Adi Mazor Kario \ Wizard Product Design & UX
Adi Mazor Kario \ AI in UX
CEO, Wizard Product Design & UX
Adi is a Senior UX expert, Product and Voice Designer. She is also a Google mentor and expert in the future of technology. She is the owner and CEO of Wizard Product Design & UX.
With more than 17 years of experience, Adi created projects for fortune 500 companies, like Intel and IBM in parallel to smaller companies and startups by guiding them from idea and strategy to an amazing user experience that sells more.
Since 2016 Adi has been teaching and practicing Voice UX and she enjoys being part of the future. She believes Voice Design is the most exciting & promising fields of User Experience today!
Alex Wright \ Instagram
Alex Wright \ Keynote
Director of Research, Instagram
Alex Wright currently works as the Director of Research at Instagram and as a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon School of Design. He has previously held UX leadership roles at Etsy, The New York Times, and IBM, and has worked as a consultant for clients including frog design, Microsoft, Adobe, the Internet Archive and the Long Now Foundation.
His most recent book is Cataloging the World: Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age. His first book Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages, was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “a penetrating and highly entertaining meditation on our information age and its historical roots.” Alex’s writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Believer, Salon.com, The Wilson Quarterly, The Christian Science Monitor, Harvard Magazine, and Library Journal, among others.
From 2008-2014 he was a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts’ MFA program in Interaction Design. He has also guest-lectured at Stanford University, UC-Berkeley, Columbia University and The Institute of Design-Chicago. He speaks regularly at industry events and conferences, including SxSW, UXStrat, Gartner Group, and the World Future Society. His work has won numerous industry awards, including a Webby, Cool Site of the Year, and an American Graphic Design Award.
Alex lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, two sons, and three banjos.
Ben Anyasodo \
Ben Anyasodo \ UX Strategy
Research Consultant,
Ben is a multidisciplinary Research Consultant, specialised in the psychology aspects of design. With core experience in Human-Machine Interaction, User-Centred Design and Cognitive Ergonomics, Ben enjoys incorporating these elements into developing rounded UX/UCD Strategies which deliver optimum user experience.
Ben currently consults for the UK Government in Digital Delivery User Research, as part of the Making Tax Digital programme. Prior to this, Ben worked as a Specialist Researcher in the Human-Machine Interface Group at Jaguar Land Rover as a Research Specialist leading different technology research workstreams in Driver Vehicle Interactions, Technologies and Simulations, and having led many Digital Technology Strategy Projects in the Global Dealer Operations space previously.
Ben was one of the speakers at the 2016 World Usability Congress, where he explored the Future Challenges in Automotive UX. He is very passionate about incorporating UCD in both simple and complex end-to-end technology contexts. His recent Ted talk explored the future of the real position of the user in digital system design.
Outside of work, Ben is a NLP Master Practitioner & Hypnotherapist. He is also a passionate Classical Musician.
Bruce Horn \ Independent Consultant
Bruce Horn \ AI in UX
Previous to joining Intel, Dr. Horn was Principal Research Software Development Engineer at Microsoft Corp. where he worked on the creation and deployment of Natural Language systems for Bing, Microsoft’s search engine. Before joining Microsoft, he was at Powerset Inc. where he was responsible for the computational infrastructure of the Powerset Natural Language Search System.
Horn is most widely known for his work at Apple, where he created and developed the Macintosh Finder – the first widely-used desktop graphical user interface. He began his career as a member of the Learning Research Group at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, where he contributed to several implementations of the Smalltalk virtual machine.
Horn earned a B.S. In Mathematical Sciences from Stanford University in 1981, and an M.S. And Ph.D. In Computer Science from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1994.
Carol Smith \ UBER
Carol Smith \ Autonomous Driving
Senior UX Researcher, UBER
Carol Smith has an 18-year career in UX, managing teams; collaborating on complex problems; working across industries; and platforms. She’s been working to improve AI experiences for the past 4 years, and currently leads UX research to improve self-driving technology atUber ATG. Carol has an M.S. in Human-Computer Interaction from DePaul University and has presented over 120 talks and workshops around the world. She is an active UX community organizer and she enjoys outdoor activities with her family, running and playing football.
