What we shared and learned at UX Alive 2017
Foodora design team was invited to participate at UX Alive this year, which is a regional UX conference that takes place each year in Istanbul, Turkey. Myself and our beloved Head of Product Design, Karolina Skalska were in the conference for two days. We shared our experience and knowledge and learned a lot from experts in the industry.
Day 1: Keynote Presentations
First day at UXAlive, there were various keynote speakers from Europe, Asia and Americas. Various topics were covered within the conference that intersect UX, Design Thinking and Business Strategy. There were strategy focused talks such as Will Evans’s “Redesigned to Disrupt: A Systems Thinking Approach” and more product-focused talks such as “How user experience is translated into mobile web” go by Serhat Atayeter , Mobile Solutions Lead of Google Turkey office.
Our Karolina Skalska covered the topic of “International Product Design: Challenges & Best Practices” where she covered the importance of understanding culture and demographics in designing products for various type of audience and why simply translating the language is not enough to fulfil users’ needs.
After the talk, we were asked to share our presentation, feel free to take a look at it!
Day2: Workshops
Second day of the conference was dedicated to collaborative workshops with conference attendants. We elaborated the topic “International Product Design” from the first day and designed an interactive workshop based on that topic.
There were UX researchers, UI designers, product managers and business executives from different countries that made the participant profile more culturally and professionally diverse.
Introduction Presentation
Before kicking off the brainstorming exercise and design challenge, we presented the concept of “International Product Design” where we discuss how designing for different cultures affect making decisions on product. We briefly mentioned how demography, language and culture affect the way people react to any products and services.
Brainstorming Exercise
After the brief presentation, we asked participants to have a short brainstorming exercise to engage with their team and get out of their comfort zone before the workshop design challenge. We asked them to think about how demographic and cultural differences affect UI elements when you launch a product in different markets.
After individual exercise, we asked them to discuss with their team and compile their thoughts in the group. One representative from each team presented their ideas on board.
Design Challenge
After brainstorming session, we gave some examples from foodora and foodpanda countries, as well as some challenges and best practices from the industry leaders. Then, we gave a design challenge for 1.5 hours where we asked them to come up with the UI design solution for a hypothetical wedding planning website to launch in 3 different markets.
Groups delivered UI mockups digitally or in paper form and presented their ideas on the board. They covered key points of product design to launch in international markets and shared their thought processes. During workshop sessions, we also had the chance to learn from them in order to make the workshop more effective and fulfilling for the next ones.
Overall, we learned a lot from keynote speakers and workshop participants and we are thankful to be a part of this conference this year!
