June 6, 2024

Lunch n' Learn: Weaving digital interactions into physical environments

Optimal Workshop

Have you ever used a self-service checkout at the supermarket, or scanned your own bags onto the belt at the airport? As much as these interactions seek to follow the same principles we apply to web and mobile interactions, often there comes a point where we need to improvise and come up with novel ways to apply what we know in a new context.

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In this talk, we’ll explore what happens when the things we take for granted as digital designers go out the window and how you can adapt your design to the different needs of ‘phygital’ interactions.

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Every month we have fun and informative “bite sized” presentations to add some inspiration to your lunch break. These virtual events allow us to partner with amazing speakers, community groups and organizations to share their insights and hot takes on a variety of topics impacting our industry.

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Caitlin Pilcher and Ben McCarthy

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Speaker Bios 🎤

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Caitlin Pilcher is a digital experience designer driven by the belief people have a critical role to play in tackling the challenges we face today and building the world we want to see tomorrow. Her background in industrial and digital design has allowed her to investigate how people interact with both physical and digital environments, developing a keen interest in how we can design the space in between. Her work seeks to deeply understand and has focused on exploring complex problems with a sense of curiosity to create simple, human-centred solutions that work towards bringing exciting possible futures to life.

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Ben McCarthy is driven to create incredibly positive outcomes for both people and the planet and speed up the inevitable transition to a low carbon future. Ben unpacks the complexity of human-centred systems to aid others in achieving this, looking for key interactions we have with each other, our services, and our institutions to unlock our ability to make the most meaningful change. Ben is unafraid of using novel and proven methods to tackle the most significant societal and environmental challenges we face today.

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Grab your lunch, invite your colleagues and we hope to see you at our next Lunch n’ Learn! 🥪

Publishing date

June 6, 2024

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Introducing our new Figma Integration 🤩

Community

Events

Lunch n' Learn

2 min read

Introducing our new Figma Integration 🤩

Community

Events

Lunch n' Learn

2 min read

Introducing our new Figma Integration 🤩

Community

Events

Lunch n' Learn

2 min read

Introducing our new Figma Integration 🤩

Community

Events

Lunch n' Learn

2 min read

Introducing our new Figma Integration 🤩

Lunch n' Learn: Annotating designs for accessibility

Join us at the end of every month for Lunch n' Learn.

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Sarah Pulis

Annotating designs with accessibility information is a powerful way to focus on accessibility in the design phase, as well as communicate your accessibility decisions to others in your team.

In this presentation, Sarah will talk about why accessibility annotations are useful, what they can be used for and how you can use popular design tools such as Figma to document accessibility requirements.

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Speaker Bio

Sarah is co-founder and director at Intopia. She has been working in accessibility and inclusive design for 13 years. She has a breadth of knowledge and experience helping organisations create more inclusive digital products and services. One minute she may be talking with senior leadership about strategic accessibility programs, the next she is getting technical with designers and developers. She is also affectionately known as the walking WCAG by her team.

Sarah is an extremely passionate accessibility advocate. She is founder of A11y Bytes and A11y Camp, Australia’s largest accessibility and inclusive design events which supports the sharing of knowledge and community connection.

Grab your lunch, invite your colleagues and we hope to see you at our next Lunch n' Learn

Lunch n' Learn: Talking Tech - A Blind Person's Perspective on Technology

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Join us at the end of every month for Lunch n' Learn.

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Jamal Abdulrahim 👋🏽

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Technology is an integral part of our daily lives, but how does it affect people with vision impairments? In this presentation, Jamal shares his personal story of being a blind person who uses technology for education, work, and entertainment. Jamal demonstrates some of the tools and devices that he uses, such as screen readers, braille displays, and magnification software. He also discusses some of the challenges and opportunities that technology presents for people with visual impairments. Join him for an informative and interactive session that will give you a new perspective on technology and accessibility.

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Speaker Bio 🎤

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Hey I'm Jamal! By day I work with See Me Please not just for the usual user testing gig, but to create inclusion from within.

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Officially, I lead engagements with clients, but my job is a mixed bag of surprises. Sometimes I get paid to chat with some really interesting people about tech and accessibility.

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I was born with a vision impairment and I'm passionate about accessibility and technology. I also love talking with people. In my opinion, accessibility shouldn’t need to be a heavy or intimidating conversation. Organisations shouldn’t be worried about compliance or getting in trouble when it comes to the accessibility of their services. Creating interest in accessibility, and the users who rely on accessible services is incredibly important to me.

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By night, I perform stand-up comedy at various clubs around Sydney and am a regular at The Sydney Comedy Store. I try to use humour as a way to humanise the blind experience in hopes of making interactions with normies a little less awkward.

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My passion for tech and comedy overlap as I rely on accessible technologies such as transport apps, productivity apps and accessible tech devices. All of which I use to get me to and from shows, manage my own books and write new material to keep my sets fresh.

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Grab your lunch, invite your colleagues and we hope to see you at our next Lunch n’ Learn! 🥓

Lunch n' Learn: Using categorisation systems to choose your best IA approach

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Join us at the end of every month for Lunch n' Learn.

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Elle Geraghty

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We all know that testing your IA is essential to create a functioning user experience.

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But prior to testing, what is the best way to decide between multiple possible IA approaches?

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For Elle Geraghty, the answer is a thorough understanding of potential categorisation options that can be matched to your business and user needs.

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Speaker Bio

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Elle Geraghty is a consultant content strategist from Sydney, Australia who specialises in large website redesign.

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Over the past 15 years, she has worked with Qantas, Atlassian, the Australian Museum, Virgin Mobile Australia and all levels of the Australian government.

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Elle also teaches and coaches content strategy and information architecture.... and through all this work she has developed a great IA categorisation system which she will share with you today.

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Connect with Elle on:

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Lunch n' Learn: Writing for, talking to, and designing with vulnerable users

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Join us at the end of every month for Lunch n' Learn.

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Ally Tutkaluk

A multi-faceted approach is key when creating digital products for users who may be in a vulnerable, sensitive, or distressed state. Adopting an approach to copy, design, and testing that considers the unique needs of your main user group not only enhances their experiences, but improves the product for everyone.

From user interviews, to copywriting, to IA decisions, to testing - Ally will cover tools and tips for how you can ensure vulnerable users needs’ are considered at every stage of the digital design process.

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Speaker Bio

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Ally has worked in digital experience in the higher education, FMCG, and not-for-profit industries for over 14 years, most recently at Australian healthcare charity Lives Lived Well. She’s passionate about working with users to create data-driven, meaningful and valuable digital content and navigation pathways. She lives in Brisbane and also teaches Design Thinking at the Queensland University of Technology.

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Grab your lunch, invite your colleagues and we hope to see you at our next Lunch n’ Learn 🌮🍕🥪