SGVUX#37 Conference Redux
The month of March brings us a number of great conferences that we're attending. From World IA Day Los Angeles, to CSUN's assistive tech conference (March 14-17), to IAC23 (March 28-April 1, New Orleans), there are plenty of topics to inspire us and share what we've learned.
Bring it in and let's pool together things that we've learned this past month.
Subscribe for event updates: https://lu.ma/thesgvux
Join our public Discord: https://discord.gg/KZfUN3r
Hosted by DIA Design Guild: https://www.diadesign.io/
Event notes
Conferences, events, and courses shared:
Building a Second Brain
https://www.buildingasecondbrain.com/course
IAC23, March 28-April 1
In-person, New Orleans, $1,100
https://www.theiaconference.com/
axe-con
Virtual, free
https://www.deque.com/axe-con/
https://www.deque.com/axe-con/sessions/scaling-accessibility-an-accessibility-design-managers-tale/
Diversitech 2023: A diverse tech experience, May 2-5
In-person, Philadelphia, $99+
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/diversitech-2023-a-diverse-tech-experience-tickets-250111589497?aff=Avyana
Utilising Gamification in UX, May 9 2023
Virtual, free
https://www.airmeet.com/e/c3a08f00-d9de-11ed-95f3-cddc0cab6df0
UXR Conf June 7-9
Virtual, free
https://uxrconf23.joinlearners.com/
Quant UX June 14-15
Virtual, $25, scholarships available
https://www.quantuxcon.org/
Enterprise UX 2023, June 6-7
Virtual, $695+
https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise-ux-2023/
World IA Day
- Here is the keynote from World IA Day: https://vimeo.com/801793146
- Los Angeles
- Seattle
Game Devs of Color Expo
https://www.gamedevsofcolorexpo.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_Gamblers
NarraScope 2023
Celebrating Narrative Games
June 9 – 11 at the University of Pittsburgh
https://narrascope.org/
Keynote Speaker: Brianna Lei
https://brianna-lei.itch.io/butterfly-soup
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YU-NO:_A_Girl_Who_Chants_Love_at_the_Bound_of_this_World
Transcript
Grace Lau: April. Oh my God. How did the year go by already?
May Ng: Well, the year is still in swing.
Grace Lau: it's It's still insane…
May Ng: It's not done yet.
Grace Lau: but it you like three three months has already gone by and it feels like it's been a really long time already.
May Ng: It's almost four. Yeah, we're like halfway through April.
Grace Lau: Four months.
Grace Lau: Yeah. I'm already planning for like September. I don't even know how that works. But yeah.
Grace Lau: So today we were on to get together and talk about what conferences we've been to recently and what you guys have been learning on your own and then, of course, we're also trying to figure out what other plans or events that we're planning for the rest of the year. There have been a lot of conferences that happened this past month.
May Ng: March is always busy.
Grace Lau: So, I know Vanya went to something recently. She went to the Rosenfield Media conference advancing research and the whole cohort thing. And then I think, Jessi, you posted a few accessibility conferences on the Discord events channel.
Jessi Shakarian: Yeah. I didn't go to any like, during the events but I did go back and watch.
Grace Lau: Okay. The axe-con stuff.
Grace Lau: Okay? And then Katrina did you go to any past couple of months?
Katrina Lo: I know that it was supposed to be a talk coming up about board game and how like, you know, You act stuff. So I'll start It was interesting of how you doing it. It's more like a workshop type of thing.
Grace Lau: Okay. See and that's coming up or that hasn't
Jessi Shakarian: Can we see their link?
Grace Lau: Okay. Because,…
May Ng: Yeah.
[...]
May Ng: I'll go first because then you can chime in because you also want to one that I went to. So I guess we kind of went to the same ones, but also different. So the first one I went in person was World Ia Day, but for the Seattle group, I helped to organize that, and that was really cool. I got to put together a panel for disgusting accessibility like in terms of IA like gaining access to information and then just like, making sure that people understand how, how to navigate to get the information they need and all the other parts of it. So, it was really cool. We got to discuss it here professionals and different companies and roles discuss accessibility in like, beyond the Disabilities viewpoint, but just as an inclusive,
May Ng: like like general inclusive viewpoint, there's a lot of things going on with people related to like, Like roads and like transportation in Seattle, and it was just cool. Because since I got to help organize this year and it was Seattle since I helped with LA last year like I got to meet a lot of people and we're actually gonna have like a dinner in another week or two to like get together because we are all so pooped. After the conference we're like we were gonna go out Like to just have like a drink or something. Like No, we're all going home? Yes.
