IDF Bengaluru Featured as first Flagship local group on September 2018 newsletter!!
With 454 Local Groups in 90 countries, members of IDF’s international design community hold meet-ups across the world to learn new skills, discuss real-world problems, and grow their networks.
We want to increase the way in which these communities are able to learn from and inspire one other. That’s why, moving forward, we’ll be sending out a monthly newsletter to show you what IDF Local Groups around the world have been up to.
From featuring the most exciting meet-ups to highlighting the people behind exemplary Local Groups, we’ll be showcasing inspirational stories that you can learn from and translate into your own local area.
First up…
Introducing Flagship Local Groups
Author/Copyright holder: pexels.com. Copyright terms and licence: CC0 Public Domain
The IDF is fortunate to have many exemplary Local Groups across the world, who constantly raise the bar of community engagement. In their respective cities, they have become the go-to communities for both aspirational and existing designers, and it’s only right that we start sharing the excellent work they are doing.
Every month, we’ll shine the spotlight on one such Flagship Local Group and highlight the Local Leaders, and other group members, who are working hard to bridge the gap between great design and their local community.
This month, the spotlight is on IDF Bengaluru.
Since Feb 2017, IDF Bengaluru has grown exponentially to become the largest IDF Local Group in the world. Since its first meet-up, members of IDF Bengaluru have become best friends, volunteers and regular contributors to the city’s UX community. In talks with Arun Kumar, Local Leader of IDF Bengaluru, we discover the secret behind the group’s success.
IDF Bengaluru’s secret sauce
Arun believes the key to IDF Bengaluru’s success lies in the variety of meet-ups they host, with leading experts and companies — including UX portfolio review sessions, a design sprint with Google, and a service design workshop with IBM iX.
Impact on the local UX community
Working hard to host high-quality UX meet-ups, while keeping them free to attend, has paid off for IDF Bengaluru; the Group sees 3 new members joining each day. “IDF Bengaluru’s events have become the first choice for meaningful engagement and knowledge building among Bengaluru’s UX community”, says Arun.
The future of IDF Bengaluru
“IDF Bengaluru strives to extend IDF’s vision to make design education affordable” says Arun, when asked about his vision for the Local Group. In the pipeline are exciting new activities, like studio tours, book exchanges and interviews with thought leaders. The group’s popular blog is also a key priority, with guest articles by UX experts lined up in the months ahead.
Interested in growing your own Local Group? Get in touch with Arun for some great tips and tricks!
Inspiring IDF meet-ups from around the world
IDF communities collectively organized 75 meet-ups in the last 2 months, connecting both online and offline for a range of UX and design-related agendas. Here, we take a look at some of the most interesting and innovative meet-ups held over this period.
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Design Thinking Workshop | IDF Barcelona
Organised by Esther Fuldauer, Natalia Heredia and Mariona Bassols
In a session led by LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator Enrique Conches, members of IDF Barcelona used LEGO’s trademark design thinking and problem solving approach to solve the challenge of improving UX in streaming platforms to generate more engagement.
Through the workshop, the group discovered many great insights about the challenge while working in teams. What’s more, they also had tons of fun working with LEGO kits and carrying out improvization exercises!
Superlative User Experience | IDF New Delhi
Organised by Parul Bhargava and Shlok Kumar Nikhil
In order to put concepts taught in IDF courses into practice, members of IDF New Delhi attended a fun workshop led by IDF member Monika Khanna, who held a session on Google’s Heart framework for UX. Attendees also learned about putting human-centric design into practice through a talk by Aditi Gupta, a digital product lead in one of India’s top media houses.
The interactive event was a great success, and some members travelled from cities 250 km away to participate, learn and apply their UX knowledge in the workshop.
Book Club and Conversations | IDF Atlanta
Organised by Gregory Fitzgerald Phillips
IDF Atlanta meets regularly for discussions on UX and UX-related publications. At this meet-up, they discussed “Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability” by Steve Krug. With many of IDF Atlanta’s members based in non-tech industries, the discussion was a great way to discover how universal the principles of UX and design-thinking are. The Group also had an impromptu real-world challenge when a member’s phone stopped working due to overheating, and they applied the book’s “common-sense approaches” to get it started again.
If you’re feeling inspired by these meet-ups, and want to create a similar one in your city, then feel free to reach out to the organizer(s) for first-hand suggestions and inputs. You can contact them by visiting their profile links above.
Leader in Focus
In conversation with Alexis Brantes, the Continent Manager of South America, we dive into the journey he’s had with IDF’s Local Groups since 2014.
What do you love about IDF’s Local Group initiative?
IDF’s Local Groups are an amazing way to help people achieve their dreams. We help to improve in-demand skills and build professional networks, and we even make friends in the process. At every Local Group meet-up, you can see fantastic UX designers sharing their journey in the field with the rest of the community. And the best part is that everyone is welcome — students, professionals, academia… the whole industry. With IDF Local Groups, we help improve the UX environment in cities and countries, and by extension, the quality of life in these communities.
What is your vision for IDF South America?
In South America, we have distinct local cultures that have created social barriers for generations of professionals. IDF Local Groups, however, have been a way for our communities to discover that we can work efficiently together, despite our cultural differences. We have more in common than we historically thought and, most importantly, we have a lot of valuable professionals that want to come together to help the UX industry flourish in their motherland.
My vision for IDF South America is to shape it into a community that introspects and draws lessons from our rich shared history as a region, and uses that knowledge for the greater good. To achieve our dream of being a developed region, we need united communities, accessible education, and a consolidated sense of purpose — which is what the IDF community can bring to the region.
What are some inspiring experiences you’ve had as IDF Continent Manager?
When I started at the IDF as a Global Design Ambassador, I was the first South American representing IDF on the global scale. It was an honor for me, and it also showed me that the opportunities to participate in a global design movement were not out of reach. I knew that IDF was already being used extensively by academic researchers and advanced designers, but my personal mission was to spread IDF’s resources as far as possible to help aspiring designers improve their careers, and lives.
When I took on the Local Groups initiative in 2014, I discovered how my fantastic team was committed to spreading knowledge and shared my vision for the UX community. Over the years it has been inspiring to discover how, every time we put our knowledge and experience in front of a large audience, we learn as much as the members participating in such initiatives. We unearth innovations, experiences, and lots of data-driven insights that we go on to use in the future.
I continue to remain inspired by IDF’s focus on connecting people and sharing experiences. IDF isn’t just an academic movement making courses and encyclopedias. We help to improve real skills, open horizons, and build communities.
Stay tuned for next month’s edition to discover the top meet-ups in September, as well as the Flagship Group of the month!
Not part of a Local Group? Join today and get connected with UX designers in your region. Through IDF Local Groups, you can attend a host of free workshops, and potentially meet your next employer, or employee!
About us
The Interaction Design Foundation is a 16-year old nonprofit community, founded in Denmark. Learn more about our mission to lower the cost of design education.
Connect with us!
Send us an email at hello@interaction-design.org or through our online contact form.
