Event One Recap.

FutureYouX kicked off their maiden event in the Mother City, with learnings from an all female UX’pert panel, in an environment catered towards intentional growth, fostered by discussion, networking and innovation.

With the growing need for user-centric experiences for consumers across all industries, there is a parallel need for an environment capable of stimulating knowledge sharing and open conversation amongst its specialists, to bring about growth and innovation for the digital sector as a whole.

FutureYouX, one of Cape Town’s budding innovation hubs, seems to do just that; between thought-leaders and thought-provokers, it’s clear that the event is starting to gather a community of problem solvers who are keen to interrogate all things business, tech, and design, together.

In collaboration with key sponsors, MakeReign and Beau Constantia, the event took place at the vibrant Workshop17 at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, on the 3rd of November 2022. Collaboration was the theme of the day, and it showed from start to finish.

Listening, engaging and sharing with others in the industry is a hugely beneficial contributor to growth and development. Steven Johnson, science author and media theorist, succinctly highlighted that;

“If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect.’’

This is what FutureYouX is all about; bringing specialists together to share experiences and learnings, connecting both ideas and people in the industry and in turn, creating an intentional space for discussion, networking, innovation and insight. This type of an environment not only encourages both personal and professional growth within the digital landscape in which we all co-exist, but subsequently inspires it too.

THE EXPERTS

It’s clear that the assortment of powerhouse speakers and their associated topics proved to set the bar for events to come.

• Speaker 1: The Role of Research in UX with Marne Coetzee
• Speaker 2: Design Career Paths with Jacqueline Fouche
• Speaker 3: The Value of Design in Business with Natalie de Canha

THE ROLE OF RESEARCH IN UX with MARNE COETZEE

Marne Coetzee (Head of UX at “The Delta”) started the evening with her discussion on The Role of User Research in UX, highlighting how research ultimately guides and maintains the efficiency of the design process and final deliverables.

By starting with the two elements that constitute the field of User-Experience, namely UX Research and UX Design, and deep diving into the product life cycle and its various stages, Marne set a foundational precedent on top of which she illustrated the importance of integrating research into the design process. This process allows specialists to optimise the experience they want to create, and ensure that business objectives and end-users’ needs of a product are both cohesive and sustainable.

What stood out from Marne’s breakdown was that UX acts as the scale that places research on one side and design on the other, and that the product life cycle is most effective when both research and design are balanced. However, this is not always the case. Design often plays a bigger role in the process than research and the unbalanced weight of this scale could be critical to the success of a product.

Sidelining user research in a project increases the chances of a designer finding themselves towards the end of a product life cycle with a deliverable that might not meet the actual needs of the users or may fall short at specific stages in the desired user journeys that have been intentionally integrated into the platform. This is detrimental to not only the designer’s time, capacity and resources, but also those of the client. It is notably cheaper to fix problems on paper, at the beginning of the process, than it is towards the end of the process, when systems have been put into place and expectations are looming in the background.

Luckily, user research has the ability to mitigate these issues, but only if used intentionally and frequently throughout the life cycle of a product or service.

As Marne says; “Check yourself before you wreck your product”.

DESIGN CAREER PATHS with JACQUELINE FOUCHE

Jacqueline Fouche, took to the podium as the second speaker. Having previously worked as the head of UX at Superbalist, and the head of design at Standard Bank, Jax has accumulated a wealth of knowledge that enables her to coach designers, upskill design leaders, and educate executive teams on how to use design as a strategic differentiator. Her chat was focussed on Design Career Paths in the field of UX and how one can “level up” — an important conversation for all specialists in our industry.

The digital design realm is an ever-changing discipline, and UX itself is a cross-collaborative field. So when it comes to identifying yourself as a UX designer, it can become difficult to explain exactly what that means, simply due to the nature of the field.

Innovation and design go hand in hand, and it seems that there is no set prescription as to how you go about doing either. However, identifying what currently exists is part of what UX is about. Taking time to identify and compare what works and what doesn’t work in a current state audit, unearths areas of improvement in whichever environment they might exist. This is what ultimately opens the door to innovation and is exactly what Jax has done. Through her career framework, she encourages designers to identify and compare what does and does not work for them, and in turn, lead them to identify the opportunities in which they can innovate, in both a personal and professional capacity.

When asked what her biggest insight was throughout her process of creating this framework, she replied by saying;

“I don’t think designers have enough time to think about their future and I want to help them with that. And we also need designers to level up fast because there is a huge need for people like us.”