00:05:00
May Ng: So I got insight on how much it takes to like, plan a conference from scratch. And, and then other than that, I got to go to. I see this year, which was in person that's my first in person, I see. And Grace Sensei was also there. And we got to be a roommates. And she like, peeled me fruit and stuff like, that felt very supported and the whole community's super awesome. They have a great first timers experience where they like, plants special events and like orientations. And like, all the people who are veterans really went out their way to like introduce themselves or like ask people who they were and like, what they're into and like, like I've never gotten so many phone numbers and LinkedIn requests like
May Ng: Ever. So it's really cool and I'm, and I'm following up and talking with people after the conference and doing like little zoom hangouts together. So I guess there were so many talks at that conference. I probably really don't have that many technical takeaways because there was just so much But just learning more about the community and I'm taking a course. Now, on learning how to identify my note-taking style and note taking app that suits me, so that I can be a better note-taker. More effectively. So I think that's a big takeaway because my conference notes were just like All over the plate and like just so, you know, I'm like scared to like Miss anything. So I'm writing down everything but then you're like not paying attention as well. And so I think I learned that about myself. Yeah. Anyway, that's a tlvr.
Grace Lau: No, thank you for that because I think that's also one of the things like where like you go to a conference and you go to a lot of talks and then at the end of the day you're like, What did I learn? I have no idea what I learned because either you're like, doodling or like your mind is already in different places so you don't really absorb as much information compared to, you know, when you're in a class you're like you're there for just one thing. and then in confidence, you're like you have many different tracks that you could potentially attend and go to And so I I saw that on LinkedIn. People were posting sketch notes. And during the conference itself, people were posting sketch notes on different talks. And so that was interesting. I don't know how many you guys do sketch noting, when you go to talk, some things like that. I don't. Or I sometimes I do, I do it depends on what kind of materials I have in front of me and I can actually sketch things or things down here.
May Ng: yeah, Ben from so he is a UX designer from Germany. What was actually really excited to show me like, Oh let me show you because we both had ipads. He's like, Oh like let's have a moment where we bond and it's like, Do you know? I think it's concepts. I think, I think it's an app that a lot of ux like visual UX designers, UI designers use. And so he was sketchnoting but also like using his iPad to take slide photos and integrating them directly in and he It is, I think like just very naturally, like, probably more on the UI visual design artistic side. And I was like, That's beautiful. I don't think I can or at least like not for this conference. I'm not gonna try. Yeah, I'm not gonna mess with anything yet, but I think that's the first time I saw someone like Sketchnoting live. That was pretty cool.
May Ng: I found out, I'm a librarian. That's my that's my note taking style, there's also architect and then Grace is definitely a gardener. I'm taking the building a second brain course by Tiago Forte. Who has like the coolest name ever.
Jessi Shakarian: I think next. so it seems like the Axe-con talk was happening at the same time as the CSUN Assistive Tech conference which is like across all industries, not just design.
Jessi Shakarian: It's like you accidentally education. It's also stuff. And then at the same time, there was the Microsoft Ability Summit. which it was like total overload but I've decided to focus on axe-con and I watched three talks.
Jessi Shakarian: Well, I watched one from Hilton, the hotels, they had a gamification of accessibility and how they used gamification to make make it more fun for people to learn about accessibility, to play to our human nature of wanting to compete to problem, solve, they did all sorts of things, like kind of like in this, in the thing of like a designathon or something like a hackathon, they did an in-person event. Where They were given a bunch of people are giving a bunch of tools and had to build a
00:10:00
Jessi Shakarian: Inclusive tic-tac-toe and whoever won thought their tic-tac-toe created and they would put it in the hills and hotel rooms. And so that was like I think like to encourage people to get to do it and it went really well and they did like inaccessibility bowl and So, yeah, so that's something that I thought was really interesting. And then sort of thinking about like, The ux of gamification, which like his own thing in a nutshell, but that's kind of a hole I'm trying to fall down. And then I watched one on. operationalizing, inclusive design, and how Intel is using inclusive design to sort of build out their because they have a 20 30 plan to make all of their technology accessible and how they use inclusive design to
Jessi Shakarian: Sort of work, kind of cost functionally across these different departments, and products and and stuff like that. And that was interesting. And then the last one I watched was on from Github And they were having. An inclusive design. Program manager or something. She how she went from like an inclusive design, personally team of one to three and then how she builds out her three people and stuff. But the interesting thing I liked is that she uses a house analogy and accessibility can be like,
Jessi Shakarian: it's like a house, right? It's wearing soil and stuff but it's kind of up to you to like how much you want to come into the house. Do you want to just sit on the porch and like just grab something real quick or like and have like a small cup of coffee or you want to come inside and have a snack and be able to learn more and you know, or do you want to stay for a couple days? Like really get acquainted and Alison like, you know, be there. And so she uses this really interesting metaphor to be like How do we? How do we create like welcoming spaces within the workspace? And then like help help someone figure out like in their process of like, where they are in their journey to determine where they want to go. And then that's the sort of spaces up to them to decide how far they want to go. So, it was cool. There's still more time. So watch.
Grace Lau: That's at the X-con.
Jessi Shakarian: Yeah and those are free and available year-round. You said the register I think but that's pretty as well.
May Ng: Um, can I ask? Did they tell people what the winning includes The design for the tic-tac-toe game was like, I'm curious like how people approached it and like, what's about
Jessi Shakarian: Yeah, I don't know. She just mentioned it. I wonder if I can find it. She just said that like the winner was gonna happen there stuff. Placed In the hotel. But I don't know. I don't know. I'm on a So there's quite a few McDonald's people who started eating at Hilton. So I found out who had been working a little bit closely with the accessibility team. Well, it Hilton. So I'm gonna go bother them this week and see if I can find out what information
Grace Lau: Okay.
