Christine Her spoke first on ArtForce Iowa and their yes to kindness campaign. They educate people on the benefits of compassion and empathy while cultivating self-expression thru the arts. They focus on refugees and post-incarceration job training in the arts. I’m not sure how the GIADC feels about forming a relationship with ArtForce, however, people who were recently incarcerated are unlikely to re-offend when they are given opportunities to move on with their lives. ArtForce Iowa does train people in graphic design..
Antionette Carrol was the second speaker. She spoke about the Creative Reaction Lab. The Creative Reaction Lab challenges communities and cities to design racially equitable solutions to community issues. She said something that really struck a chord with me. “Failure is a privilege.” Not everyone has the luxury of being able to take a chance and have it not work out. She challenges all of us as designers to be stewards of equity and work towards not being susceptible to bias.
Also, she challenges all of us to make a personal mission statement. I’m still working on mine.
Pushing Boundaries: Strategies to move your Career Forward
They encouraged us all to be at the front end of the change in the design field. “Be the water not the rock”. Keep up with new trends and when there is a shift in technology or programs be at the front end of that shift. As women, statistically, we are less likely to take chances. In many ways, I thought this related back to Antionette, “Failure is a luxury.” They did imply that we have to rely on our own grit and moxie. It made me think about the book, GRIT. The most successful people aren’t the smartest or most popular, they are the ones who keep getting up when knocked down or see lessons in mistakes.
Also, they encourage us to develop relationships with our manager’s manager. If you feel like you aren’t being heard call your own meeting. When you are speaking, stand.
A specific note was “Understand the coder’s dilemma when it comes to design. Get good at pulling resources and identifying others that have skills that complement yours.” I feel the shorthand of this is, understand the struggles of your team and understand their skill set. I’ve always been a big proponent of understanding the talent in your team, but I forgot about understanding their limitations in their actual job duties. Studies show that teams need introverts and extroverts to have balance so don’t be afraid to push your career forward when you are an introvert.
Hidden in Plain Sight
User Research is how you uncover the customer’s needs and how products work with real people. UX validates user needs. 88% of online consumers are unlikely to return if they have a bad experience on a site. The User Experience process starts with analysis and strategy, the design, followed by development and finishes with post-launch reporting and analysis.
UX Analysis & Strategy: Where do people click and how do they interact?
UX eliminates guesswork
- Matches Demographics
- Aligns top user Tasks
- Reduces pain points
Conducting UX Research – Different types of research are:
- Heatmaps help determine which content is most important.
- Mouse tracking allows you to see user behavior by tracking their mouse path.
- User tests, either Remotely or In-person, provides feedback on what they thought was difficult.
- Empathy Maps show the pain points and motivation of the user.
The user experience is maintained by matching design from Website, Print, & Digital. I believe that we could do a much better job making ads more uniform by looking at print, digital and the customer’s current web presence. Mobile is now the primary interface and we really need to focus on the readability and impact of our smaller mobile ads. Small images, buttons, and text are not going to register. This ties into my UX coursework: Fitt’s Law and Meyer’s Law dictate mathematically that larger targets are easier to hit on smaller interfaces. THINK SMALL! (Meaning more readability on smaller ads)
Website Psychology
Websites maintain relationships, trust, strengthen branding, and increase profit. With mobile, you must sell the company within five seconds. INTRO/HOME pages on sites should have three main sentences maximum with special attention to image and font hierarchy. Similar to the above the fold rules in print.
Sites need to be useful, learnable, memorable, effective and delightful!!! Sites can be more physical by making them interactive. Multiple CTAs are now expected on sites, but there should be no confusion about which CTA is primary. Websites need to show off media icons, testimonials, and awards. Images must be positive, tell a story, trigger emotions, be quality and original. Clear and concise branding is important and too many photos can crowd out that branding.
Emily McDowell wants us to reframe our thinking; mistakes are lessons. Most advertising convinces people that your product can solve their problems. But solve a real problem and the product can sell itself.
Emily makes empathy cards that communicate hard subjects – illness and loneliness. People want to be understood. She uses design to start a conversation and find the truth.
My favorite take away from the conference is;
“Don’t let not knowing how to do something prevent you from doing it.”
I need to take more risks and put myself out there. Risking failure is a privilege, but at my age and stage in life not taking risks is no longer an option.
Jacqueline Hudson 