MITX User Experience 101 March 19, 2009

There are a lot of terms to describe the way a person interacts with a product or service. Whether its ‘user experience,’ ‘user-centered design,’ or ‘experience design,’ all of them mean slightly different things to different people -- and that goes for both practitioners and their clients. On top of all that, there are various disciplines within user experience – among them -- Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Creative Design (as if the rest of UX isn’t creative!) – that all seem to blur together at different points during a project.

This panel of seasoned user experience professionals from various disciplines is here to help you make sense of user experience, how it’s applied to different projects, who’s responsible for it (hint: everyone), and why it is important. In this first event, our we’ll cover the ""101"" basics of User Experience, including the why’s and how’s behind UX, including:

• How user experience is understood across various verticals
• A common vocabulary for future UX programs
• The fundamentals of experience design
• The importance and benefits of considering experience design in the everyday business environment

Moderator: Kerry Bodine, SVP, Experience Design, Hill Holiday

Panelists: Adamya Ashk, Director, NAD Usability, Staples Inc; Toby Bottorf, Director of Design, WGBH Interactive; Alex Jenkins, Product Designer, Microsoft Start-up Labs; Fred Leichter, SVP User Interface Design, Fidelity Investments; Chauncy Wilson, Senior Manager, AEC User Research, Autodesk, Inc.