Grace Lau: Yeah, that one that the one? What about the house? Analogy sounds really interesting. I kind of want to go into a little bit more like, okay.
Jessi Shakarian: Yeah, let me go. Let me go find it. Let's see. It was.
May Ng: like the first half of the year is always like a ton of conferences related to UX I can't even keep straight, like all the names blindly register for like, six of
Grace Lau: Yeah, I just said for a whole bunch and that hopefully they have recordings.
Jessi Shakarian: All right.
Grace Lau: But don't be in charge of helping to. Break up the recordings.
Grace Lau: Says Grace, because that's what she's doing.
Grace Lau: And then I'm posting a link to the IA conference that May. And I also went to earlier
00:15:00
May Ng: Super fun.
Grace Lau: See. What other ones have you?
Jessi Shakarian: like,
Grace Lau: How's everyone else joined or went to? Or is this is this considered a conference? I hope not.
Grace Lau: What other interesting places are you guys all planning to go to or looking forward to it? Maybe
Grace Lau: In terms of toxin and stuff.
Grace Lau: We have some new people. And so, there's Lee Leah. Two Valerie. Nice to meet you.
Grace Lau: I think you guys are our first timers.
Valerie Senanu: Hello. Hi.
Grace Lau: No, I think I've seen at least one of you before. Hi.
Valerie Senanu: Yeah. Hello everyone. I'm sorry for being late. Yeah, I have joined on the call about once. It's twice, I think pretty much last year. yeah, and then just give me like this really great portfolio review that I really appreciate. So it was really great and I also yeah. So um, for a conferences that I know of that are coming up, I know that it's like this one called Diversity Tech. And I'm planning on signing up for it. But I'm I was kind of late to the meetings, I'm not sure if that's what you guys are discussing. It's called diversity. Texas. On 20173 I could like post the link in the chat or okay.
Grace Lau: Yeah. if you could, that would be great because like, we're always on the lookout for like new different events that are coming up and and see what's interesting to to go to, yeah, this this month we're just talking about conferences that we've been to
Valerie Senanu: oh,
Grace Lau: God this Sherry like What did you learn? I was interesting or was something that you might want to. Share with the rest of the group.
Valerie Senanu: Okay, okay, so you, um, I haven't been to any yet so far, but I believe the one that I just shared is what it's coming up. And in May The third and fifth. Third of this. Oh yeah, looking forward to this.
Grace Lau: Okay, so the diverse attack, one is going to be in person in Philadelphia.
Valerie Senanu: Yes.
Grace Lau: Oh, and this is all in person. Or is it partially online as well?
Grace Lau: Are you attending in person?
Valerie Senanu: I was. Yes, I was kind of attending person so I have my like really seen…
May Ng: it's
Valerie Senanu: if it's online but
Grace Lau: Okay, okay. But Katrina might go out to Philadelphia.
Katrina Lo: I'll be that fast. I'm still doing my security clearance. It gonna be a while. I do find out. So if utilizing gamification in UX is a May 5. It's for free online. So yeah, post the link now. Yeah.
Jessi Shakarian: Okay, can you repost the link? Because I'll say it got cut off.
Katrina Lo: And that kind of,
Jessi Shakarian: Yeah, it's when I click on it, it's This is the page. You're looking for design exist.
Grace Lau: I think you needed to copy the entire thing and then remove. Some spaces.
Katrina Lo: I mean, we post
Jessi Shakarian: Oh, I see I see. Yeah. Yeah.
Grace Lau: I'm going to try and see.
Jessi Shakarian: Let me try that.
Katrina Lo: I've got a link. Copy and paste it.
Jessi Shakarian: There we go, that worked. Thank you.
Katrina Lo: Yeah, I thought it was really interesting because I really like gaming too.
Jessi Shakarian: I think I will definitely sign up for this. Thank you.
Grace Lau: You next crunch. Oh, there's a uxr conference.
May Ng: Okay.
Grace Lau: Oh, so that's two conferences back to back in June.
May Ng: Kind of like almost like March, but like the beginning of the end but they're all they're virtual so. And if I can't attend live, they do like recordings.
Grace Lau: Yeah, Quanti UX just started last year, I believe and they have a lot of like,…
May Ng: Yeah.
Grace Lau: really big sponsors.
May Ng: Yeah, I am more of a qual, UX researcher. So I feel like I want to go to quantity like balance it out and be more mixed methods. It's like, all right, that's the stuff. I don't naturally have an affinity for. So, It's like more technical in a way.
Grace Lau: Hmm, yeah, the Quan also has a scholarship ticket too, so if nobody is able to afford it, I mean, it's only $25 for Early Bird, it's not that bad.
00:20:00
May Ng: But when you make zero dollars, like,
Grace Lau: Yeah.
Grace Lau: You mix zero dollars and…
May Ng: No. I do,…
Grace Lau: every bit part. Yeah.
