An Event Apart: The UX Recap Part I
An Event Apart is widely regarded among all walks of designers as the Greatest (web design) Show on Earth. If you couldn’t partake in the experience this past June 22nd and 23rd in Boston, then you owe it to yourself to make the effort to attend as soon as possible. It’s a near guarantee that you’ll walk away with more knowledge and inspiration than you previously possessed.
What’s the cause for such emotion?
Passion. The speakers that An Event Apart attracts are brimming with it. They foment it in the attendees. If fuels their on-stage antics, colors their commentary, elicits mid-presentation applause and prompts frenetic choruses of “IE6 must die!” (I’m paraphrasing there). It’s how they produce valued work and it’s why they’re willing to submit their achievements and failures on a great stage for the edification of their colleagues and the design community.
If you depart with none of that passion bubbling up inside of you, then you’re either missing a pulse or you probably don’t belong in the industry.
What got me fired up?
On the train to Boston I had a conversation with an individual during which he asked me where I see the user experience design field in five years. My reply was that I hope that the practice is more widely adopted and that experience designers can get their hands on more products and applications that affect wider audiences in more meaningful ways.
It wasn’t a surprise to find a general lack of UX representation in the conference audience. At a conference that appeals to a wide variety of web professionals, UX was bound to be but a minority.
This isn’t to say that user experience design is an unknown concept. Far from it. But it supports my outlook that we’ll need increased exposure and improved education to get more designers to adopt some UX practices or seek collaboration with UX professionals to produce quality designs. Whitney Hess talked primarily about how any designer, whether they’re a sole proprietor or they dwell in the basement of the org chart, can squeeze some UX into their design process. If we combine this grassroots DIY approach with the literature and teachings of industry-leading minds, we will have made the progress I hope to see within those five years.
At the opening night party and other gatherings I had the distinct pleasure of meeting and talking with some fantastic designers and speakers. The conversations we shared were unforgettable and highly motivational. These designers, and others like them, will be the ones who craft the most beautiful and engaging experiences in the coming years.
Where do we go from here?
Next time, I’ll show you some of the most important UX lessons that were discussed at An Event Apart. In the meantime, be sure to check out some of these other great conference resources:
Adactio – An Event Apart Boston, Day 1 – Jeremy Keith’s live blogs of the day 1 presentations
A Feed Apart – The unofficial Twitter feed aggregator for An Event Apart, created by Lion Burger
AEA 09 Boston Flickr photo pool
Dave Mosher – AEA09, Themes and Perspective
Andy Clarke – Walls Come Tumbling Down – Full transcript and slides of Andy Clarke’s day 2 closing presentation