April 2023: Structured Activities To Solicit Ideas

March 2023: Fostering a customer centric culture at your organization

Is your organization struggling to break silos and embrace customer centricity? Do you often find your research insights collecting dust in digital folders? Join me to learn how you can systematically share customer insights in a fun, inclusive, and engaging event across your organization to empower teams to make more informed and customer-centric decisions that deliver integrated and delightful experiences.

About Mariné Palamutyan

Mariné Palamutyan is a UX Research Manager at DocuSign responsible for a team of UX researchers who deliver insights to inform and influence product strategy for core application experiences and Product Led Growth.
Prior to joining DocuSign, Mariné spent nearly 12 years in the financial services industry, most recently as a VP, Lead UX Researcher at Union Bank (acquired by US Bank) and a VP, Sr. UX Researcher at Wells Fargo where she led research for various digital transformation initiatives.

Please register for this free event

Thursday March 16, 2023
12:00pm ET
Live streamed to wherever you are!

February 2023: Discussing Deep Listening, with author Indi Young

Product design strategy often seeks to change a person’s buying decisions or to manipulate a person’s behavior. Such a product-focused mindset has driven our organizations into a corner. Even when product design teams want to benefit a person, they discover how they’ve harmed them instead by not recognizing their thinking and approaches.

Luckily, organizations don’t actually function by a set of rigid laws; business, education, government, and science are all based around people.

Deep listening lets your team understand what it couldn’t recognize before. The patterns and knowledge that result from deep listening are used to support someone in accomplishing their purpose in a way that matches their way of thinking better.

Join us as we chat with Indi Young about her new book “Time To Listen: How Giving People Time To Speak Drives Invention and Inclusion”.

Note that this event is on a Wednesday this month.

Please register for this free event

Wednesday February 15, 2023
12:00pm ET
Live streamed to wherever you are!

December 2022: UX Resource Show And Tell

Are you looking for a gift for a fellow UXer, or a last minute addition to your own wish list? Maybe you are just curious about the UX books that people have been reading lately. December’s uxWaterloo will be a UX resource show and tell. We will be discussing the books and resources that we have found particularly great lately.

Bring your own recommendations and reviews to share with the group, or join just to hear others’ recommendations.

Please register for this free event

December 15, 2022
12:00pm ET
Live streamed to wherever you are!

July 2022: Let’s talk about problems

Problems are everywhere and range in significance, scale, and impact. For most people in their day-to-day, problems are to be avoided. For those who find themselves in User Experience (and storm chasing), we seek
them. Time and again in the process of defining the work, starting with a well-defined problem is a reoccurring requirement to inspire action.

For those unfamiliar with starting with a problem, this pursuit can feel unnatural and even scary (like driving toward a tornado). This is a culture issue, and we will help. To do so, we need to look at all the different ways problems show up for us.

In this uxWaterloo Meetup we’ll take a look at problems. Not really that there ARE problems but the foundations of them, where to get them, have good ones, and ones that inspire collaboration, innovation, and most of all action.

Like all problems, they’re never one sided and neither will this Meetup be. We’ll kick off with a few problem topics that have some solid passion behind them as it relates to our work. From there we’ll open the agenda where you’ll help prioritize the next problem topics that matter most to you. Finally we’ll ignite the conversation and talk about how problems show up for you in your work.

About our speaker

Dana Marr currently holds the role of Head, Innovation Design at Farm Mutual Re in Cambridge, Ontario. Dana brings over 27 years of design experience to Farm Mutual Re, most recently performing the role of UX (User Experience) Design Lead, Global Innovation with Scotiabank. Dana has also held similar positions with D2L and BlackBerry. Dana brings a passion for providing a human-centered approach to innovation.

Please register for this free event

July 28, 2022
12:00pm ET
Live streamed to wherever you are!

April 2022: Group Discussions – Creating Effective UX Portfolios

Anyone who has applied to a UX design job has probably had some experience creating a UX portfolio. But for many of us, this is much easier said than done. What are hiring managers looking for in a portfolio? What job does your portfolio have? What if the work you’ve done is all under an NDA? Join us this month as we come together to discuss our experiences creating and sharing ux portfolios!

We’ll be using Remo, which will let everyone sit at virtual tables to discuss in small groups. We will also come together to share our learnings across groups. Please come ready to share, learn, and have conversations with other UXers!

Please register for this free event

April 28, 2022
12:00pm ET
Live streamed to wherever you are!

March 2022: Designing Systems to Enable Accessible User Experiences

We’re excited to announce that our February Meetup with with Patrick Carrington has been rescheduled to March!

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Mobile and wearable technologies offer the promise of great opportunity, connection, new experiences, and natural interactions. However, what happens when these designs do not fully consider the relationship between people and the devices they use? For example, wheelchair users often use and carry multiple mobile computing devices, such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones. However, due to the assumptions many of these devices make about our abilities they remain challenging to use. My research group focuses on supporting the broad range of humans with diverse abilities as they interact with the world and people around them. Our ongoing research aims to support and empower people with disabilities as they engage in a range of activities, including mobility, social interactions, and competitive sports.

Patrick Carrington

Patrick Carrington is an Assistant Professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and his research emphasizes the design of systems to support people with diverse abilities. He studies mobile and wearable technology, builds assistive devices, and explores how to create experiences that support empowerment, independence, and improved quality of life. His current projects span topics including accessing digital content and media, transportation and mobility, and developing technologies for athletes with disabilities.

Please register for this free event

March 24, 2022
12:00pm ET
Live streamed to wherever you are!

December 2021: No Meetup this month

We are taking December off to rest and recharge.
We look forward to bringing you more great speakers and events in the new year!

October 2021: Applying a UX Approach to Buildings with Erin Corcoran

Buildings are made for people. We’ve all experienced places that felt ‘right’, that we were drawn to, or spaces that anticipated our needs intuitively, just as we’ve also visited buildings that are outright unwelcoming or confusing, or places that have negative impacts on our wellbeing.

Good and great spatial experiences don’t happen by chance – the architectural profession is increasingly using a strategic approach to design: adapting tools and approaches from parallel strategy and UX fields to inform our process.  Additionally, as we’ve adapted through the COVID-19 pandemic, a thoughtful, researched approach has become more critical as user expectations change and our clients seek to make informed decisions in a changing landscape.

This talk will introduce attendees to how a strategic / UX approach is used in architectural practice: how we study users and apply it to designs and how the conversation around human impact has shifted during the past few years in response to changing user and client needs.  Facing these new challenges has driven home the intersections of people, place, technology, and policies to create successful designs.

Erin Corcoran

As a Design Strategist and an Architect, I’m obsessed with how people use, interact with, and impact space. I’m also fascinated by how humans connect with each other, how we communicate and behave, and how we come together. Lastly, I love a good workshop, one of those gems where everyone comes in ready to hate it, but leaves energized and heard, feeling that they had an impact, and excited for the space or project to come.

With Gensler’s Boston’s team, I work to develop human-centric strategies for complex space and cultural challenges, working with public and private sector workplace clients, building owners and developers, post-secondary education groups, healthcare institutions, community organizations and many others.

Please register for this free event

October 28 2021
5:30pm ET
Live streamed to wherever you are!