Northeast PHP 2018

Our goal as professionals is to improve the user experience of our projects for our clients. The tools and techniques of our trade help us reach that goal. The real world, however, introduces complications that increases the difficulty of the solutions.

In this workshop, learn how to handle these challenges with confidence. Be prepared to workshop solutions to case studies, using methods you already know like reverse card sorting and using testing,  in the following areas:

► Information Architecture: Identifying and eliminating ambiguity, vagueness, and polysemy in content semantics.

► Resolving conflicts between accessibility and  business, aesthetic, security, and sustainability goals.

► Bridging the Gap between developers and designers in project design workflows.

► UX Design Debt: Review the causes and solutions for "design debt" that creeps into our projects.

Our goal as professionals is to improve the user experience of our projects for our clients. The tools and techniques of our trade help us reach that goal. The real world, however, introduces complications that increases the difficulty of the solutions.

In this workshop, learn how to handle these challenges with confidence. Be prepared to workshop solutions to case studies, using methods you already know like reverse card sorting and using testing,  in the following areas:

► Information Architecture: Identifying and eliminating ambiguity, vagueness, and polysemy in content semantics.

► Resolving conflicts between accessibility and  business, aesthetic, security, and sustainability goals.

► Bridging the Gap between developers and designers in project design workflows.

► UX Design Debt: Review the causes and solutions for "design debt" that creeps into our projects.

There are many differences that impact the way people experience the digital world. From age and gender, vision and dexterity, to location and education. Each difference affects digital inclusion and experiences. As technologists it is our job to build products that are usable by, and inclusive of, as many people as possible. To do so, it is important that we plan for the many differences that make up our users.

This session details the importance of having an inclusive mindset in the creation of our digital projects. It explains how Inclusive Design allow for producing positive experiences for a wider audience. Attendees will learn four simple guidelines that they can follow to apply Inclusive Design principles across all project phases including: ux, development and content creation. Attendees will leave with the tools they need to reach a bigger user base while also building towards an accessible and inclusive digital world.

This session is intended for anyone who wants to build digital products that reach as many people as possible.

Discover how you can take the stress out of building website and app designs by understanding design concepts and principles from the past. Starting in the early 1900's design principles were established to help those dealing with usability and information design. See how you can take those same principles and apply them to modern visual art and design.
1. Form follows function
Form follows function is a principle associated with 20th-century modernist industrial design which states that the shape of an object should be primarily relate to its intended function or purpose. See how this concept applies to website and app design of today.
2. Less is more
Less is more was made popular by industrial designer Dieter Rams. With all the information “noise” out there this mantra is more important now than ever. Find out how you can iterate your content to show less distractions, and offer your user more relevant information.
3. Always use a grid
During the time of the International typographic style era, grids were heavily used for a purpose. Using a grid is the best way to organize a great amount of content in a manner that is easily interpreted by viewers. Discover how to use grids for both layout and type.
4. Really understand typography
Early in the 20th century Jan Tschichold set forth rules for standardization of practices relating to modern type usage that are still relevant today. At the time he condemned all typefaces except for sans-serif types, advocated standardized sizes of paper and set forth guidelines for establishing a typographic hierarchy when using type in design. Find out how to use these same concepts in your designs.
5. Follow proportions that work
Some designers may intuitively know where to place objects and text on a screen, but many also rely on basic principles of math that allow them to place type and images quickly and with confidence. Discover some of the proportional rules that you can apply to your layouts.

On the East Coast, our startups are known for being able to solve hard tech problems, but often companies get more excited about their technology than in the customer value they're creating. In this talk, we introduce practical framework for building customer-centered tech products. You will learn how to craft and communicate a far-reaching vision and strategy centered around customer needs, and balance that vision with the day-to-day needs of your company.

In this talk, we'll cover the following:
- Intro & Radical Vision: What's a "good" vision? How do you craft a good vision and align your team to that vision?
- Product Strategy: What are the elements of a product strategy? How do you translate your vision into an actionable strategy?
- Prioritization into a Roadmap: How do you translate strategy into a roadmap, especially with the revenue pressures you face as a startup? How do you recognize and pay down "Vision Debt"
- Metrics That Matter: Many of the popular metrics may not apply to your tech product. How do you align metrics & measurement to your product strategy and vision, so you can measure what matters.

This unconference session will be an attendee-driven community discusion for anyone interested in User Experience Design.

We often find ourselves designing against a tight deadline compromising how we get things done and the way we work together. We can lose sight of our client's needs if we focus only on the frontend interface. And can we call a newly designed website a success if the client resents entering content or is constantly confused by how to edit or add to the CMS? Ultimately, interface design is only one component of the full user experience and in order to design a system that truly meets a client's needs, UX thinking must be integrated through all phases of a website build.

This session will provide an overview of how we can apply UX thinking to our client's end experience and why it's important for UX designers and their teams. Using a case study of a large organization looking to create and manage their own content we'll explore the value of collecting client input, strategies for integrating client needs into your system UI, and understanding how and what to communicate to development teams as they build a back end structure for our designs.

Attendees will gain insight into strategies and tools that have helped our agency improve internal workflow and client that they can apply to their own projects.
-- The importance of collecting client input and how to document it.
-- Strategies for integrating client needs into your system UI.
-- How UX designers and developers can effectively communicate.

If you're like the 2016 version of me, then you think you have a decent handle on web accessibility. You put alt attributes on all your images (though you don't give much thought to the actual text) and you make sure your sites can be used with a keyboard (except for overlays sometimes). Then the day comes when you're given a 100 page accessibility audit from a client and a deadline for all issues to be fixed. What is high contrast mode, you ask yourself, and why does it matter if these links are implemented in a list?

The fact is that we take for granted that people are able to use the sites we create. As governments pass legislation enforcing accessible standards, the web is playing catch up to the physical spaces we use every day. User interfaces are becoming more sophisticated, and it's easy for developers & designers without disabilities to overlook the simple things that many rely on to make sense of your site.

In this presentation I'll share some of the hard lessons I've learned over the past few years, from both a development and a project management perspective. Topics discussed will include an overview of common accessibility problems, tools I use to validate accessibility issues, and best practices for training your team.

Virtual Reality has a fun, wow factor, and in this talk, attendees will experience sample interfaces for themselves as they learn about design for VR. Desera.com will provide all conference attendees google cardboard compatible plastic headsets that work with most Smartphone devices.

VR is emerging as a viable medium for communication, entertainment, and marketing with growing adoption of the the Vive, Rift, Google Cardboard, and their competitors. Projects ranging from Niantic's augmented reality games to the New York Times' experiments with VR storytelling are bringing the technology into the mainstream.

User experience design challenges arising from 3D environments, headsets, and new controller designs are significant. This talk will introduce, demystify, and cover solutions to these challenges.

* Introduce a workflow for designing non-diegetic, spacial, and diegetic UI for virtual reality apps.

* Share "React VR" code for developing interfaces.