MEX: Ingredients of User Experience | Agenda, December 2011

Priya Prakash

Ben Medlock

Alexander Asseily

Priya Prakash

Day One, 30th November 2011

08:30 | Registration and breakfast

Meet the other MEX participants in the WallaceSpace garden cafe as you fuel up for the day.

09:00 | Introduction to MEX

A creative introduction to the MEX Pathways from the MEX team: Norbert Metzner and Marek Pawlowski. This session is intended to surprise and challenge participants, setting the tone for 2 days of new thinking at MEX.

09:40 | Priya Prakash, Head of Mobile Phones UX Design, Nokia

When we were thinking about how best to celebrate the 10th anniversary edition of MEX, it seemed entirely natural to ask Priya Prakash to return to present the opening session of the event. Her 2009 MEX session on balancing commercial imperatives and the purity of user experience was universally enjoyed and it is a great pleasure to welcome her back after two and half years to address Pathway #13 on quiet design principles. Priya joined Nokia in 2009 and worked as Creative Director for User Experience. She was later appointed as Head of Series 30 and Series 40. Currently as the head of Mobile Phones UX Design, she leads an international team of designers who are passionate about making high-end experiences accessible and affordable to billions of people globally. Priya enjoys designing for billions of people and helping to improve their daily lives through the ways they can use their mobile phones. She is passionate about crafting simple and fun design to enable people to use innovative tools, conversations and experiences. Before Nokia, she has worked in various roles, such as interaction designer, implementation manager, creative director, innovation executive, saleswoman, entrepreneur and head of product. When not working, she is fascinated by mundane habits and daily behaviours. Prakash is a RSA fellow with a MA in Interaction Design from Royal College of Art.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

10:10 | Ben Medlock, CTO and co-founder, TouchType

We invited Ben to MEX after watching how his deep knowledge of user behaviour, language and mobile technology led to the creation of one the great Android success stories: SwiftKey. Ben's team developed the popular SwiftKey application for Android, using A.I. to improve the experience of typing on mobile devices. His session at MEX will focus on Pathway #12, investigating the emergence of 'inference technologies' to model the decision making abilities of the human brain. The talk will touch on the philosophy of cognition and look at some of the tools available for tackling inference problems. After completing a PhD at Cambridge University in computational linguistics, Ben co-founded TouchType, an innovative London-based tech company building next generation text entry software for mobile devices.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

10:40 | Networking and morning coffee

Coffee, cookies and refreshments served in the WallaceSpace garden cafe and throughout the venue.

11:00 | Jim Kosem, Designer, Halfman Research and Design

Jim comes to MEX to share a particularly challenging experience, where he worked for several years to build a digital monument for victims of war crimes. The resulting project focused on the audible channel of mobile devices to help children understand and learn from their country's history. Jim grew up in a family of engineers but somehow ended up in art school, and has been working on everything from design research for mobile devices to snowboard graphics ever since. Most recently a research associate at Horizon Digital Economy Research and lead mobile user experience designer for Samsung Design Europe, Jim also worked for and with a wide range of clients including Microsoft Research, The British Music Experience, Playfish/EA Games and Google. His focus, whether working with genocide survivors in Rwanda, European retirees, British teens or London skateboarders, is about making this whole modern mess that is design, technology and services liveable and meaningful.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

11:30 | Alexander Asseily, Chairman, Jawbone, State

We asked Alexander to join MEX after being inspired by the beautiful design of the Jambox, Icon and Era accessories developed by Jawbone. He will help provoke new ideas in Pathway #10, as well as touching on the issues of Pathway #5 through his work on the UP personal health product. He is is founder and Executive Chairman of London startup State, a global opinion network. Alexander was also the founding CEO of Jawbone (Aliph) and continues to serve as its Chairman. Jawbone is the world leader in mobile lifestyle products including Jawbone Icon and Era headsets, the Jambox speaker and UP personal health solutions. Alexander grew up in Beirut and London before receiving his BSc & MSc in Engineering Design at Stanford University.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

12:00 | Networking and lunch

The WallaceSpace chefs prepare great brain food for lunch. Get together with everyone in the Garden Cafe or find a quiet sofa to network with a key contact.