May Ng: I do really love how accessible well, especially with How normalized virtual conferences are that like I guess I can't speak for other fields that I have like no relation to but like there's a lot of UX conferences available. So like education on the field has really You know. Feels nice. I know when I started like school originally or like college or something, is like have to go to school.
Grace Lau: Yeah.
Grace Lau: The learner is one is also pretty good.
Katrina Lo: I feel like the pandemic have opened up all these opportunity for us. To do it online,…
May Ng: Mm-hmm.
Katrina Lo: even though we cannot be physically there and save a lot of money for us too.
May Ng: Yeah, like they can afford to give like free tickets or like discounted tickets because they don't have to pay for you to like physically, take up space, or eat or well, that
Katrina Lo: I mean, you can just work in a while listening to it. So that was media, positive thing.
May Ng: Or like video, recordings too, like that's huge.
Katrina Lo: Oh yeah, I like that physical recording. Just get a video. Recording of it. He's like watching like doing no downtime and like leisure time. So I like it a lot.
Grace Lau: Okay. any other conferences that you rinse recently, I want to talk about
Grace Lau: No. Just looking forward to what's coming up.
Katrina Lo: but only one that I've been reasoning was the one that we've been on to the way finding That was the reason common. I love that conference a lot.
Grace Lau: That was for a world-eyed, a LA.
Katrina Lo: Yeah, all that Ala. I love that coffee. I love the this keynote. Speaker a lot.
Grace Lau: Okay. How come?
Katrina Lo: How? Because I like her house she'd like to try to design wave of people to move around the airport. Including everyone like, you know, accessibility also but it's really cool. Because like accessibility is not really well. Spoken of somebody really talk much about it. You go to different places. Workshop stuff like that. But I'm really happy that, you know, somebody talk about accessibility
Katrina Lo: And then talk about, like, you know, ages on, you know, senior how do you help the senior find ways too, But that was really interesting thing. Let them talk about it all the time.
May Ng: Grace, with the link. Thank you.
Grace Lau: It helps. When you're organized these things, you have to know everything where it lives.
Grace Lau: Game, devs of color.
Justin Kim: Yeah. So I found this one because in the game Dev space, like, especially if you go to like GDC or something, a lot of the talks are, you know, by the dominant we're not dominant, but like the most populous ethnicity in the Games industry, which tends to skew why? So, this one is specifically to empower. You know, I'll be voices of people of color. And I seen some of their videos on their YouTube channel. I like it. I like it a lot better than most GDC talks, just because it's less like industry jargony and much more about like it touches upon, you know, like, use your personal experiences when you're making your games because there's a lot of folks in Indy, in indie gaming, space where people of color and you see, that's where a lot more representative games tend to be.
May Ng: I want like a Hong Kong gangster, like mahjong game or something. Just to put out, like, cultural. There's a references that would be really cool.
Justin Kim: so if you lose around, you lose a finger like
May Ng: I don't, I don't know, just channel and how young fat kind of vibes.
00:25:00
Grace Lau: And kind of gamblers.
Justin Kim: gun fool all over the place.
May Ng: Yeah, I got a gambit, thank you. That's classic.
Justin Kim: I haven't seen that one.
May Ng: One of the co-chairs at my I see, like surprised me like, you know, Chow Yun Fat like Yeah. Like are you like, Are you old enough to know? And then he just like, started naming like all of Hong Kong cinema. Like, it's like, Oh sorry, I'm not qualified. Anyway, Sorry, that's a tangent. But that sounds really cool. I would love more representation in games.
Grace Lau: God of Gambler's came out in 1990. Holy crap.
May Ng: There's a suit,…
May Ng: there's a series.
Grace Lau: Yeah, I, II, and III.
May Ng: Yeah.
Grace Lau: Anyway.
May Ng: The classic.
Grace Lau: So, Justin, did you go to this Game Dev of Color Expo before?
Justin Kim: Uh, no, I I think the ticket prices were, I mean, they're more affordable than GDC or Game Dev game developer conference I think, which is the biggest one. But I think it'll still a little bit too pricey for me, so I ended up not going But I think like this year I probably want to at least like especially now that I'm starting to make more games, you know. So I won't feel like imposter syndrome isn't as bad this time around.
Grace Lau: Okay, they don't have they don't have registration up yet.
Justin Kim: Yeah, no, I don't think so. Yeah, it's also…
Grace Lau: Okay.
Justin Kim: because they are also very niche conference though. Is gonna be pretty pricey too. Like I remember there's another one for interactive fiction that wanted to go to but I mean, the tickets weren't bad for that except it was like in European time. I was I think and I think um, Grace around that time we were working on a DIA project for client I was like, It is 6, am they're starting and like two hours. I I need to sleep.
May Ng: Yeah.
Justin Kim: Yeah, so That didn't work out, but fingers crossed.
Grace Lau: Is this Narrascope?
Katrina Lo: When was? so when, when does so it is called, what was it called, interactive gaming,
Katrina Lo: Is it called Interactive like Fiction Gaming conference?
Justin Kim: Now, it's called Narrascope. Grace just put the link to it.
Grace Lau: Oh, it is that one? Okay.
