From talks on inclusive design and designing for belonging, to informative workshops on running remote versions of design workshops and sprints, it was a jam-packed week of excellent design knowledge-building.

Conference highlights

1. Learning more about assumption tracking in UX from Chantal Jandard and Cody Farthing, both at PlanGrid /Autodesk
2. Hearing from Lara Mendonca, Product Design Lead at Bumble, on her approach to designing for belonging
3. Listening to Figma’s approach to remote work and structuring the work weeks of their remote teams from Noah Levin, Director of Design at Figma

“Listen to others, resist our biases, affect change”

This quote and the set of principles shared by Lara Mendonca at Bumble were some of our favourite takeaways from remote design week.

Lara’s talk focused on how we can not only invite diverse individuals to use systems, services, and products, but actively do the work to uplift people and create a sense of belonging for all of our users.

She also spoke more in-depth about inclusive design, and how to both meet business needs, and embrace our most vulnerable users.

“Three needs you need to consider when designing:
Meet investor needs = make money
Meet business needs = long-term success
Meet users needs = belonging”

Lara emphasized that meeting ALL of these needs is necessary to make a good product or service, but many organizations are only focusing on the first two.

She closed her talk by speaking about the importance of listening to others and including them in design and decision-making processes. Without this participatory, listening-oriented approach to making products and services, organizations won’t be able to uplift people and affect change, which is the core driver of building trust with users.

Managing assumptions in lean UX design teams

One of our team’s other favourite talks of the week was the Assumption Tracking workshop, hosted by Chantal Jandard and Cody Farthing.

They shared insights on building a process that ensures you aren’t carrying too many assumptions into the design and development process.

The steps involved in this framework are designed to manage risk in your UX projects effectively

Before starting a project
Assess your project and goals: what problems are you looking to solve, and how will you build assumption tracking into your process?

1. Draft your assumptions that link to open questions in your project, focusing on pain points rather than solutions. Consider UI, vision, scoping, and technical constraints.
2. Rank by risk and confidence on a scale of 1-5: risk is how much danger there is if this assumption is wrong; confidence is how much proof you currently have.
3. Prioritize validating or invalidating any assumptions that are high-risk with low confidence. Validation of your assumptions should be built into your research plan, with multiple interview questions or data points (qualitative and quantitative) to triangulate the data and effectively validate these assumptions.
4. Rinse and repeat. Bring this approach into your ongoing processes. Track assumptions weekly, and make them part of kick-off meetings, stand ups, and check-ins.

Using the approach presented in this workshop is a reliable way of identifying and answering questions that come up in the product development process, and aligning teams effectively, even when remote.

We also enjoyed hearing from Noah Levin, Director of Design at Figma, on his approach to remote design teams.

Levin provided a day-by-day walkthrough of how his team’s days are structured while remote, from morning coffee chats to all of the different types of design critiques they conduct every week.

These are some of the design critique types used by the Figma team as part of their design process.

During this time of remote work, Figma’s team has adapted these critique methods to maintain a balance of communication between teams while ensuring enough time for individual deep work.

By integrating enough casual connection time, teams can better retain the spontaneous creativity that is often hard to replicate in a remote environment.

Remote Design Week was an unparalleled opportunity for our team to connect and grow our remote design toolkit alongside teams from across the world.

As always, we’re looking forward to future events hosted by our friends at the DesignX community!

Not sure how to design human-centred products and services remotely?

As a distributed team who have worked with companies across Canada, the United States, and the rest of the globe, we have an experienced remote design toolkit. Get in touch to collaborate remotely on improving your products and services.

Contact us

The post Remote Design Week 2020 event recap appeared first on Say Yeah!.

As individuals, we’ve adapted our behaviour to give ample space to passers-by, and expanded our vocabulary to include ‘social distancing’ faster than crafty sewers can stitch facemasks.

As we peer into our colleagues’ homes from our new home offices, or share our gratitude for frontline workers, we reassess our relationship with work, and our work’s meaning in the world. Unwittingly, and for the better, this has made us all see what an inclusive approach to work looks like.

For the fortunate white-collar workers who remain employed, videoconferencing and other online tools make working from home the new normal. Unlike most ‘long-game’ transformations with labour—from safety standards to embracing diversity—this change has been abrupt and drastic. We’ve seen the ‘softer side’ of previously faceless institutions and once stoic spokespeople.

The smartest leaders have used this turbulent time to exhibit empathy and explore opportunities in this crisis. While this is no time for ‘egos or logos,’ the pandemic offers time to reflect on how to improve our workflows, hone technological solutions, and better share information and resources.

Whether we witness sign-language interpreters alongside political leaders at press conferences, or appreciate the simplicity of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB)’s online application forms, we’ve become acutely aware of the need for clarity, consistency, and inclusivity.

Like all adaptations, we must first accept this reality before we can thrive in what will be a fundamentally reshaped global economy. For organizations, new practices must engage, encourage, and enable all staff, partners, and patrons. These are all principles of inclusive design.

Inclusive design goes beyond accessible services and accommodations. It recognizes an individual’s complex and ever-changing experience and needs.

A familiar example is the sloped curb on the corner of a sidewalk. Initially developed for wheelchair accessibility, this accommodation also benefits parents with strollers, or someone with sore knees—and many others with similar needs.

The same happened with video captions, which make accented speakers easier to understand or keeps our watching from disturbing others around us, but which were initially created to unlock content for the deaf or hard of hearing.