13:00 | Charles Lilley, Managing Director, HealthSystems Group

Charles brings special insight to MEX, with a background combining nearly 40 years in healthcare and IT systems. His knowledge and experience will help guide and provoke discussion in MEX Pathway #5 on best practice mobile healthcare experience. He was involved in major public sector modernisation and the Integrated Service Teams initiative within Cabinet Office. He led a review of the Social Exclusion Unit for the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair. He also worked with Matthew Taylor on an Institute of Public Policy Research study on Public Private Partnerships. He has had a number of jobs including chef, factory worker, buying and selling motorcycles (he loves and races Italian motorcycles) and selling insurance door to door. He started in the NHS in 1972 as a gardener and grave-digger in a psychiatric hospital; he then became an NHS management trainee based in the South East of England. Charles is an ardent advocate of greater patient involvement in care and self-management of conditions. A key step he promotes is patients having access to, and being custodians of their own medical information so as to enable self-management of their conditions. He is a passionate advocate of the use of technology from surgical robots to device technology in the provision of care. Charles is a serial entrepreneur and has served as a director and senior executive of both public and private companies and built his own businesses. He is currently Group Managing Director of HealthSystems Group.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

13:30 | Gavin Evans, Co-founder, Director, Digital Accessibility Centre

Gavin will be sharing his experience as co-founder and Director of the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC), helping MEX participants to understand the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities when using digital devices. This insight will provide valuable grounding for all of the Pathway areas, informing the working sessions and overall debate at MEX. Gavin's work spans public sector and private sector organisations. This includes working with media organisations such as Sky, BBC and currently consulting on all accessibility issues for online products at Channel 4. The Digital Accessibility Centre as a whole works with some of the UK's leading banks such as Lloyds TSB and Nationwide, auditing and consulting on the disabled user experience to ensure that the products are fully inclusive. The DAC is a not-for-profit social enterprise ensuring that all web and mobile products can be used by disabled people and in doing so provides employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

14:00 | Breakout session 1: Meet your challenge

You'll be assigned to one of several MEX breakout teams. Each team receives a challenge aligned with the MEX Pathways, which you'll work on over the course of the conference. On the afternoon of Day 2, each group will be asked to give a 10 minute presentation to summarise the team's response to the challenge. Your team will be led by an expert facilitator appointed by MEX and supported by a pair of illustrators, who'll help the group to visualise its ideas. Teams will also be provided with a variety of stimulus materials in a MEX 'Inspiration Box' to help them create genuinely new ideas.

15:00 | Jason Mills, Editor, Web Development, ITV News

Jason comes to MEX from the world of broadcasting, intrigued by the challenges and opportunities of using mobile devices in his industry. He is a TV and digital journalist with 20 years experience. He's worked with some of the biggest names in television news and for all three main news broadcasters in the UK: ITN, the BBC and Sky. His career began at the BBC as a reporter and producer, and helped launch the BBC News Channel in 1997. After a stint at Sky, he moved to ITN where he edited all ITV's main bulletins, including the evening news and News at Ten, both of which won the RTS News Programme of the Year Award under Jason's tenure. As digital became increasingly important, he took over the newly created role of editor of web development, responsible for the digital strategy for ITV national news, encompassing social, web and mobile. He is currently working with ITV to re-develop the ITV news web-site in early 2012, and mobile news gathering and broadcasting will be a core part of that. Jason wants to see how mobile can help us remove the shackles of broadcasting and allow his teams to file anything, from anywhere, at anytime.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

15:30 | Andrea Lewis, Digital Project Manager, FACE

Andrea's knowledge and understanding of user behaviour will help shape Pathway #12 at MEX, where we explore how improved understanding of innate behaviours enables better experiences. She holds an MSc in CyberPsychology and graduated from Harvard with an undergraduate degree in Psychology. She is a usability and user experience researcher and has worked across the media industry in project management and digital product strategy roles. For more than 10 years, Andrea has worked with brands such as MTV, VH1, Reebok, Virgin Media, and Dell to develop robust online experiences and mobile applications. She thrives on developing immersive and engaging digital products and has a healthy respect for robots and video games.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

16:00 | Networking and afternoon tea

Tea, cookies and refreshments served in the WallaceSpace garden cafe and throughout the venue.

16:15 | Andrew Muir Wood, Planner, Plan Strategic

Andrew has worked with MEX on a number of occasions, as a researcher, a speaker and a facilitator. He continues to be fascinated by the new experiences that can emerge from the dynamic relationship between technology and society. At the December 2011 MEX, Andrew leads the work on Pathway #11, looking at super local interactions in his speaking session and as a facilitator. He is a user experience planner at Plan Strategic in London. Previously he completed a PhD at the Design Management Group at Cambridge University's Institute for Manufacturing which examined the patterns and drivers of change in fashion and technology that are embedded in the design of consumer products.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

16:45 | Alyson Webb & Lindsey Green, Partner, Frankly, Green + Webb

Alyson Webb, Partner, Frankly, Green + Webb

Alyson helps cultural organisations experiment with mobile, designing experiences that help audiences interpret and connect with complex stories, objects and environments often through audio. Alyson will be delivering a session at MEX as part of Pathway #9, looking at ways in which audio and tactility can shape mobile experience drawing on examples from cultural organisations from around the world. Alyson has spent over 20 years designing mobile experiences much of it using audio. Her achievements include devising the content experience for the BAFTA winning Tate Handheld Guide and the UK's first museum app - Love Art for the National Gallery.