Justin Kim: yeah, that one is sorry going
Grace Lau: I didn't say.
May Ng: Was that?
Justin Kim: Oh s***.
May Ng: Um, Okay,…
Justin Kim: Oh sorry. Going.
May Ng: open something surprising.
Justin Kim: Oh yeah. No, no, I'm sorry. You go first.
May Ng: That's okay. So I just want to clarify like interactive fictions, that like the Choose your own adventure books and things or
Justin Kim: Kind of, yeah, they're a type of interactive fiction. But most of the ones that people make here are like they're more like hyperlink based game digital games as well as parser games. So if you know about likes, yeah. Like it's like um it's like a very very rudimentary form of natural English processing where like yeah you have to type in like you know, a goblin appears in front of you and then you type in like attack goblin, right? And then what the machine will parse it. And then you know, if it's a correct, if it's like a valid input, it'll something will happen. If not I'll tell you you can't do that or…
May Ng: And like,…
Justin Kim: something like that.
May Ng: press H for help on commands valid commands and things like that. I a very,…
Justin Kim: Yeah, something like that.
May Ng: very basic version of that when I was learning JavaScript and boot camp, we got to do that, like text space kind of like, Oh like do like do these to move and then it'll, it'll text show you. Like here's what's in the room. And stuff like that. Those are fun.
Justin Kim: Yeah. Yeah, that was believe it or not. That was the biggest like form of gaming back in the day, at least in the computer gaming.
May Ng: I met some people who are like, Oh, I've put some hours in games like this. It's like awesome.
Justin Kim: Yeah, I I used to play some of these when I had more back, when I had more time and holy crap. You can get lost in these. Um, but anyway, I freaked out because this year's Narrowscope speaker is Brianna Leah. And she made a link. It here, she made this, she made a really fun. Butterfly. Here's a really fun visual novel. She made called Butterfly Soup. Like our really popular.
May Ng: Mmm.
Justin Kim: Basically. Oh she has a nice little summary, a visual novel about gay Asian girls playing baseball and falling in love.
00:30:00
May Ng: Can you send that to me? I have friends who would be really interested in it?
Justin Kim: Oh yeah,…
Justin Kim: I put in the chat.
May Ng: Well, oh great. Yeah.
Justin Kim: Yeah, no, this is like this is one of the, I remember, I I told my one, when my queer friends about it because like, Oh, have you played this? It's so fun. And she's like, How the hell do you know about this? This is like, just like secret knowledge. But anyway, I'm very excited because Yeah, she's gonna be the keynote speaker this year for Narrascope
May Ng: Cool.
Justin Kim: Yes.
Katrina Lo: I'm excited because their school is online for free. You do online one. Yes, I just I just register.
Justin Kim: Oh, is it?
Katrina Lo: You do it online. It's for free. You don't have paper.
Justin Kim: Oh, okay, okay.
Justin Kim: Yes, yes. Oh and it's in Pittsburgh this year
[...]
Justin Kim: Yes. You see I'm actually I don't know what it's interesting because
Justin Kim: There's some, the, the talks here get really interesting because like, Long story short.
Justin Kim: it's like, Interactive fiction, still kind of like a really niche genre of gaming now. So you're always because like so now it's like you have to be very creative in order to innovate in the space. So it's interesting to see what they're up to nowadays.
May Ng: Interactive like my exposure to it. Now that I'm kind of understanding some of the types is it's more an Asian gaming, right? Like a Japanese, like Japanese game development. Or is?
Katrina Lo: Yes. If they are.
Justin Kim: Yeah. So
May Ng: and okfc had like, That like little that I like mini game,…
Justin Kim: Visual novel.
May Ng: where you could like date Colonel Sanders, try to date Colonel Sanders.
Justin Kim: Yeah, yeah. Finger looking good. Yeah, I played that one.
May Ng: Yeah.
Justin Kim: I was Whoever did that needs a raise? That was a clever marketing.
May Ng: That was a very yeah, that was so good. That marketing, not a great game, but like it's good marketing.
Justin Kim: Yeah, ironically I yeah, so like in in Japan visual novels are really big, because, Like a couple of I think back then 90s. There was…
May Ng: but,
Justin Kim: what because there were still pretty popular back then. But like the industry exploded there because of like one particular game. That pretty much like set the bar for everything else afterwards. and then,…
May Ng: Okay.
Justin Kim: This is deep deep gamer lore.
Justin Kim: See. Here it is, it's called, you know.
May Ng: Problem. Okay, which wasn't sure if I would know it. Not that I didn't,…
Justin Kim: Oh, and…
May Ng: I would, but
Justin Kim: Yeah. No, this one. Yeah, it was it's insane because like there's a bunch of games afterwards. That I'm really play around with the whole like idea of time travel and games as an interactive medium and…
May Ng: hmm.
Justin Kim: how you can interact with that as a player. Also incorporating like, you know, physics philosophy inside the narrative and all that, this game literally did all that. In just one fell swoop, apparently.
May Ng: This school. I love hearing about these like niche. I love finding out about like these whole like Worlds are like societies the communities of people of like things that I like had no idea what happens.
