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Connecting with new people

Photo of Ladies Who Power Lunch Event

I attended an event on May 23, 2019, at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, called Ladies Who Power Lunch. It was a networking event put on by Ottawa’s Ladies Who Lunch. Catherine Landry, CEO and Founder of Call Betty Marketing, runs the group, which has well over 30,000 members on 21 different platforms. Most of us run a small business.

It was so uplifting and motivating to be in a beautiful room with a scenic view, eating delicious food and listening to women support and inspire one another. It’s easy to end up heads-down on your projects and forget to energize yourself with social events. This one was a total boost.

I’ll be back for sure, with friends in tow.

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Upcoming Talk on User Experience Design for Librarians

Photo of Library Sign

I’ll be giving a talk on user experience design at the Canadian Library Association Ottawa Kick-Off on September 10th at the Ottawa Public Library, 120 Metcalfe St.

We’ll be discussing how user-centred design methods can make happy patrons – whether they’re navigating the library website or the library itself.

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CodeFest 2013 Keynote

I’ll be giving a keynote address at the Web Experience Toolkit CodeFest 2013 on Friday, August 9th at The University of Ottawa. The topic is Making Happy Users: The Science Behind Good User Experiences.

Making Happy Users: The Science Behind Good User Experience

The Web Experience Toolkit community invites Web coders, designers, accessibility and usability professionals, technical writers and anyone else interested in contributing to the development of version 4 of the Web Experience Toolkit to join us.

CodeFest 2013 will include activities for everyone, including:

  • keynote presentations,
  • code sprints,
  • breakout sessions,
  • a design jam, and
  • various regional satellite events.

This is a free, open, collaborative event for public servants, members of the Web Experience Toolkit community and interested persons and organizations.

The event looks like it will be a ton of fun. Come on down and join us!

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UCD Girl Saved the World with User-Centred Design

Picture of UCD Girl
UCD Girl - Protecting the World From Bad Design

 

I spoke last night at a Girl Geeks Ottawa dinner, had a blast and met all sorts of interesting and fun gals. The organizers did a top-notch job and the venue and food at Grounded Ottawa was great. Thank you so much for inviting me to talk about User-Centred Design (UCD).

Below you can see the presentation I gave. In it, I introduce our superhero, UCD Girl, who works tirelessly to save the world from bad design. Then we met Dave, her archenemy, who, despite good intentions, is known as Bad Design Dude.

Can she save him – and us – from the dark side?

As the epic battle between good and bad design plays out, you’ll learn the benefits of treating early designs as hypotheses that must be tested for usability with end users.

You’ll learn that design is inextricably linked to business value, and you’ll see some compelling examples of how this method saves companies big bucks.

Saving the World With User Centred Design by Hilary Little

View more presentations from Hilary Little
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Girl Geek Dinners Ottawa: “Saving the World with User-Centred Design” April 25

Girl Geeks Dinner Logo

I’ll be speaking at Girl Geek Dinners Ottawa on April 25, 2012.

Imagine a world where critical user interfaces like those for emergency room tools, aircraft cockpits and nuclear reactor controls have been designed based on best guesses. These interfaces have never been tested with real doctors, pilots and nuclear control system operators. They are being made from a single and detached perspective that does not focus on how people actually interact with technology.

In this day and age, that world seems hard to imagine, but the truth is that this top-down approach to designing products and services has been leading the way for decades. Designs of all kinds have been built without a deep understanding of the end user: their wants, limitations, needs and experiences. And at what cost? Fortunately, the gap between producer and user is shrinking as businesses embrace a better system of evidence-based design. The leading method for doing this known as user-centred design.

Over good food and drinks, guest speaker Hilary Little will help us geeks better understand user-centred design and will take from her own experiences of using this method to maximize business value. She will explain the benefits of treating early designs as hypotheses that need to be tested for usability with end users. She will discuss design as it is linked to business goals, and will provide an example of how this method saves companies big bucks.

Register now!

The hashtag for these events is: #ggdottawa