The world’s a mess. The number of problems we face and the technology involved, grows exponentially from year to year. Yet our job is to make it all work.From a UX design perspective, addressing these issues can seem like a game of “Whack a Mole,” where new issues pop up as soon as one is solved. It doesn’t have to be that way. What if we tried a proactive approach to encourage the right choices? We could build the pathways that allow other positive actions to take place. Through this strategy we create foundations for future growth that will have a positive effect on not just the tech systems we use but the world around us.

This year’s series,“Using UX for Good: Building a Better World”, will explore practical ways we can do this through the voices of visionary thinkers and designers who have already planted the seeds for growth. These innovative approaches to change can inspire us to take action while we expand the potential of our daily work. With this Speaker Series we celebrate the change-makers among us and look to them for inspiration as we solve the problems we face and create pathways that will expand, rather than contract, our future.

Please note: CHIFOO wants to make sure that each meeting is a great experience for everyone. If you need an accommodation to help you better enjoy CHIFOO meetings and events please let our CHIFOO Programs Chair know how we can help a few days prior to CHIFOO event.

2020 Speakers and Events

CHIFOO Video Meeting Details

Join us for our monthly CHIFOO meeting! Our next meeting this month at your own home in Portland ...
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UX Writing & Microcopy: How Small Words Make A Big Difference
with Skyler Corbett
Jan 8, 2020

In this talk, we will walk through how UX Writing & Microcopy can (and will) transform writing within business organizations, trades and arts work, and application design to reduce stress and provide guidance for all people from every walk of life ...
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Calm Technology: Designing for the Next Generation of Devices
with Amber Case
Feb 5, 2020

How can you design technology that becomes a part of a user’s life and not a distraction from it? You’ll learn how to design products that work well, launch well, are easy to support, easy to use, and remain unobtrusive ...
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Democracy is a Design Problem
with Dana Chisnell
March 4, 2020

Design directly affects every person in the nation. Join Dana as she explores the design of our democracy and how to make better design decisions that do not have as many unintended consequences for our democracy ...
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The Long Nose of Innovation
with Bill Buxton
April 1, 2020

Using examples from the Buxton-Microsoft Collection, the argument is made that knowing our history is as important to UX designers as it is to architects, musicians or any other creative discipline ...
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Participating in Public: Municipal Software for Online Dialogue and Decision-making
with Arthur Smid & Travis Kriplean
May 6, 2020 6:30 PM

We’ll consider how design can facilitate consensus rather than division. Let’s explore this together and build the practices and software to support democracy ...
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Life & Death Design:
What Life-Saving Tech Can Teach Everyday Designers
with Katie Swindler
 June 3, 2020

Apply new techniques presented to your work in any field to create clear, intuitive experiences that effectively guide the behavior of your users, no matter their state of mind ...
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The Coming Extinction Level Event for Brands & Companies
with Nathan Shedroff
July 1, 2020

UX developers of all kinds bridge the distance between our clients/companies and our customers and we can have as big an impact on strategy as anyone else in the company ...
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August Social: Zoom Trivia Night!
August 5, 2020

It's August. Time for our annual member appreciation social event. Usually we'd be bowling or gaming or indulging in some group social event. Unfortunately, Covid-19 is preventing us from getting together in person this year. But we've heard your feedback about missing face time on our meetings, so our next ...
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Learning to Live Together
with Amelia Abreu
Sept 2, 2020

Explore the history of participatory design movements and highlight community-based action tactics and creative inquiry approaches with Amelia Abreu at CHIFOO's September event ...
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Something You Know, Something You Have, Something You Are:
Designing Better Authentication to Make the Web Safer
Oct. 7, 2020

Come learn about password alternatives, two factor authentication, and biometric authentication, and leave with few simple steps you can take to make your data more secure. (The secret code for this meeting is 123456.) ...
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Systems of Systems
Nov. 11, 2020

Tatiana Mac, Product Designer & Speaker Design systems create an umbrella to to define the future of our design work. But design systems are not the biggest umbrella, so to speak—they exist under broader social, political, and infrastructural systems that affect the parameters, limitations, and variables of our system. Investigating ...
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