Justin Kim: Yeah, it's The same same I don't know. There's some every time I think I find something niche, I always end up surprised when someone tells me about something even more like specific and like almost impossible to learn about. Anyway that's my spiel and video games.
Grace Lau: It's like he dropped us in the middle of a rabbit hole, then you just left us there.
May Ng: Like good luck and now.
Justin Kim: Bye-bye.
Grace Lau: Click and now I feel like what narrative fiction? The song so cool.
May Ng: Subcultures are endless this true. About that.
Grace Lau: That is true.
May Ng: Like, pick up a new hobby, you have no idea. There's this whole other section of YouTube.
[...]
May Ng: I think. Conferences. I know that are coming up that like I'm not necessarily signing up for or thinking about, it's like the 24 hours of UX. I think I got a recent newsletter for that and figma the fig. Chen or whatever. I think those more.
Jessi Shakarian: Config.
May Ng: oh, config Yeah.
Jessi Shakarian: nobody thinking of Yeah.
May Ng: Yeah. I think I got an email about that too.
Jessi Shakarian: That's yeah, that's not I just checked on it cuz I was thinking about that earlier today. um,
Jessi Shakarian: Yeah, I saw the 24 hours of UX which I was looking at and trying to figure out how I could do that. I think the hardest part, For me. With all these conferences is, it's very difficult for me to remember to watch the talks later. And then fitting it in.
May Ng: That's all I haven't last year. It's like, Oh, I missed one. Oh my gosh.
Jessi Shakarian: Yeah, the only reason I meant to do the three acts contacts is because my manager was like, Watch these, you have to want, like, I'm like, give me a deadline, right? Looking to be accountable, essentially Week to watch them and then they can. Okay, make it happen but like There's no.
May Ng: Hmm.
Jessi Shakarian: Nothing like no. Pressure to get it done then I'm like Yeah never forget about it.
May Ng: Okay, let me know when I need to pressure. You
Grace Lau: Is a schedule for 24 hours of UX out, yet partially.
Jessi Shakarian: I don't know. It's just looking.
Grace Lau: I don't know what time they put us at.
Tammy Cho: This one looks really cool.
Grace Lau: Which one?
Jessi Shakarian: Look at this up.
May Ng: 24 hour.
Grace Lau: Mmm.
Tammy Cho: The 24 hours one.
Jessi Shakarian: Yeah.
May Ng: And I know you can, like, just go in and out as like when you can watch it. But like, the whole name, it makes me feel like I gotta like, Caffeinate up and like get ready for like HACKATHON. Like you're gonna watch 24 hours but like, don't, Don't do that.
Grace Lau: Yeah, so I've done 24 hours. In. 20 hours.
Grace Lau: Yeah, you can you can really get really tired afterwards. um,
Grace Lau: There is one hour that I have to be at the supposing.
May Ng: It look.
Grace Lau: My name is attached to one of these and I was like, Wait why is my name here?
Jessi Shakarian: What? It is.
Grace Lau: Yes. Supposedly UX Akron is doing "A Dozen UX professionals (and you) weigh in on the future of UX"
Grace Lau: yeah, so if you go to the schedule and search "Grace" it shows up once
https://24hoursofux.com/schedule/
Jessi Shakarian: Up there, this. Yeah, look at you.
Grace Lau: And that's because I had done that. You got podcast. I was guest speaker. Once I wonder if that's like, he's like a migrating, all the
Katrina Lo: So you did a podcast…
May Ng: Like, they did not notify you that you have any sort of responsibility for a conference that is like global.
Katrina Lo: so that's why your name's there.
Grace Lau: Yeah.
May Ng: Without. Yeah. Okay.
May Ng: I don't think you have any obligation to show up if like, if they were like, "Hey, Grace. All right. Are you free to do this? Or can we put your name on it, right?"
Grace Lau: It's okay. But World IA Day is actually gonna be doing one of these hours. It's just that we aren't listed on the schedule yet.
May Ng: Oh, okay, cool.
Grace Lau: So we are planning like what is the future of information architecture type of thing and then I'm still trying to figure out the script for it. It's coming up in a few weeks.
Grace Lau: For us, it will be like, I don't know, 9 PM on the Wednesday.
Jessi Shakarian: Right information. There's some good stuff in here.
May Ng: That's not too late but kind of a weird work time. It work.
Jessi Shakarian: Yeah, always since CES.
00:40:00
Grace Lau: Yeah, this was this is cool because I remember last year when they had it and you can find a videos from it. I think it started in the Philippines.
May Ng: Mmm.
Grace Lau: Right. I think someone was a keynote…
Jessi Shakarian: Look cool.
Grace Lau: and then you went to UX Hong Kong. Also had talks And they were talking about languages. And then I know, Egypt also has some talks about the Arabic language. And how?
Grace Lau: Yeah, different things are represented in in those space so it was really cool. They also started this in during the pandemic, so it's been three years and they started us. It is a whirlwind at the end of the day. Like you can really like, map all the conversations. Really cool.
Tammy Cho: Really cool.
Grace Lau: If anything, we could always, you could always do like a watch party.
