mClinica attends UX+ 2019
Last August 24, 2019, the first ever UX+ Conference was held at the SMX Convention Center Aura. UX+, even just at its first iteration, was already hailed as Southeast Asia’s largest UX conference. Over 1,200 people attended the event and we were lucky enough to be able to send five of our own to join this wonderful learning experience.
The first speaker was Paolo Malabuyo, a UX Director at Google. Paolo talked about how design should be simple but that is what makes it complex, meaning that you have to tackle this complexity to arrive at the perfectly simple user-friendly design. He showed that user experience is not all about building beautiful User Interfaces and even though UX is mostly prevalent in the software engineering world, it most certainly is present in every kind of product or service out there. He specifically shared his experience with designing the dashboard for BMW cars, and it actually involved Physics. He also shared with us his UX toolset on which types of tools are appropriate for each metric that we wish to know about the users so that we may be able to truly give our users the best experience by using our product or service. He left us with three things to always remember
- Watch out for cognitive biases — especially your own
- Exercise empathy to see things from others’ point of view
- Nurture a growth mindset — always be hungry to learn
After Paolo’s talk, Google gave the hall a little surprise by raffling away Google shirts to lucky attendees.
The next person to speak was JP De Guzman from Frost. JP shared that it should be your goal to always keep your users delighted, and that is as simple as keeping your service usable. Simple, but also requires a lot of hard work. Also, it is not enough to just create a beautiful design and just stick with it throughout the lifetime of the application — When things get too comfortable, we start to take things for granted — always improve and be consistent in giving users a great experience.
The next speaker after JP was supposed to be Denise Haak from Quiddity but unfortunately, she was not able to attend the conference due to some health issues. After a short break and networking session, the conference proceeded with the panel discussion
Panel Discussion — Paolo Malabuyo (Google), Angela Obias-Tuban (Metrobank), Ely Apa (JG Summit)
The panel was graced by Paolo, Angela and Ely — people with varying expertise in UX, and with the help of the moderators, Alexis Collado and Christian San Jose, we were able to hear about the work lives of these UX designers. Among the topics that were talked about were their own maturity in design and how even before the term UX was coined it was already present and being practiced; emphasis on user experience has just been of utmost importance in these days. They also discussed about their ideal design team and what the designer mindset should be. The key take-away from the panel discussion is that the mere act of showing up everyday and do what you’re supposed to do will get you to places.
The next person to speak after the panel discussion was Sean Gill of Nudgenomics. Sean’s talk strayed away from the technical side of UX and focused more on Psychology and the general human behavior. He shared that human behavior is a function of our motivation and ability to keep performing a task and also, of course, the physical and social availability of the resources needed to follow through. Since apps and services are now part of the daily lives of users, studying the Psychology behind why users keep using the same app can help us designers and engineers keep them happy while availing of our services.
After Sean was Eleanor Harding, a product manager from Twitter. Eleanor shared about the numerous unexpected changes her career had gone through which ultimately led her to finding what she’s meant to do. She emphasized the importance of meeting lots of people in the software engineering world by participating in hackathons and going to meetups because the small connections you build in there can come a long way. Networking is an extremely important part in surviving the IT world and it is really important to be with a team that can help you achieve your personal and career goals.
The second to the last speaker was Benjamin Hersh of Dropbox. Benjamin talked about the importance of your product’s voice. You, as the designer, should be a friend to your users and this can be manifested in simply the choice of words that you use in the interface, the typeface and design language. The goal is, when your users are using your app or service, it is as if you are beside them talking to them, guiding them and helping them have a delightful time using your application. Be clear, be a friend and be expressive.
The last speaker of the conference was Jay Demetillo from Grab. He spearheaded the redesign of the popular food delivery service, GrabFood. Jay told us that different cultures come into play when designing. Aside from the technical details like how there are different currencies and languages for almost for each country, you have to consider what behavior each group practices to be able to tailor the experience for them; you, as the designer, need to put yourself in their shoes and know about their every day life. He also said that as much as metrics are important, it is also invaluable to immerse yourself in the environment of your prospective users.
The whole conference concluded with Jay’s talk, and with the success of this first UX+ Conference, it seems highly likely and UX+ 2020 is already greenlit.
Looking for a career opportunity? Our company is still hiring for Developers and Quality Assurance Engineers at our office in Taguig, Philippines. View more of our vacant positions here. Referrals are appreciated!
Or if you’re looking for event sponsors, our organization may be available! We’ve already hosted Women Who Code Manila, Swift Philippines, Manila JavaScript, QE-360, Product Philippines, and Programmers Developers. Email us here.
