SPARK UX 1 - 3 Oct, Half Moon Bay, CA

SPARK UX

the two faces of design

A FORUM TO EXPLORE THE INTERSECTION OF ARCHITECTURE AND EXPERIENCE DESIGN

Too often today, software products and interactive experiences fall short of their potential because the user experience does not serve the interests of its users. The engineering side of software architecture often fails to consider the full implications of its design, leading to interfaces that are non-intuitive, and experiences that compromise the product and threaten the success of the business.

To help address this, my team is inviting industry leaders and luminaries in this area for a think-tank meeting called SPARK UX. SPARK UX will examine the issues behind this problem to inspire a new framework for bringing the “art of user experience” into the process of software architecture. The event will bring together a diverse collection of architects, engineers, designers and analysts to define what user experience means for software architects, and provide guidance to all practitioners for improving both the process and end results.

The mission of SPARK UX is quite simple: to empower software architects to improve the user experience of products everywhere.

Together, we will help software architects think about user experience, define how software architects can employ UX in their software development lifecycle, and reveal how product managers can value UX as an integral part of the development process.

SPARK UX will be held at The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, CA (south of San Francisco) Oct. 2-3, 2006. If you know of someone that should be there (or if you think you should be there!), let me know by using the contact form on this blog.