Master Class: Design Thinking for Applications
Design thinking goes beyond aesthetic and visual design to do game-changing innovation. Applying design thinking yields higher value apps, more satisfied users, and better personal reputation. If you work on an application development team in any capacity, this class can be your launchpad to learn the essentials of design thinking, and walk out with some tangible techniques and skills to immediately start addressing innovative design for any front end - web, mobile, or desktop.
The workshop is interactive, with hands-on exercises as well as presentation of design techniques, principles, and a lightweight process for incorporating design into development. You'll learn how to create your team's customized recipe for great design, choosing the techniques that work well for your circumstances.
The focus is on interaction design, design thinking techniques, and innovation, not aesthetics and layout. We’ll discuss how to facilitate design meetings, reach group decisions, probe user work and task flows, fit design tasks to those flows, and use that understanding as a basis to foster innovation through better interactions with users. You'll help your team enter production coding with fewer blind alleys, backtrack, and rework. Some exercises will be in groups – bring others on your team if you would like to experience this workshop together.
Billy is internationally known for his work on user experience design, design thinking, and native software development. His team, based in Nashville, Tennessee, has created modern apps hailed around the world for innovation and effective use of advanced user interface technologies. Billy has been a Microsoft Regional Director for 25 years, was a Microsoft MVP for 15 years, and was named a Software Legend in 2002. You can see Billy at major conferences all over the world, usually doing sessions to help developers to become more focused on designing and developing software that users love.