May Ng: Of respectful.
Grace Lau: Together. So we can at least catch one or…
Katrina Lo: Oh yeah.
Grace Lau: two of them afterwards. After the 24 hours are done and…
May Ng: Okay. Yeah.
Grace Lau: then we can watch the videos.
Jessi Shakarian: Yeah.
May Ng: Sprinkle. Like, bring your favorite snack. And do a Korean face mask.
Grace Lau: That's what we did. When we were in New Orleans, we had face mask and we were eating oranges.
[chit-chat about Korean face masks, showing up at an SGVUX virtual event with one, where to get face masks]
Kao Chen: Quick question as any other conferences, talked about like, chat GPT by any chance. This year.
May Ng: There was a couple talks. I didn't go to all of them because they're a lot of conflicts, but there were talks about AI in information, architecture at like IAC and like the influence and responsibilities as IAS like things that we need to consider how it might affect like the industry or like, you know, jobs a careers for the future for people in the field. And I think like some ethics issues, you know,
Grace Lau: Mm-hmm. Some of them were talking about large language model language models and how we might have to pay more attention to developing or designing for them. Corporate into our work, especially in taxonomies and ontologies. I would need to go back to the recordings to figure out what exactly they said about it. So, I don't remember.
[...]
May Ng: no, I didn't know but he was in the main room and he had a I think it was like the full 45 minutes on like AI and information architecture. But then, like my brain started like clouding over after a bit because it got pick up pretty in the weeds. which I'm sure like if I was more more skilled or like in that area probably would have been great one over my head a little bit.
[...]
Grace Lau: Oh, Duane Degler?
May Ng: AI for IA. I think.
Grace Lau: This guy.
Grace Lau: And talks about how we communicate with developers.
May Ng: And then there were like, a couple other ones that I don't remember. He was on the big stage, so,
Grace Lau: Mm-hmm. He speaks every year and because he tends to have some really good talks about
May Ng: The future.
Grace Lau: A future, not necessarily the future, but just interesting ways to look at complex. Information systems. and so tends to have some
May Ng: Hmm.
Grace Lau: maybe very, very like good.
May Ng: just,
Grace Lau: Case studies that he would share.
May Ng: Yeah, it's very in-depth.
Grace Lau: I think that would probably be the May be just one or two. Rather good ones. that are very ChatGPT directly.
Grace Lau: I'm not sure the other one still. All of the other talks at the IA Conference recently was like, Oh, like career trajectories and, IA as a job title or a foundation skill.
May Ng: The skills that
Grace Lau: I think that was, that was a very serious talk you as more, like, make fun of ourselves type of thing.
May Ng: yeah, the one that Kelsey , I didn't go to that one, but And then there's a lot on diversity and inclusion in the industry, and in our designs and methods. Because I'm A sucker for all like, those are the ones that I wanted to go to and yeah, like, writing in plain language. I like that. Stuff like that. Like some of the more like skill like implement, this is how you can actually like influent things.
Grace Lau: and I thought was probably the only one then
May Ng: Was there any talks in the World IA? Dave like for the LA chapter on that or like what were the speakers kind of? What was their experience?
Grace Lau: Nothing around chat.
Jessi Shakarian: No. there was good.
Kao Chen: Yeah. Yeah I brought this up primarily because a lot of investors are asking about it and they're not looking for the future for say they're just looking on waves out and use it now to optimize for our clothes.
Kao Chen: and also, Bringing what type of positions we have to create, or engineer to Tell these steps and all. So right now I'm trying to like hire for like a prompt engineer, which I think is more like an IA engineer. But just a different title at this point. So because when I try to explain I8 like VP they don't understand it. Really the one I say pumped engineer or just at work engineering anything so They have a hint of what's going on.
May Ng: Yeah, just don't.
Grace Lau: I'm on the other side is like,…
Grace Lau: I don't know. What is a prompt engineer?
May Ng: Have no idea…
May Ng: what that means. Yeah.
Kao Chen: Oh, a prompt engineer is literally, and I, I a person understanding the structure of data and kind of formulate an instructor that's coherent and understandable to a human essentially.
May Ng: Hmm. Is that title, like very common in a certain like sub like industry.
Kao Chen: Right now it's the newest hottest engineering title. Up perfectly, which kind of that's me. Because right now we're in like the third generation of technology titles. I would say so AI wave. So right now I A lot of the AI companies are hiring for something years which can either be like actual. Yeah. I researchers or all of them are also hiring librarians because they understand, they understand like what information is and how to structure it. Which is the fundamentals of I essentially.
May Ng: Yeah.
Kao Chen: So I think
May Ng: Yeah, librarians are all right. Yeah.
Kao Chen: Yeah, so that's all reminders to basically. I it's just The in this new generation, they're just being called prompt engineers Essentially. Sorry about the background noise. I'm in a cafe.
