Review conference ProfsoUX-2016

On April 23, ProfsoUX conference took place. For the fifth year in a row, this event brings together UX-pros and other professionals from across the country, people who are united in their desire to design comfortable, ergonomic and efficient interfaces. A special atmosphere of inspiration and creativity reigns here, and this is a merit of not only the organizers, but also the participants.

I will talk about what the conference was like from the point of view of the beginning designer: what the participants expected, and to what extent these expectations were met.

Today, it is more difficult than ever for anyone who is interested in a particular topic: every day you have to shovel tons of data. And all for what? To find among the noise and debris nuggets of valuable and truly useful information. Perhaps in the future Data Mining and Big Data will come to our aid and the computer will learn how to make a choice for us. In the meantime, this time has not come, we are forced to dig by hand.
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I have always been interested in what to look for when choosing specialized conferences. On the eve of ProfsoUX, I thought: “Is it worth going here? Will I find answers to my questions here? Will I get new knowledge? ”Having talked with friends, I realized that it is also difficult for them to decide whether to participate in such events and how to choose those that will bring real benefits.

I was lucky. I was highly recommended to go to the conference by colleagues from Pavlova Dog Design Bureau . But when I see how difficult it is for my friends to make a choice, I have a desire to help. And now I'm ready to do it.

Expectations

Before writing this article, I conducted a mini-study and asked some of my friends (such as third-year students, like myself, future programmers, engineers, designers). I wanted to understand under what conditions they would go to a conference of this level. 8 out of 10 respondents said they were embarrassed by the cost of participation. However, it turned out that there will be money if:

1. The conference will be addressed by authorities and experts in this field (9 out of 10);
2. It will be possible to get answers to questions related to work, personal experience, etc. (8 out of 10);
3. there will be a review of new technologies and products, there will be workshops with the ability to apply this knowledge in practice (7 out of 10).

Note: statistics on the number of references excluding the weight of each item.

Among other things, the possibility of communicating with professionals, the atmosphere of the event, etc., were mentioned, but such answers were less common. Now, knowing the expectations of young specialists, I will try to impose them on what is happening on ProfsoUX and see what happens.

Performance Overview

On the review of the morning reports, I decided on what statements I would go. I will describe only two of them myself. Other participants of the conference will tell about the rest.

The program was opened by the discussion “Higher education in the field of UX in Russia” with the participation of Olga Pavlova and representatives of ITMO University .



I very much waited for this conversation, because I myself study at ITMO and look for options for admission to the magistracy. The conversation went lively and informative. At first, Andrei Balkansky and Elena Veselova, employees of the ITMO University Design and Multimedia Center , told how difficult it is to be a pioneer in the new field - earlier, as far as I know, there were no UX-magistracies as such in Russia and specialized training could only be obtained within the framework of "Ergonomics". We learned how classes are held, what projects are being conducted by participants, how ITMO cooperates with Tallinn University . It was interesting. Then questions followed.

Olga Pavlova drew attention to the fact that in the text of the master's program there is not a word about the person, his pain, and this seemed remarkable to me. Participants asked questions about learning ergonomics, about cooperation. Then they raised another important topic for me - about the portfolio and its replenishment during my studies. The presentation of colleagues from the university was completed by a student, Julia, who is studying in this direction. She told that the whole group is now working on creating layouts for a 3D printer. The ITMO staff did not add much. Will I be able to create a portfolio during my studies? From the answer is not clear. I know that foreign magistracies cooperate with large companies and your graduation works are being introduced into production and at the same time go to your portfolio. It's great - with this approach, I am sure that my efforts will not be in vain, and the skills acquired will be in demand. This is my chance to save people from pain, to pump their skills on real cases and to take care of your resume and portfolio in advance. Unfortunately, I did not hear about anything like this in the discussion.

After the discussion, Anastasia Rezhepp made a presentation on “Boring Interfaces - Where to Find Inspiration” .




Designer Yekaterina Gordeeva, Pavlova Dog Design Bureau shared her impressions on him:

“Anastasia Rezhepp described in general terms how their company works. The main idea - enterprise-systems should be:

• dim (poor designer will be bored);
• clean (vertical rhythm and, where possible, relief tables);
• with high-quality graphs and charts (focusing on the books Taffee);
• so thoughtful that myopic and people with color perception can use them without hindrance (just in case, check colors and not rely on colors at all).

You can, if you really want to, in some places unobtrusively use animation (for example, on loading indicators).

In fact, the essence of the speech does not match the title, except that except for the last paragraph about the animation. The report turned out for some intermediate audience: something will be useful for designers, something for graphic designers. Everything else about how to make a boring, from a design point of view, the interface clean and even more clamped designer. "

Anna Grudina, business analyst at Arcadia, shared her opinion on several presentations.

Nick van der Linde, Mirabeau Digital Agency, The Netherlands “Context is king. Creating smart adaptive digital products today ”(Context is King - Crafting Smarter, Adaptive Digital Products Today) .

“The most ideally composed, thoroughly worked out and structured report from all seen and heard by me at the ProfsoUX 2016 conference. The author tells not only about his project, not about a specific individual experience or decision made and put into“ operation ”just recently last weeks or months, which is all the same insignificant in the framework of the software design and development cycle). The speaker tried - picked up excerpts from all projects in which he participated personally, and excerpts from foreign and successful projects (for example, Google) - to convey to the audience the idea that the context (environment) of using the application is more important than the development itself and design. More precisely, without taking into account the context in which it will work, all this is meaningless and no one will need it.

On the example of airlines, car dealers and others, it was shown that it is important to analyze not only who will use your application, but also how, and this is not only a question of the device (although it too), but also the conditions!

For example, an application for flight attendants and flight attendants. How and when will they use it? What is important to them? It turned out that most of all this category of users is interested in information about the time of departure, delays, upcoming transfers and the end of the working day. They want to receive this information when they are in the cafeteria between flights. Means, the tablet and the low-speed Internet. Consequently, a user-friendly interface with up-to-date information without unnecessary scripts and flush to quickly load. In addition, instructing mode adapted to the flight conditions is provided - fonts and contrast are increased for the convenience of the user, so that the steward can tell where emergency exits are and how to use rescue equipment ... And the overall design changes and the guidelines are not so important. The main thing is the user and his needs. Of course, the design should be beautiful and balanced, but where it’s more important that it is comfortable and friendly. ”

After Nick Ilya Bovkunov spoke. His report was called “UX Designer, is it you?” Designer skills in interface styling . "




This performance made a big impression on me. On the eve of the report, we discussed with the speaker a notorious portfolio, which was discussed above. In the UX world, your own portfolio should be approached very carefully. At least in order to avoid this. Who is interested in looking at gray blocks?


Image taken from http://www.mikealt.com/

Ilya took up the solution to this problem and, using the example of a simple news announcement, told how to quickly bring the prototype to a proper form. How did he do it? First, put the accents, defining anchor elements on the page. Then he made the text blocks slim, using a vertical rhythm. Then he drew attention to the rules of the Russian language, which for some reason are often ignored. The final chord was the selection of the palette using complementary colors. Ilya showed how to put his prototype in order using standard tools.

This experience, in my opinion, is useful not so much for pointing beauty in the portfolio, as for combing the prototypes in general. The pictures become tidier, the attitude towards them and to you is changing: you see works that are close to the real product, which take into account small details like quotes- “Christmas trees”, etc., that please the eye. As a novice designer, this was interesting and useful for me.

Anna again shared her impressions of the last two reports.

Sergey Pavelchuk “Programming approach in design” .

“The report is an overlay of basic programming principles and well-established internal coding rules to create a series of prototypes for a project.

It seems that nothing special was expected from the speaker, but it was nice to hear something cozy and tasteful of the perfectionist.

First of all, architecture! In programming, this is one of the most important things. And the speaker does this. His experience with Axure RP suggests that it is important to correctly group prototypes for pages and name them according to programming rules - as variables or application classes. What a terrible “Copy of Copy of Proto1 - Version 100500” lying in the root or in the hundredth subfolder called “Proposal 3”? How to work with your team? Who except you can find the right prototype? Can you find it yourself in a month? This is a chaos, and this must be fought. And the main thing is that you don’t need to invent anything, programmers have already thought of everything for us. Take it and use it. (My head began to clear up.)

Then the author talked about the version control system: about the importance of backups, commenting on check-ins, versioning - instead of hundreds of prototypes with dates and proto1, proto2, etc.

Testing was mentioned as a necessary measure not only for a code infested with bugs, but also for prototypes - they are also influenced by the human factor, therefore they are subject to control! (The veil of fog in the head gradually dissipated.)

And once again the minute of glory for programmers has come - oddly enough, the architectural topic has not been closed. A smooth transition followed to the theme of the architecture of the prototypes themselves, their naming and typing, as well as the principles of the PLO. This resulted in a holivar “dynamic panels vs. individual pages. And then we are talking about applying Feng Shui to the naming of objects, groups and panels, to using basic objects or masters known to us in Axure RP (once changed, applied everywhere), as well as to dynamic panels and setting basic styles. (My head cleared even more!)

And in the end, the author simply and neatly mentioned frameworks - we must remember that a real developer will use it, because it imposes architectural and design limitations on prototypes. You can navigate very nicely, and they will make from what they have. (It finally cleared up! There was not a single dark corner in the head where designer cockroaches, alien to perfectionism, lurked.)

The report took only 20 minutes, but even this time was enough to understand the author’s simple and obvious ideas that only needed to be conveyed to the hall so that everything would be much easier. ”

Victor Filippov "Zen and the art of designing yourself . "

“A report for yourself, every creative self, who is in a state of deep stagnation, from which only you can and should pull yourself. In munhgauzenovski, for the head with his own hand ...

The experience of one person - how to diversify your life, understand yourself, learn to control, adjust and eventually improve your mood.

Immediately I would like to note that there is no possibility to impose on myself the mask and the decisions of another person, so that everything becomes like his

The author talks about how he learned to draw inspiration from the short trips that he makes every week. It helps him to find himself and raise his tone. If it is easier, you need to find what you like and start doing it regularly, separately from your work. A kind of outlet.

The next item (fad?) Author - is a diary. He suggests constantly recording his thoughts, noting the mood. At the end of the day, analyze why it is not in order and how to fix it. Once a week go through the records and make summary tables and charts. Sum up and look for solutions for yourself. Embody them immediately. Harsh framework, to be honest. This is necessary rather flighty people. The rest of the diary is not such a bad idea. But often, instead of saving, he becomes a source of depression.

Much better planning and gamification diary. And so - this is directly “a psychiatrist himself”. Even somehow it was not at ease towards the end of the report. In general, something else was expected from the performance. His mouth was open, and people who had already exhausted their vitality had listened a little - they believed that the report would help them solve their problems. Of course, it is much easier to believe in someone else’s decision than to implement your own. But no one will save you from your hypochondria and laziness, for no one knows you better than you yourself. ”

Other reports are available at the link ProfsoUX-2016

Conclusion

Let us return to the survey at the beginning of the article and try to analyze the conference:

• UX authorities and experts - yes;
• content / reports answer practical questions - yes;
• review of new technologies, products - alas, no.

In general, I was pleased with the conference. Meaningful reports, practical knowledge, stories about personal experience and extraordinary decisions. I liked it. In addition, thanks to ProfsoUX, I realized what to look for when choosing a conference. Maybe the results of my little research will be useful to other people who try themselves in various industries and fields. Unfortunately, there was not something that I wanted to hear - reports on virtual reality. I really hope that this issue will be addressed at the next conference. By the way, virtual reality is a topic for a separate article, materials for which are already being collected. Thanks to the speakers and organizers for the excellent conference, fellow workers for the opportunity to visit her, friends for participating in the polls. And you - for having read the article to the end.