Alastair Somerville
Alastair Somerville is a sensory design consultant. He provides expert advice on cognition and person-centered design to companies and public organisations who provide both physical and digital products or services. He facilitates workshops on sensory and emotional design for major conferences and corporations (including SouthBy Southwest (SxSW), Google, Fjord Design, O’Reilly Design, UX London, English Heritage, Smithsonian Institute, Scottish Government and MoneySupermarket). He is currently involved in wayfinding projects in historic buildings and virtual reality.
About the talks
Moving Thru Mixed Realities (Workshop)
A workshop on designing for hybrid and mixed realities. Using both play and physical exploration of places, this workshop first provides a human-centered model for design from both personal and system perspectives and perception. The workshop then shows ways in which existing UX and Service Design tools can be augmented to manage product development when users are encountering multiple layers of information thru augmented and virtual reality technologies in hybrid and remote workplaces and homes.
This workshop is about becoming comfortable with the extended spaces we all live in now and then how we can successfully manage products for users who are moving thru Mixed Realities.
Takeaways
- Developing personal skills in perspective switching and mapping
- Mapping subjunctive user journeys in hybridised physical and digital spaces
- Building on existing UX and ServiceDesign tools for hybrid and mixed reality design
Successful Journeys – an ABCD of Wayfinding (Keynote)
Journeys and maps are important to good UX and Service Design. Still, so many of us feel lost in both physical and digital places. Better human centered design can help us all feel like we know where we are and where we are going. This talk uses an ABCD model to explain the neuroscience and narrative patterns of wayfinding with examples from projects in museums, Virtual Reality and more. By being user-centered we can help everyone make more successful and satisfying journeys.
Takeaways
- Understanding how humans find their way thru physical and digital places
- How we get lost and what design can do to help
- The ABCD framework for successful wayfinding design
Topics include
- Doom scrolling and feeling lost: how wayfinding can help us all feel better
- Knowing where you are going improving your UX wayfinding
- Successful journeys: better wayfinding in UX