Keynote
Topic to be announced.
Topic to be announced.
In the early days of UI design, proprietary tools like Flash allowed designers to create extremely engaging and fluid animations. However, as the world of software moved away from proprietary tooling to open-source solutions, those tools disappeared, leaving fewer options for creating really engaging animations. Over time, platforms have gradually introduced better options, and we are finally finding ourselves at a precipice where current tooling has not only caught up, but even surpassed the initial solutions from years ago.
Xandor Schiefer is a developer, but don’t let that fool you. He owns books like “The Elements of Typographic Style” and “Grid Systems in Graphic Design”. He built his first website in ’99, grew up with the industry. He’s spent time working at companies on in-house products and at digital ad agencies before hanging out his shingle as an independent consultant @ Pixel Theory.
Sivan is a seasoned design leader in financial services and fintech with 20 years of experience across physical and digital experience design. Currently, she is the Senior Design Director for Digital Banking at Absa. Since taking on this role, Sivan has helped Absa’s digital banking grow its user base to over 3 million users, while winning numerous awards. Sivan studied multimedia design, with a focus on how experiences are key to building strong brands. Her academic endeavours culminated with her Master’s thesis “Building Trust Through Authentic, Human Brands‚Äù, which was published in multiple international journals. Sivan is now known for being innovative and fostering intrapreneurship within Absa. She has been a driving force in market-leading innovations. Her work on biometric authentication has seen massive adoption and is used by over 2 million customers to keep their banking safe. Sivan also played a pivotal role in the design and launch of PayShap (rapid payments) in South Africa. Most recently, Sivan played an instrumental role in Absa’s ChatWallet, a first-to-market product that enables Absa and non-Absa customers to create a mobile wallet and bank entirely in WhatsApp. This initiative brings together Sivan’s expertise in payments and her passion for financial inclusion, and is now one of Absa‚Äôs key ESG focus points. Despite her busy schedule and numerous achievements, Sivan mentors designers at all levels in their careers and is committed to building the next generation of design leaders.
Once upon a time, the Absa design office was a mere five people sitting around a table designing and building a mobile banking app. Today, we are 163 people strong with skills spanning UX and UI design, service design, content writing, strategy and engineering. We build sticky products that our customers love and we deliver real business impact while doing so. We are a level five maturity design team in an organisation that embraces design and all it delivers for the business and its customers. And, there is no greater proof of this than the story of Absa’s most innovative new digital product, ChatWallet. ChatWallet began as a 2am big, hairy, audacious idea to solve for financial inclusion in Africa. But, on what planet could we integrate our core banking systems with WhatsApp and deliver full financial services to customers without them ever having to touch a core banking channel?! Planet Absa, I will tell you. We were naive, but that naivety gave us the courage needed to pursue this wild idea unhindered. A truly design-led idea and innovation, ChatWallet went from a very rapid prototype to a fully mobilised product with monetary and executive investment. Today, ChatWallet is Absa’s answer to the question of financial inclusion and in just four short months since market launch, ChatWallet has resulted in a digital sales uplift of 144%. ChatWallet empowers Africans. Customers can get a mobile wallet to safely store their hard-earned money and with no monthly fees, in under one minute and then bank anytime, all on the app they already use and love every day, WhatsApp. The story of how we got here is one of courage and perseverance, and I would love to tell it at UXSA.
Natalie is a proud Portuguese-South African, and passionate product designer and manager. Her design journey started in the User Experience realm, where she quickly learned to leverage design as a powerful medium to help create relevant and meaningful experiences for end users. From there, her role evolved with a deeper focus into digital product and service development. Her core skills center around research and design thinking, wireframing, prototyping, and strategic UX and UI design application. Currently, she focuses her efforts and energy into creating scalable digital products and services for e-commerce retailers, and manages an incredible team of design practitioners to do the same. She has a deep passion for harnessing the power of design to drive business value. By weekend, she’s also a RYT qualified Vinyasa Yoga Instructor who loves a good spreadsheet, has an extensive allergy list, and is always keen for a sunrise gym session!
From small-scale start-ups to large corporate entities, we’ll unpack how to leverage design to better contribute to your business’ bottom line, and better understand the role design plays in the success of today’s business landscape, and in building the brands of the future
Discussion about the changing landscape of UX over the last 10years.
Embarking on a playful but powerful journey to craft a wellbeing app that aims to democratise and simplify our overall wellness. Imagine Duolingo, but for health. Join me as I step you through how we’re crafting a fun, engaging, and impactful wellness experience from concept to launch.