If you’ve read Interaction 17: Bites from the Big Apple pt.1, you’ll know that some of the Clearleft team decamped to New York City in early February for Interaction 17. If you haven’t already read it, take a quick look, then read on for part 2…
The best bits
When we got back to Blighty, I asked the team for their Interaction 17 conference highlights. Jeremy aptly summed up the general consensus:
I enjoyed the breadth of speakers from young practitioners and students, right up to the sage wisdom of Brenda Laurel and Paul Pangaro. After three days, I think I've managed to grasp the message of Interaction 17: As designers we will change the world using some combination of chatbots, VR, and the internet of things ...in a self-driving car. Or something.
The talks that rated most highly amongst the team even included some familiar faces from UX Londons of days past. Here are our top picks.
Liza Kindred - Mindful Technology
I'd have to say Liza Kindred's talk on 'Mindful Technology' was my standout talk. It was a great, sobering lesson on just how much we use (overuse) technology, followed by some great examples of tech available now, in the wild. The key takeaway of designing products and services for more human connections rang true, allowing us to design for more _disconnection_. Personally, I'm ready and waiting for a backlash against our device time, with more 'slow' design that lets us take off the digital shackles and enjoy the physical realm again.
Brendan Dawes - The beautiful inconvenience of things
Brendan doing what he does best. Well delivered, personal, funny, creative and not taking himself too seriously. The perfect antidote to the heavy intellectualism of the rest of the first day.
Good value and great work combining digital and physical - Brendan has great vision.
Juliana Rotich - A Journey in Social Entrepreneurship
A fantastic example of human-centred design helping solve a known problem in a really smart way - the Kio Kit.
Jon Kolko - Sh*t Sh*w: Finding Focus in the Midst of Ambiguity
This was probably my standout talk of the whole event. On the topic of creativity, how to encourage it, how to harness it and use it to drive a vision into reality. Great content and really well delivered.
Jon is always good value, and this one included great examples of his work.
And finally
An honourable mention goes to the unlikely bedfellows of Thomas Wend and James Auger on Day One's curated session.
Kudos to Ramy Nassar, for pulling a great talk out of the bag - 'Why Designers and Data Scientists Should be BFFs' - whilst contending with some serious tech issues and zero slides at his disposal! No mean feat.
So thank you and congratulations, IxDA team, for pulling together a fun and thought-provoking conference. And as for your question ‘Does design matter now?’, our answer is ‘Heck Yeah!’
Find out more about our top picks: