During the morning keynote on Thursday, “Talking About Feelings: Personal Work for Fun (!!!) and Profit (???)”, Adam J. Kurtz encouraged designers to pursue their own Personal Projects as a path to fulfillment and self-understanding. He also showed how personal projects can become profitable if they say something true and resonate with their audience with examples of his own work. He left the audience with the reminder that “failure is just research unless you never try again”.

In “Designers and Clients: Divided by a Common Language”, Christine Mau walked through several examples of how clients and designers miscommunicate by thinking they are speaking the same language when really there are big gaps in what each is trying to convey. Her advice was twofold:

1.      Set expectations early and often. Be as clear as possible about what you are hearing the client ask for, what you plan to deliver, and when.

2.      Bring is visuals whenever possible. For example, if a client wants to move their brand in a “new” direction, show them examples of other brands that have made big and small branding changes to see where on the spectrum they want to fall.

During “Quick UX Research Methods”, Patrick McNeil presented best practices when performing user prototype testing. Not only did Patrick provide tips and tricks on obtaining qualitative data, he took it a step further by showcasing a way to convert feedback into quantifiable data points in an effort to help understand the overall truth.

In “Approaching Design with Accessibility in Mind”, Regine Gilbert pointed out that most of us will experience some sort of disability at some point in our life. We should not think of accessibility as an “extra” thing, but rather build it in at the beginning and at each step of the production process.

During “Discovering Cipe: Lessons in Creativity and Collaboration from Andy Warhol’s Favorite Art Director”, Sarah Rich and Wendy MacNaughton recounted their personal journey to discovering Cipe Pineles and her influence on the modern relationship between art directors and artists. Specifically Rich and MacNaughton delved into the way Cipe set the precedent for a collaborative, rather than transactional relationship.

In the closing keynote of the conference, Debbie Millman interviewed Chase Jarvis in a live episode of her podcast “Design Matters Live”. During the interview, Jarvis recounted his own journey to design, including surviving a dangerous avalanche. He concluded with the message that creativity is the new literacy, and the importance of spreading creativity to all.

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