Lindsey works with cultural and historic organisations, helping them to use mobile's unique capacity to deepen engagement through learning and play. She will be delivering a session at MEX as part of Pathway #9, looking at ways in which audio and tactility can shape mobile experience, drawing on examples from cultural organisations from around the world. Lindsey has more than decade of experience in digital, creative learning and mobile user experience design. She has worked with some of the most innovative cultural organisations to deliver some of their most innovative projects, leading projects for Tate, English Heritage, the Science Museum and National Palace Museum, Taipei.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

17:15 | Breakout session 2: Explore and research

The facilitator will guide your MEX breakout team as you continue to research and develop initial ideas in response to your MEX challenge. All group members will be involved in responding to the task, drawing on the diverse expertise among MEX participants.

18:15 | Summary of key themes

The MEX team brings the whole conference together for a quick summary of the key themes which have emerged during the day.

18:15 | MEX Evening Reception

Relax with your fellow MEX participants over drinks and seasonal canapes in the Wallacespace Garden Cafe.

Day Two, 1st December 2011

08:30 | Registration and breakfast

Meet the other MEX participants in the WallaceSpace garden cafe as you fuel up for the day.

09:00 | Ben Scott-Robinson, Founder, Creative Director, We Love Mobile

Ben Scott-Robinson brings huge creative energy to MEX. After winning the very first MEX Innovator of the Year Award in 2008, he has returned on several occasions, each time challenging people to think differently about the future of mobile experiences. This time he will touch on several Pathway areas, sharing practical examples and insights. He is a founder of We Love Mobile and has been working in mobile since 2001 following a successful creative career in digital. His mobile career started at Hutchison Telecom, where he was responsible for the user experience for their integrated messaging platform and the travel and music online products. He then spent over three years as a senior consultant for the Orange Group Design and Usability team. Ben is one of the mobile industry's leading experts in creative user experience. He is also an evangelist for pushing creative boundaries on mobile and is responsible for the creative direction and delivery of the agency's work.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

09:30 | Marcus Hoggarth, Design Director, Native

We invited Marcus to MEX for his deep knowledge of mobile accessories. Marcus has been helping shape the consumer product and mobile landscape since the mid-1990s. Initially with telecoms technology start-ups such as Pogo where, as Head of Design, he was responsible for design and new product development of its innovative GSM web-enabled mobile communications devices. Since 2003, as director of Native design, he has been creating iconic products and experiences for some of the world's most successful companies and brands. His session at MEX will focus on Pathway #10, looking at how smart accessories can transform the mobile user experience. His work in the audio accessories for mobile, including designs such as the award winning Zeppelin iPod dock for Bowers & Wilkins, gives him a unique perspective. Bringing his extensive commercial experience of taking complex technology-led products to market, Marcus is both a superbly gifted creative and a natural team leader. He has driven hugely influential innovation, product development and design programs for TomTom, B&W and Orange, winning numerous industry awards for his designs, including iF, D&AD and Gold IDSA.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

10:00 | Networking and morning coffee

Coffee, cookies and refreshments served in the WallaceSpace garden cafe and throughout the venue.

10:30 | Angel Salazar, CEO, AIDA Technology

Angel Salazar comes to MEX to share his knowledge of using mobile healthcare technology to put customers in control of their own wellness. He recently co-founded AIDA Technology, a platform enabling the orchestration of services and apps supporting the next generation of personal health and wellness portals. With a PhD from the University of Manchester, Angel is a senior lecturer in the 'Marketing, Operations and Digital Business' Department of the Manchester Metropolitan University Business School and a visiting academic at the Massachusetts Technical Institute's Sloan Management School, Eindhoven Technical University, and Universities of Jaen and Pablo de Olavide in Spain. He is an expert on business model innovation and, more recently and by necessity, a user experience practitioner. He has also worked as a health information management consultant for the Pan-American chapter of the World Health Organisation, during the first waves of health reform and liberalisation in the mid 1990s. He runs the Technology Venture series in Manchester, which brings together academics, entrepreneurs, investors and policy makers. His first computer was a RadioShack TRS-80, progamming in BASIC and Assembler, and his largest program so far, a bedside patient monitoring networked system written in C++ in the early nineties.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

