Smart Design addresses Design Strategies for enhancing Mobile User Experiences

  • To help mobile industry deal with customer interactions across multiple touchpoints
  • Consultancy’s directors, Heather Martin and Blake McEldowney, to present at MEX conference in London on 19 May at 11:00 AM

Barcelona, Thursday 13th May 2010; Smart Design’s Heather Martin, Director of Interaction Design, and Blake McEldowney, Director of Industrial Design, will take the stage for a joint presentation on "Design Strategies for Creating Mobile User Experiences Across Multiple Touchpoints."

The talk is part of the latest MEX (Mobile User Experience) Conference taking place next week at WallaceSpace, London, UK. MEX is a two-day strategy forum exploring the techniques and strategies for creating great mobile user experience in a multi-platform digital environment.

Heather Martin and Blake McEldowney’s session will address the challenges the mobile industry faces as it evolves from designing product experiences limited to a single device into complex webs of interaction across numerous customer touchpoints. They will provide tools and techniques for how to combine disciplines and ensure user experience doesn’t break in the gaps between company’s products.

"Technology needs to fit people – not the other way around," says Heather Martin. "Our focus at Smart Design is on keeping it simple, relevant and meaningful even when the whole system is complex. We have a very human approach. And, this is especially important when you are designing great user experiences across multiple touchpoints."

A few points from their talk outline this approach:

  • Connecting the dots: expanding methodologies to orchestrate new digital experiences.
  • Products that were once seen as dedicated standalone devices now have the potential to connect to a much larger network of devices. Ensuring that the experience is coherent and consistent to people is critical—and also a challenge.
  • The role of designers is shifting. They still need to design the individual devices well, but to be successful they also need to understand all of the inter-relationships between each device. Now it is more about orchestrating an enlivened overall experience.
  • Because of this, design processes have also shifted slightly. Depth and expertise in the core domains are still important but leaders now need to have more of a hybrid approach. To help keep the focus on the overall consistency of the experience, it is also valuable to have a broad understanding of the technical landscape and a familiarity with the terminology.
  • Although this sounds complicated, it doesn't have to be. Essentially it is still about problem solving. Just on a larger scale, done simultaneously, and in parallel.

Blake McEldowney and Heather Martin work with a wide variety of clients across the globe from their home base at the Smart Design office in Barcelona, Spain. The company also has offices in New York and San Francisco.

If you are interested in finding out more about this or attending the session at the MEX conference next week please get in touch with Manuela Whittaker on 01780 721 433 or email her at mwhittaker@pressoffice.targetwire.com.

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Notes to editors:

About Smart Design:
Smart Design has been turning insight and innovation into successful results for 30 years. Our strategic approach integrates product, interface, and brand to ensure winning solutions. Smart Design’s consistent results are delivered by our multi-disciplinary, international staff working in teams across offices in New York, San Francisco, and Barcelona.
http://www.smartdesignworldwide.com

About MEX and presentation:
MEX is a two-day strategy forum exploring the techniques and strategies for creating great mobile user experience in a multi-platform digital environment.

Design Strategies for Creating Mobile User Experiences Across Multiple Touchpoints
(led by Heather Martin and Blake McEldowney)
11:00 AM, Wednesday 19 May
MEX Conference, London, UK
http://pmn.co.uk/mex/agenda10.shtml#martin

Media Contacts:

Mercedes Coats
Marketing Communications Manager
T: +1 415 355 6205
mercedes.coats@smartdesignworldwide.com

Manuela Whittaker (business/industry media)
Press Office, PR for Smart Design
T: +44 (0) 20 7350110
mwhittaker@pressoffice.targetwire.com

Aldo de Jong
Smart Design Europe
T: +34 935 846 615
aldo.dejong@smartdesignworldwide.com

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