May Ng: oh, Yeah,…
Kao Chen: Yeah. so,
May Ng: no worries. Thank you. Yeah this is the first time I've heard that specific title so that's good to know if I start seeing it and I'm not it's like
Kao Chen: I mean it's only two years old and there's only been like three companies hiring for right now but then right now it's kind of because other companies are waiting for other companies see how it formulates. it's not responsibilities are But for now that's amazing, you know? It's like anthropic which was the one I posted in the
00:50:00
Kao Chen: discord channel. And they say they're just another competitor to open AI. Who credit accepted the more I mean they say they were just like a they were former employees of Open Eye. That's been off. Good reasons. Because they didn't want to be sell out the sorts. So I open it is a commercialized software now and those are pictures that left. That I want to commercialize AI and that direction. So they created anthropic, but just more on there. Yeah, correctly, it's essentially. um, but, in general, like, Contemaries It's still relatively new field and keep our company is trying to figure out whether it's more engineering, or it's more information. Happy And this is where companies are just experimenting to see where it falls into which of it.
May Ng: Yeah, like it's both.
May Ng: like, it's a ton of information, but you need People who can do like set up the models and like code, the algorithms or whatever, right?
Kao Chen: The, there's that part but you don't have to do that if you're using like services that already available. so there's like creating your own custom large language model versus using a large thing and…
May Ng: MMM.
Kao Chen: all that's already available like technically and just Using third party tools racing. No code tools, essentially to automate processes, both internally or externally.
May Ng: Hmm.
Kao Chen: So that's where companies are trying to figure out. It's a better to focus more on a no code route or the code route. so,
May Ng: That's fair.
Kao Chen: So, just something I think about.
May Ng: Era of the librarian. I'm like excited for that.
Kao Chen: Yeah, I know. I was just like y'all, like they even add the word librarian. So that means they admitted that it is a librarian, they're hiring for
Grace Lau: We just have a new name.
Kao Chen: nope, every say generation of technology. There's a new name for every role actually.
May Ng: Yeah.
Grace Lau: Well, that's pretty cool. Hey, Tammy.
Tammy Cho: I have a quick question but it's unrelated, so I just wanted to put myself on the stack before. It's to
Grace Lau: Go ahead.
Tammy Cho: This is a very basic question, but if I know somebody who might be interested in like the SGVUX Meetup, what's the best way to introduce new people to this group?
Grace Lau: The I think. There.
May Ng: I think I just added myself to discord when I did it because I didn't know anyone. Or sorry, maybe you updated.
Grace Lau: Let's see. Hold on.
Tammy Cho: I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't like, Creating more work I guess for other people and going through the proper channels.
May Ng: Mmm, that's fine.
Grace Lau: Oh no, there's a link. I just put in the chat.
- Subscribe for event updates: https://lu.ma/thesgvux
- Join our public Discord: https://discord.gg/KZfUN3r
Tammy Cho: Well perfect.
Grace Lau: um, And you could, and then whenever we have do events coming up, they can they will receive something in there or they can subscribe to it.
Tammy Cho: Okay, cool.
May Ng: The Blue Tammy.
Grace Lau: Actually don't know how well that works. Luma.
May Ng: Yeah.
Katrina Lo: So please have a quick question. I know I was approached by one of the recruiters about UX design job.
Grace Lau: Yes.
Katrina Lo: So, if I want to, like pass along to the group, how do I pass it along to the group? Because I remember, I sent it to you using DIA. So the is…
Grace Lau: Yeah.
Katrina Lo: what is the best way for me to pass along the information?
Grace Lau: You can email us at events@diadesign.io
Grace Lau: grace@diadesign.io works too. That goes to me directly. It's just that this email address events@diadesign.io also goes to Justin and whoever else is managing that so I'm not the bottleneck for anything.
00:55:00
May Ng: And then you guys like post that stuff into the discord…
Grace Lau: Right.
May Ng: like the channel.
Grace Lau: Yeah, if you have any like, job postings or anything that you want to share other events that you feel like other people might benefit from. Definitely, just supposed to in the sgvux server. This card we have events, jobs, and other channels.
[...]
Tammy Cho: What's your what's your norm about adding people to the discord? I guess like is, is it? Yeah like do you all? Is there like a point in which you invite people to the discord? I just didn't know about that either.
Grace Lau: It's open to anyone. Yeah, you can just invite them…
Tammy Cho: Okay. Cool. okay, I just wanted to make sure before I just added people I guess.
[...]
Grace Lau: Yeah, let's see. So I guess we're at time. I hope this was helpful. Um, I was were trying to get back into the swing of more regular events because after World IA Day everything is kind of chaotic.
May Ng: Until June June, will be like crazy with conferences, but I guess you're not running them also. That'll help.
Grace Lau: Yes, I'm not. But then we're also trying to get it into the habit of either doing like this month, where we're virtual. Next month, we'll be in person and then alternate between things. So when we're in person most likely, we'll just find a place where they have outside seating and we can just grab food and just chat and stuff.
Grace Lau: So if you're the LA area and you have a suggestion of where we might want to meet, just send it to me grace@diadesign.io or send it to events@diadesign.io. And then we could we can plan around that. Otherwise, the next time that we're meeting virtually again will be in June.
[...]
Grace Lau: Thank you, everyone.
Meeting ended after 00:59:36 👋