11:00 | Isobel Demangeat, Product Manager / UX Researcher, Qualcomm Cambridge Research (CAMRAD)

We invited Isobel to MEX to share insights from her recent study of augmented reality, responding to MEX Pathway #11. Isobel's experience, interaction design and user research encompass the full spectrum of digital interactions, with a strong focus on mobile applications. Her passion and vision for good user experience comes through the understanding of users and their motivations via observation and interaction with real users and theirenvironment. Isobel has been an enthusiastic member of the Qualcomm Cambridge UX team since 2005 and has worked on a broad range of UX projects from mobile application stores to intelligent user profiling. Coming from an industrial design background, her practical experience has encompassed all key aspects of UX: graphic design, interaction design, user testing, user research and ideation facilitation. As part of Qualcomm Cambridge Research (CAMRAD), Isobel runs a dedicated user testing lab and champions the use of real-world contextual inquiry as a vital part of the user research and ideation process.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

11:30 | Nicholas Wheeler, Founder, Ven2Media

We invited Nicholas to MEX because of his vast strategic experience in driving the evolution of media formats, which will help provoke new ideas in MEX Pathway #2. Nicholas has had a transmedia career working in newspapers, radio, television and new media. For the past eight years he built ITN's multimedia proposition from scratch into a successful stand alone business, always making sure the company was in the forefront of latest thinking. Under his leadership ITN was the first with video news on 3G, first with a made-for-mobile video news channel and among the leaders to switch from paid-for models to advertising funded. He left ITN last year to work on new ventures after more than 30 years in various corporate roles. Prior to his new technology conversion in 2002 Nicholas ran radio stations LBC and News Direct and before that was Programme Controller at Capital Radio. During ten years at Capital where he carried out a number of roles he was also responsible for starting an award-winning evening news and showbiz programme The Way it Is.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

12:00 | Breakout session 3: Prototyping and building

After a brief recap of the previous day's progress, your team will start to bring together its research and ideas into a cohesive response your MEX challenge. Working with the facilitator and group illustrator, you'll prototype and begin building your project.

13:00 | Networking and lunch

The WallaceSpace chefs prepare great brain food for lunch. Get together with everyone in the Garden Cafe or find a quiet sofa to network with a key contact.

14:00 | Mo Firouzabadian, Head of Connected Devices, Lumata

Mo comes to MEX to explore the how consumers experience media across multiple digital touchpoints, focusing on the themes of Pathway #2. Mo Firouzabadian is Head of Connected Devices of Lumata. He leads Lumata's social content solutions for hardware manufacturers and operators. Prior to Lumata, Mo was at Buongiorno, leader in mobile connected life, responsible for Buongiorno's business to operator product offering globally, as well as opening Buongiorno's operations in Turkey. He has worked across strategy, business development, product development, technology, marketing, CRM and organisational transformation. He has been working with the top global hardware manufacturers, wireline and wireless telecommunication companies, media companies and FMCGs. Before joining Buongiorno, Mo worked at the start-up ZedGravity focused on monetising narrow-band networks with rich media communication.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

14:30 | Christoph Raethke, Entrepreneur in residence, MagiTact

Christoph is working at the leading edge of gestural interface developments, bringing to MEX his insight into the new MagiTact technology. He has worked in digital projects and content since 1996, founding his first startup in 1999. Since 2002, he's been particularly involved with the mobile internet industry and co-founded the Berlin chapter of MobileMonday in 2008. He continues to organise and host MoMo Berlin's quarterly events, with a mission to make the industry more transparent and accessible. In 2010/11, Christoph ran the inaugural semesters of the Berlin Founder Institute, helping entrepreneurs to shape their ideas and businesses in ways that make them sustainable and fundable. He's an advisor specialising in making the startup scene's innovative drive accessible for big corporations. As an industry expert, Christoph loves to share his experience and contacts to support digital entrepreneurship whenever possible. As an entrepreneur, Christoph believes he has found The Next Big Thing to shape the future of digital usability: MagiTact.

Links to MEX Pathway #...

15:00 | Breakout session 4: Prepare to present

The last session of your MEX breakout time will be spent finalising your group's response and structuring your presentation ready to share with the other teams.

16:30 | Breakout team presentations

Each MEX breakout team will have 10 minutes to present their conclusion to the conference, using their creativity, visual aids and public speaking skills to deliver their response. It is an informal session with plenty of time for feedback and discussion.

17:30 | Summary of key themes

The MEX team closes the event with a quick summary of the key themes from both days.