Design
Conference

August 24–26th — Chicago, IL

Speakers

We’re happy to welcome over twenty speakers to present on the industry’s latest technologies. Prepare for an inspiration extravaganza.

Adam Connor

LIGHTS! CAMERA! INTERACTION! DESIGN INSPIRATION FROM FILMMAKERS

Films succeed in evoking responses and engaging audiences only with a combination of well-written narrative and effective storytelling technique. It’s the filmmaker’s job to put this together. To do so they’ve developed processes, tools and techniques that allow them to focus attention, emphasize information, foreshadow and produce the many elements that together comprise a well-told story.

With this workshop, we’ll revisit the topic of using stories in design and expand on the technical aspects used in film to communicate. We’ll look at some tools used in film, such as cinematic patterns, beat sheets, and storyboards. We’ll consider why they’re used and how we might look to them for inspiration.

About Adam

Adam Connor is a designer, illustrator and speaker passionate about collaboration, communication, creativity and storytelling. As an Experience Design Director with Mad*Pow, Adam combines 10+ years of experience in interaction and experience design with a background in computer science, film, and animation to create effective and easy-to-use digital products and services. He believes that no matter how utilitarian a tool is, at the core of its creation lies a story; uncovering that story is key to its success. Occasionally, he shares his perspectives on design at adamconnor.com and discussingdesign.com.

Jennifer Jones

WHAT DESIGNERS CAN LEARN FROM PARENTING

That first client meeting may not feel as warm and fulfilling as the first time you hold your newborn child, but consider the similarities.

You know each other but have never met. As the relationship grows you will have to rely on your experiences and education to gently guide them while allowing flexibility for projects to change and evolve. It’s not your job to control everything, but if you are successful you will create a well-rounded piece that everyone involved can love.

ABOUT JENNIFER

Jennifer Jones is an event coordinator for the WebVisions Conference and also co-authors a blog with her teenage daughter. She and her family live in Portland, Oregon where she balances work, parenting and any other life challenge with honesty, humor and liquor.

Tessa Harmon

CRAFTY CODING: GENERATING KNITTING PATTERNS

Garment design doesn’t have to be intimidating. Learn the math behind knitting a sweater and program a fully customizable pattern generator in NodeJS. You will leave with your own unique pattern app to share with the world! Basic programming and knitting skills are recommended for this workshop.

ABOUT TESSA

Tessa Harmon is a full-stack web developer at Skookum Digital Works in Charlotte, North Carolina. JavaScript and Ruby are her favorite languages. She’s been knitting for nearly as long as she’s been programming and is surprised it took her this long to consider mixing the two.

Russ Unger

FROM MUPPETS TO MASTERY: CORE UX PRINCIPLES FROM MR. JIM HENSON

Jim Henson started working as a puppeteer in 1954, a fair 40-50 years before many of us even considered User Experience as a career. He did, however, take it upon himself to apply many of the core principles that UX Designers are falling love with today (or are at least using as part of our everyday lives). Hang out for a quick dive into the life of Jim Henson, with a view into his work from the perspective of how it pertains to what it is we’re doing today, that promises to even leave Waldorf and Statler happy.

ABOUT RUSS

Russ Unger is an Experience Design Director for GE Capital, Americas, where he leads teams and projects in design and research. He is co-author of the book A Project Guide to UX Design for New Riders (Voices That Matter). Russ is also working on a book on guerrilla design and research methods that is due out, well, sometime.

Russ is co-founder of ChicagoCamps, which hosts low-cost, high-value technology events in the Chicago area, and he is also on the Advisory Board for the Department of Web Design and Development at Harrington College of Design. Russ has two daughters who both draw better than he does and are currently beginning to surpass his limited abilities in coding.

Chris Mills

Heavy Metal Coding

In this unconventional talk, Chris Mills will encourage you to pick up some drum sticks in addition to your laptop, and beat out a rhythm of learning – both of code and drum beats! You’ll learn basic JavaScript and CSS, plus beginner’s heavy metal drum patterns. The two are a marriage made in heaven, as nothing is a better antidote to code frustration than beating seven shades of **** out of a drum kit.

About Chris

Chris Mills is a Senior Tech Writer at Mozilla, where he writes docs and demos about open web apps, Firefox OS and related subjects. He loves tinkering around with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and other web technologies, and gives occasional tech talks at conferences and universities.

Shay Howe

Less Is More: How Constraints Cultivate Growth

By setting constraints, we force ourselves to be more productive. They help us make decisions, creating focus around the problem we are trying to solve. They improve our consistency, which provides a better experience for our users. And they help us grow, a valuable asset in times of innovation.

About Shay

As a designer and front-end developer, Shay Howe has a passion for solving problems while building creative and intuitive products. Shay specializes in product design and interface development, specialties which he regularly writes and speaks about.