As millions more remote workers experience an upsurge in empathy, it’s time to harness this shifting perspective to create an inclusive approach to delivering products and services. Innumerable studies have proven that to uncover new markets and break through with innovative products, a diverse network of stakeholders and colleagues is key.

The natural extension of this is for more leaders to embrace inclusive design. This means accepting the complexity of the market and the variability of individuals, and connecting intentionally with diverse audiences.

To lead with real insight and innovation, we must abandon the myth of the ‘average’ person.

Going forward, people will expect adaptable, accessible, efficient, and inclusive solutions. This includes ongoing accommodations for remote work, online access, and a more thoughtful consideration of our shifting needs as we move between home, office, and the many ever-changing stages of our lives.

We’ve never experienced anything like this in our world’s history. Now is the time for leaders to embrace this unique opportunity, tap into our growing empathy, and realize the capability of their teams to deliver more inclusive products and services.

Not sure how to get started with an inclusive approach to digital transformation?

From our inclusive public sector work to our insurance, banking, and other private sector work, we continue to develop our inclusive design practice and bring impactful service design and product strategy outcomes to the organizations and communities we work with. Let’s use the unprecedented change we’re facing today to continue to deliver more inclusive products and services for tomorrow.

Get in touch

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The week will include talks on everything from inclusive design to talks on getting better customer insights. You’ll also get to participate in great networking opportunities (virtually, of course!) with after-hours events, and a Slack workspace dedicated to the event for chatting with other attendees throughout the week.

Some talks we’re excited about at Remote Design Week 2020

• Lara Mendonca, Product Design Lead at Bumble will talk about inclusive design at Bumble, and designing for belonging
• Anna Niess, a designer at Slack, will be sharing her take on how customers shaped the future of Slack
• Gaining deeper insights into remote work at scale from one of the world’s largest all-remote design teams, with Christie Lenneville, UX Director at Gitlab

As a team that has a long history of working remotely, we can’t wait to spend the week with the DesignX community talking all things remote design and remote collaboration.

The post Remote Design Week 2020 takes place April 27th through May 1st appeared first on Say Yeah!.

Our team extends sincere thanks to brave healthcare workers and to community members responsibly ‘flattening the curve‘ and we’re taking our own steps to work and live carefully.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a drastic shift in the status quo. However, in this era of speedy information sharing, changing perceptions of the COVID-19 emergency are accelerated, for better and for worse. We urge you to be conscientious of the people and public surfaces you interact with, practice social distancing, and wash your hands with soap regularly and thoroughly.

And we encourage you to limit your interaction with the endless stream of news, tweets, and doomsaying which is sure to impact your mental health.

Planning for a better tomorrow

This period of disruption of the status quo can be a crucial turning point for successful organizations. In times like these—marked by unpredictable market behaviour and economic uncertainty—when leaders choose foresight over fear—improving products and services instead of retrenching—they unlock the potential to be market leaders in the next growth period.

We’re certain of this: if you can deliver services online, your market access remains stronger than ever. Internet usage is up over the last two weeks as the general public begins working from home. However, if your market access is currently limited, now is the time to refine your products and services to focus on digital access, automation, and data intelligence. Harness the power of inevitable future market growth and pent-up demand. Take charge on your path to digital transformation.

Thanks to decades of experience in remote work, the Say Yeah team is well equipped to support organizations at all levels of digital proficiency. Our work is ‘remote’ by nature—from our intercontinental team to our global client network.

We work across Ontario and beyond

Our team of multidisciplinary and senior designers and strategists work across Ontario and further afield, with staff as ‘remote’ as Chennai, India.

We’re experts at remote work and collaborate seamlessly with digital processes and tools. Whether it’s running workshops, conducting user testing, developing strategy, designing, or chairing meetings, we’re extremely comfortable collaborating across timezones on digital platforms.

While members of our team enjoy time in our Toronto studio, we have years of experience working online, which ensures effective collaboration from anywhere and everywhere.

Remote work is a standard state of being for Say Yeah! Our staff and collaborators are based in locations across Ontario, and well beyond.

Innovating & collaborating remotely

Over the past twelve years, our diverse client work made us remote work experts organically. If your team can benefit from building its capacity in digital services or improving its digital maturity, we can help, no matter where you’re located.

We have recently worked with clients and teams in:

• Canada
• US
• Europe
• Africa
• India
• Australia
• South America

Remote doesn’t mean that stakeholders and consumers are not engaged. We’re experts in: remote tests, online interviews, video collaboration, collaborative documentation, and other interactive tools.

We’re fully equipped to conduct research, design products and services, and strategize with a digital workflow, which is customized to each client’s preferences. This consistent, effective, and efficient workflow ensures that your projects are successful and sustained without a single in-person meeting, if necessary.

Our approach to COVID-19

To address COVID-19, staff who usually commute by public transit are working from home. We’ve taken other precautions to ensure everyone’s safety and health are prioritized, too—both in and out of the office. There’s been no disruption to our workflow. We continue to operate at full capacity. Thanks to our service design and product strategy methodologies, alongside being equipped with the latest hardware, software, and online tools, we continue to be available to support you. We’re ready to help level up your team’s delivery of great products and services as you navigate working remotely, and to prepare your organization for a swift, strategic return to increased consumer and market behaviour.

We firmly believe that improving your digital products and services now benefits your organization exponentially in the long-term.  There’s no better time to invest in digital excellence to strengthen your positioning when we see a return to normalcy.  

We’re here to help

Get in touch

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