Redspa's Head of Digital and UX, Christine, headed up to London to the impressive General Assembly offices to watch the Design Disruptors documentary, to gain an insight into how the world's leading companies handle the UX challenges we face every day.
Design Disruptors, a documentary created by InVision, is about how design is influencing the future of technology, and the way we all use products. Some of the industry's biggest names, from the most innovative companies explain how they approach design, and the challenges they face along the way.
Design Disruptors showcases how the industry's greatest minds are pushing user experience design to the forefront, and how this is driving business decisions that are made. 90 different design leaders were interviewed, with many giving us an idea of their background, how they have got to where they are today and how they've honed their skills.
User Experience Design has exploded in popularity over the last few years, with companies realising that exceptional design can win customers and keep them coming back. Not only that, but design is really changing the way we do everyday things, this can be a major competitive advantage for modern businesses looking to stand out from the crowd. Julie Zhuo, Vice President of Product Design at Facebook, who has been with the business since the early days, explained how Facebook has harnessed the power of design to stay ahead. She references the rise of mobile devices and different formats in which people are consuming Facebook's content as an example of how Facebook have had to look to the future and adapt in order to stay ahead.
"We need to keep looking ahead, we need to not just assume that how things are today is how they will be in the future, that's what you have to do in order to stay at the top and be innovative."
- Julie Zhou, VP of Product Design at Facebook
The documentary also gave a practical insight into how these people work on a daily basis, Daniel Burka, Design Partner at Google Ventures, showed team discussions where ideas for a new product were placed on post-it notes, then and each member of the team picked their top three, prioritising the ideas so they can be moved on to the next design phase. He also discussed a lot of the research techniques they use to discover user behaviour.
This film was inspiring and enjoyable, with a good mixture of ideology, alongside practical day-to-day advice. For those with an interest in design and technology, it's a great watch. For more information, and for screenings, visit designdisruptors.com.
Photo Credit - General Assembly London