If the future comes from learning and innovation comes from applying those learnings, then learning becomes the benchmark. This means that if one wants to innovate as a designer, one has to innovate as an individual first. Learning can be a collaborative process. However, at the end of the day, the effectiveness of learning comes from the individual with the initiative and desire to do so, and doing so requires self-evaluation. This is where a beginner’s mindset, regardless of your qualifications and experience, is the most effective characteristic trait.

NATALIE DE CANHA and THE VALUE OF DESIGN IN BUSINESS

Natalie de Canha (Creative Group Head at MakeReign) ended the evening with her discussion on The Value of Design in Business and how the application of UX design resulted in the success of a newly integrated, existing online South African platform.

When it comes to creating meaningful design, it is necessary to understand the value that the design will bring to both the business you are designing for and their end-users. Integrating an authentic value proposition for both parties in a seamless and intentional way, ultimately leads to the sustainability of the product.

The main purpose of design is to provide solutions to problems users may or may not know they already have and create an experience that synonymously decreases friction for users and translates value for businesses.

Building on Jax’s insight of the ever-changing nature of design specialisations, Nats highlighted that the field of technology and design is but one of the malleable sub-environments in which we operate. Life itself is an evolving concept and reflecting on the recent pandemic, it is evident that the volatility of life constantly creates new problems that need new solutions.

One of the “problems” that designers are constantly required to solve is that of “good design”. As designers evolve to accommodate these versatile environments, the subconscious expectations that user’s have for digital products increases as a subsequent result of that. Good design is no longer good enough. Good design is invisible. Great design today will eventually become good design tomorrow and the cycle will continue. This is where design thinking, that leads to innovative ideas, comes into play.

Taking the theoretical foundation that she succinctly laid out, Nats then showcased the application of that theory on the work done for one of South Africa’s most premium retail e-commerce brands — Woolworths. By walking through integration of the Dash App with the Woolworths app, executed against a balanced research and design process, there was a distinct appreciation from the audience for the tangible and successful outcome of the integration — an outcome that every specialist knows is not a frequent occurrence.

THE EVENT AS A WHOLE

Any digital expert knows that there are ample components involved in creating a good experience, so attending an event catered for the disciplines in which you work means that it’s only natural to be drawn to the nuances of the dynamics of your field that you understand, and intrigued by the way that those are perceived by others.

From the onset of the evening, guests were greeted with goodie bags, name tags and friendly faces. The effortlessness of the structure, setup and socialisation at the event, as well as the active interaction and engagement of the audience with the speakers, helped foster the inclusive and intentional environment that FutureYouX stands for — an environment where all thoughts, ideas and concerns are welcome.

Much like watching a Hollywood movie and being able to foresee what’s going to happen next, events like these are often predictable with the unspoken expectation for people to behave a certain way. This is how specialists events often feel, a preconception that can be intimidating.

However, having incorporated playfulness in the form of spot prizes from stickers on chairs, and jokes from the audience to the speakers, the “adults in the room” were encouraged to immerse themselves and engage with what the experience was offering them — community, authenticity and validation.

It would be remiss not to mention the sponsorships of merchandise from MakeReign and wine from Beau Constantia that really elevated the atmosphere of the event from start to finish.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The primary goal of a specialist is to simplify a journey in such a way that both experienced and inexperienced users are able to enjoy and engage with what’s on offer. Reflecting on the first FutureYouX event as a whole, this concept was evident in the lineup of speakers and the order of their respective topics.

Marne Coetzee opened the floor by outlining the building blocks that form the basis of UX design, as well as the importance of user research within the design process. This made Jacqueline Fouche’s framework of UX specialisations all the more comprehensible to the people in the room. By unearthing a framework that has never existed before, Jax built on Marne’s foundation, making way for Natalie de Canha to show how those learnings can be applied in a real-life example and exactly how it derives value for a business, ultimately emphasising the value of design in business.

Contextually mimicking the design process in this way creates an inclusive space for both existing and aspiring specialists across any discipline to engage with and learn from.

There is no doubt that collaboration, discussion and networking act as an incubator for change-makers within any industry. The assortment of specialists within the digital disciplines know how to execute against the sweet spot between intention and action, and this is what makes the philosophy behind the growing FutureYouX community so powerful. Innovation has no limitations — especially when you create a space for it to grow.

MakeReign helps connect brands with consumers through digital interfaces. Combining research, data, user-centered design and testing with real customers, they create interfaces and experiences that reach millions — transforming business and delivering growth for their clients.

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