Category: Design

Designing for web 3

As more companies look at opportunities to use web3 to achieve business goals, designers will increasingly need to understand how to design for it. Of course, web3 isn't just one thing - you might need to design for the metaverse, finance applications, NFT projects...

Designing for web 3

Designing for web 3

As more companies look at opportunities to use web3 to achieve business goals, designers will increasingly need to understand how to design for it. Of course, web3 isn't just one thing - you might need to design for the metaverse, finance applications, NFT projects...

Designing the right thing

Designing the right thing

When we have a good idea, we often just want to dive in and get started. But how do we know the idea is actually good? Learn some design thinking methods to help you ‘design the right thing’ instead of ‘designing the thing right’. We’ll explore some simple ways to make sure you are on the right path, and be confident that it is the right path.

User research: Interviews and beyond

User research: Interviews and beyond

There are many ways to learn about users. The technique we hear most about is interviews, but there are other ways. Join this fast-paced, highly interactive session to experience three other ways to learn about users (and yes, we'll talk about interviews as well).

Facilitating design thinking workshops

Facilitating design thinking workshops

In this half/full-day workshop, you will learn how to facilitate a design thinking workshop that achieves great outcomes and actively involves everyone in the room. It will cover: Forming concrete goals for the session Deciding on structure and methods Running the...

Best of…workshop methods

(note - this is a work in progress - at the moment I'm just adding great things as I find them. At some point soon I'll be more deliberate about collecting great resources) Why workshops work Facilitating structures. Stephen Anderson Workshop warmups 50...

Planning design thinking workshops

Planning design thinking workshops

In this talk Donna will cover what it takes to plan a great design thinking workshop – from goal setting, structuring and choosing activites. Then she’ll talk about what it takes to manage the room itself – getting people warmed up, making them feel safe, encouraging contribution and making group decisions.

Collecting feedback: Facilitating design thinking workshops

Collecting feedback: Presenting design work

I'm writing a book called Presenting Design Work (to be published by A Book Apart) and it's at the point where I'd love to get feedback. It's only little - about 10,000 words, and should only take a few hours to read. I'm looking for people to read and give feedback...

Communicating design

Communicating design

Design is becoming fairly mainstream, a part of many projects, and frequently discussed in the business press. But still many people think it is all about making an interface look better. Why is this still happening? Donna believes that there are many reasons this...

What designers do

What do designers do? This talk examines the spectrum of design skills - from tactical visual design through to strategic design. It describes what kinds of problems we can solve, what we deliver and who other than designers has these skills.

De-jargonising Design

De-jargonising Design

Words are amazing things. They pack big thoughts into small spaces and let us get ideas out of our head and into someone else’s head. Jargon is an even more amazing thing; it lets us communicate complex ideas with our peers. Instead of having to say that we’ll get...

UX, UI, CX, SD, PD: Does it matter?

UX, UI, CX, SD, PD: Does it matter?

Designers often complain that other people don't know what they do. Let's explore why this happens through the lenses of social identity theory, category theory and linguistics to help understand why it happens and what we can do about it.

From research to design

In this full or half-day, hands-on workshop you’ll learn how to move from a pile of incredibly detailed findings from research (of all kinds – user research, content analysis, business research) to an initial design. We’ll work right through a fun and realistic design...

Old Dog? Time to Learn some New Tricks

Old Dog? Time to Learn some New Tricks

Do you remember when there was so much to learn you didn’t think you’d ever learn it all? The feeling of trying out a technique for the first time? Or how about the first time you presented an idea and people actually agreed with...

There’s no right answer

When we are working on a hard design problem (or even on a fairly easy one), we often realise there are many ways we could go – lots of options and lots of potential solutions. It can be frustrating to figure out which is the right direction to take, the right...

Designing for people

This half-day workshop teaches a set of fundamental principles that are useful for all types of design work – information architecture, interaction design, visual design and even industrial design