Summary from UX and Service Design conference From Business To buttons
From Business To Buttons (FBTB) är en populär konferens inom UX och Service Design arrangerad av InUse. is a popular conference in UX and Service Design organized by InUse. Spring's UX designers Anna and Paulina were on site and summarize their impressions from the day!
Usually, FBTB is a thriving meeting place for designers. This year it was held like much else online and we were excited for how they would succeed in translating the physical experience into a digital event. When a conference is done digitally, it is easy to miss the details that make a conference into a pleasant and stimulating meeting place. From Business To Buttons did a great job and despite the conference being held digitally for the first time, they offered a truly holistic experience. We got the chance to talk to other randomly selected participants through the network function, we tried the blueberry mug cake recipe for breakfast during the morning show, did some morning yoga and listened to the UX podcast that went live all day. In addition to this, the conference offered a stand up with ‘the dude' Bianca Kronlöf and live music with Little Jinder, appreciated entertainment!
In total, nine speakers lectured throughout the day:
The day was packed with inspiration, the things we want to highlight a little extra from the day is:
No concept, no design
Shinichiro Tamaki from Nintento Wii emphasized the importance of having a concept & a supporting idea, which can be used as a guiding light in design and technology decisions and facilitate difficult decisions. In addition he talked about getting to the bottom of the universal and that the basic idea with the Wii was to create an experience that brings the family together. At the same time, it was a strategy to expand their target audience. He stressed the importance of contributing to something bigger as a company, and that Nintendo wants to encourage movement and exercise, while at the same time having gaming as the core of their business.
Be critical
Both Mike Monteiro and Indie Young highlighted the negative side of ethics and technology, pointing out that us people in the industry do not question our actions enough. The world looks the way it does because we designed it that way. Think critically, analyze problems, question your surroundings and your work. Review who uses your design, who does not use it and who manufactures it. Then ask yourself if you can do your job and take responsibility for what you do.
You've got more power than you think
As a designer, it can sometimes feel like it’s difficult to influence the major strategic product issues. We are given a task to solve and the decision makers wtihin the organization seem far away. If you have an idea that you think the company should invest in, it’s not always easy to sell it. Jake Knapp shared his experiences of trying to pitch ideas to Bill Gates and Larry Page, and talked about how the design sprint method can be used to involve different stakeholders to generate ideas together and thus a larger decision base that can influence the company's way forward.
Optimize the way your design team works
Designers work in different ways, some ways are more successful than others. Peter Merholz talked about the importance of centralizing design and creating design teams that can work together on several different projects / products / services instead of splitting them into different parts of the organization. This can have several benefits, e.g. a more holistic customer experience. He emphasized the importance of having a clear purpose as a team, this purpose will define the team's identity. And on the theme of optimizing working methods, Brad Frost brought up the increasingly complex design world we live in, where there’s constantly more of everything. Having a "design system first" mentality / mindset can create better, more efficient and more coherent design.
Long live the mingling
One of the most fun parts of a conference for the mingling person can be meeting new and old industry colleagues. A digital mingle might not be the same experience, but we really appreciated the digital networking feature that was available during the day. It was a bit like a mingling raffle where one was randomly put together with another conference participant for a video chat. We talked to people from Italy, Ireland and Sweden, with students, UX designers and design leaders. The network function clearly made the digital experience a little more alive.
In conclusion
This year's conference was above expectations, we’re already looking forward to next year's event and hope for a combination of digital and physical! From Business To Buttons succeeds in raising the bigger issues and we hope for an even greater breadth of speakers next year. Thank you for a wonderful and inspiring day!
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