone to solve the big challenges of the world”
Day Five, Conference: Macro — Identity and vision
Keynote, More-Than-Human Centred Design by Anab Jain
“Is our modern belief in progress a false religion? The promise of relentless growth appears to move us forward, but at what cost? At a time when anxiety is fuelled by the loss of jobs, automation, fake news, lack of trust, climate change, extreme weather events, political upheaval and conflict — what meaningful role can designers play?”
Takeaway
Exploring, doing, making, caring, imagining, sharing, creating, etc, and how we should implement those in a more-than-human-centered approach taking into account other species and an unknown future.
Anticipatory design — Create smart, delightful user experiences by Yogesh Moorjani
“Learn how to create smart, simple & delightful user experiences with Anticipatory Design.”
Takeaway
Anticipatory design can create delightful experiences and how Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are now available to power these experiences.
Yogesh Moorjani’s answers to the most common behavioral concepts:
- The principle of least effort
- The feeling of being understood
- The desire to feel important
- Surprise amplifies experience
This was a great talk and you can find more about Anticipatory design here
Last but not least, see the photo below:
(Im)perfect futures — The hidden ethics of tomorrow’s products by Daniel Goddemeyer
“Today’s emerging technologies will affect our lives at an unprecedented scale. Besides their promised benefits, they will come with lots of (unintended) consequences.”
Takeaway
It’s almost impossible to foresee problems that will directly affect people when we, as designers create new products, interfaces or technologies. So more than being our duty, we need to think deeper and explore all the possible scenarios. This is to avoid affecting minorities or users that were not considered to be important or culturally different users.
Daniel Goddemeyer finishes with the quote “If we are the ones who interface these technologies to the user making them as magic as we can, do we have to care about their underlying ethics? — I’m pretty sure we should.”
Good intentions are not enough…
Where innovations go to die, and how to avoid it by Franco Papeschi
“There are many traps along the path of a team set to launch an innovative product or services. What can we do — as design practitioners and leaders — to avoid them? How can we set the conditions for success?”
Takeaway
This was a very insightful talk about innovation and the difficulties for real innovation, especially with the “Four Traps of Innovation”:
1. Accept the problem space as given
2. Neglect tech breakthroughs
3. Design the Product, ignore the business
4. Innovate in isolation
Don’t engage in assumptions and broaden your perspective through user research, also include tech in your research and commit to your important role in the boardroom (if it happens to be that you do have a role in the whole process).
Thinking critically about design and criticism by Khoi Vinh
“Thoughtful criticism of the work that designers do is limiting us on many levels.”
Takeaway
I saw Khoi Vinh at the DesignThinkers Conference in Toronto in 2010 and he was already one of my favorite designers. After the conference, I followed his work and he became my favorite designer. I was expecting a more inspirational talk combined with a down-to-earth critical thinking about design but it was fascinating (for me) to see a more mature Khoi, worrying about the future of our profession and finally stating “The root cause of this problem is the poor state of design’s critical discourse”. He then said the most revealing thing I heard at Interaction 18:
“Practicing and writing about the same art form is a conflict of interest. Independence is essential for worthwhile writing and criticism.”
So why don’t we have real design critics that are actually non-designers or don’t work as designers? This has to change.
…And yes, it is all Khoi Vinh’s fault. From now on, I can blame everything on him.
Can being African make you bad at design? — Cultural bias in design by farai madzima
“Can cultural background make it difficult to be effective at human-centered design?”
Takeaway
I felt Farai Madzima was talking to me, and we were having a conversation over drinks and listening to Jazz (I would really like to do that). I have lived through many of his examples multiple times and from both ends, and I’m not even from a very different culture or non-western culture. Cultural bias is omnipresent anywhere I have worked: Medellín, New York, Montreal, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Toronto and now back in Medellín I see it all the time. Apart from making more inclusive products and pretending your company is inclusive, just be inclusive and take a minute to realize that people come from different background, cultures, upbringing, speak different languages and live different lives: this makes human interaction rich but also complex.
And as Miles Davis said:
“Take your sh*t from home, put that with the sh*t you’ve learned here. That’s gonna be a muthaf*cka.”
Design ethics and systems change by Leyla Acaroglu
“As we enter into more interconnected and complex times, how do we leverage our influence as designers for activating systems change?”
Takeaway
Entertaining talk about design and how can we change the world and our society. Although it is a serious theme, she approached it lightly with great examples and encourage us, designers, to change and empower others to aim for change.
Great quotes by Leyla Acaroglu: “The power of failing well is a superpower” and “It’s pretty easy to misdirect humans”
Conclusion
Go to conferences, choose good ones, be part of a community like IxDA, and start planning for Interaction Week 19 in Seattle in February 2019.
Note: All photos are taken by me. If you need or want any photos, don’t hesitate to ask me.
— Very special thanks to my editor, Merriah Lamb.
