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

In this presentation, I will explain how a well-designed UX process can help guide users toward achieving the business's objectives. By becoming a "Taskmaster," I can assign tasks to various individuals and analyze the outcomes based on their backgrounds and experiences. When a well-design task is set out we can control the process and outcome.

This topic explores how you can use Design Thinking, a methodology that we mostly use in UX and Product Design, applied to other areas of your life - such as time management, health & fitness, personal finance, relationships or learning new skills. By going through the empathise, define, ideate, prototype, test and iteration phases of the Design Thinking framework, you can apply it to solving almost any area in your life - not just UX problems specifically. Here's an example by Chat: Time Management: Empathize: Identify when you feel most productive and when you struggle. Define: Recognise that you have trouble managing time in the mornings and formulate the problem statement. Ideate: Brainstorm routines or tools that could help, like setting a regular wake-up time, using time-blocking techniques, or a productivity app. Prototype: Start with a new morning routine for a week. Test: Track your productivity and feelings throughout the week. Iterate: Adjust the routine based on what worked and what didn't. Health and Fitness: Empathize: Understand your motivations and barriers to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Define: Pinpoint the specific challenge, such as not finding time to exercise. Ideate: Think of various ways to incorporate exercise into your daily routine, like short workouts, walking meetings, or biking to work. Prototype: Try a few different methods over a month. Test: Observe which methods fit best into your schedule and make you feel better. Iterate: Continuously tweak your exercise routine to improve adherence and enjoyment.

Safety-First is ingrained in the mining industry, with companies steadfast in prioritising the safety, health, and well-being of their workforce and local communities. Whether operating heavy machinery, performing equipment inspections, or conducting geological surveys, every detail—from data logging to monitoring—is crucial for on-site safety. Yet, UX and human-centred design have not historically been prioritised. I'll share my journey to cultivate UX maturity in mining, underscoring its role in enhancing industry-wide efficiency and safety standards.

- "Which iPhone's size should I use for my breakpoint?" - "How can I make the font look the same on macOS and Windows?" - "Why does my design look different in this browser?" - "Why does the dev never get it right?" If you're asking these questions, I have answers; though they'll turn your approach to the Web upside-down. Some designers approach the Web much like print, especially if they have a formal education. The Web can frustrate designers' efforts to bring their vision to life. Let's embrace these challenges as design constraints instead of roadblocks. The Web is its own medium, and we ought to develop designs in tandem with the technology. Join me as I outline some of the ways that the Web is different to more traditional media, and show how embracing these differences will elevate your work to a new level. It's my hope that, if you dislike designing for the Web, you'll walk away feeling empowered and hungry for new challenges in this wonderful medium.

Soar with us as we navigate the skies of design and development in our journey to create a ZA-based birding app. Following our well-received talk at DevConf, we’ll chirp about our experiences transitioning to Compose (Android) and SwiftUI, and how these tools have given our workflow wings. Join us as we tweet about the magic that happens when developers and designers flock together. We’ll share how we divided our roles, avoided nest-falls, and used the latest trends in UX and design to hatch a seamless user experience. This talk is for anyone eager to peck at the secrets of successful collaboration between design and development, offering practical insights and inspiration to help your projects take flight.

This talk aims to transform theoretical understanding of accessibility into practical, actionable steps for software teams. It focuses on how designers and developers can seamlessly integrate accessibility testing throughout their project lifecycle, ensuring that products are inclusive from the outset. The presentation will cover effective strategies for incorporating accessibility checks early in the design phase, techniques for automated and manual testing during development, and best practices for maintaining accessibility standards post-launch. Attendees will learn how to use tools and frameworks that facilitate accessibility testing, and how to foster a culture that prioritizes inclusivity. This talk is essential for professionals looking to make accessibility a standard element of their development process, rather than an afterthought.

In an evolving digital landscape, the rise of no-code and low-code platforms is redefining how we build and innovate. This talk will explore how developers can adapt to and leverage these tools to accelerate development and stay ahead in the competitive tech industry. Embrace the future of development by mastering the blend of traditional coding with the efficiency of no-code and low-code solutions.