Clemens Posch \ Parkside
Clemens Posch \ GUI & Motion Design
Product Design Director , Parkside
Clemens Posch is a Designer & Art Director from Austria. Specialised in the fields of Product Design, he aims to bring complex ideas to simple solutions. Currently, Clemens is working at Parkside as a Product Design Director on the next iteration of interactive products with international clients such as LinkedIn, PicMonkey and RideAmigos.
Dagmar Wehr \ Deutsche Telekom IT GmbH
Dagmar Wehr \ UX Strategy
Senior UX Designer, Deutsche Telekom IT GmbH
For more than 15 years Dagmar has been working as a senior UX designer for Deutsche Telekom AG. In addition to extensive experience in both waterfall and agile projects, she has contributed to the design and implementation of concepts for the integration of usability/UX methods into an organization.
For five years now, she has been promoting the Design for All approach and has built up profound knowledge of accessibility. Her goal is to successfully combine UX and AX requirements so that applications are easy to use for ALL users.
Dave Boon \ BAE Systems Applied Intelligence
Dave Boon \ UX & Robotics
Head of User Experience, BAE Systems Applied Intelligence
I am an individual that champions great usability, always willing to question if things are really as good as they can be. I have 15+ years of experience in delivering UX strategies and solutions for some of the worlds leading brands. I have a particular focus on Software as a Service (SaaS), big data analysis, digital transformation and enterprise applications.
I have a proven track record delivering successful projects through many methods including Agile UCD, LeanUX, DevOps into hugely differing organisations such as start-ups, corporate, retail, supply chain and government sectors.
Specialties: Strategy, Competitor analysis, User Experience, UI/Interaction design, Web standards, Accessibility, Information Architecture, Usability testing, User Journeys, Personas, Wire-frames, Process mapping and Storyboard creation, (Rapid) Prototyping, Branding, Big Data and full life cycle management.
Deborah O’Malley \ GuessTheTest.com
Deborah O’Malley \ eCommerce
Founder, GuessTheTest.com
Deborah O’Malley is a passionate data-driven marketer specialized in UX strategy, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), and A/B testing.
She unknowingly ran her first optimization study at the tender age of 9 nine when, for her grade school science experiment, she cut out different shapes and colors of construction paper, posted them on a board, and asked people which version they saw first.
Fast forward many years later, Deborah pursued a master’s of science degree, specializing in eye tracking technology. Awarded several scholarships for top student achievement, Deborah’s master’s thesis used eye tracking technology to assess what images and techniques work best in digital ads. Her findings have been published in six prestigious peer-reviewed journals and are a source inspiration for many digital marketers, worldwide.
A talented web optimization strategist and marketer, Deborah has since had the privilege to work with clients analyzing, assessing, and suggesting how to optimize their sites.
With this unique experience, Deborah has become truly informed about what works and doesn’t in UX, CRO, and A/B testing. She’s now synthesized this knowledge into a digital marketing resource she’s founded www.GuessTheTest.com which helps others in the field learn and apply industry best practices.
Deborah is Google Analytics certified and, if you give her the chance, she’ll happily talk to you for hours about anything web optimization.
Dobrian Dobrev \ Coca Cola
Dobrian Dobrev \ Masterclass
Senior UX Designer, Coca Cola
Здравей* means ‘Hello’ in Bulgarian. My name is Dobrian Dobrev and I am based in Sofia, BG. I’ve been working in the field of UX Design for the last 6 years and previously I worked as an Infographic Designer & Information Architect.
Milestones:
– Nominated for ux-design-awards.com 2017
– UX Mentor for the first WebVR Incubator in the world.
– Speaker at UX Sofia 2017 (co-hosted by a previous speaker at World Usability Congress 2018 – Martina Mitz)
– Speaker at UXify 2016 – Teacher at the New Bulgarian University.
– Published author on major medium.com publications
Gianluca Vitale \ AVL
Gianluca Vitale \ Software Development
Global Business Segment Manager , AVL
Gianluca studied electrical engineering and started at AVL in 2003 as mechatronic engineer for diesel management systems. He has more than 10 years’ experience in powertrain development, covering different roles within AVL: from Project Leader up to Department Manager for Diesel Engine Calibration.
Since 2014 he is the Segment Manager for the SW business unit Smart Calibration and Virtual Testing, which encompass software solutions in the area of virtual testing, calibration data management, artificial intelligence applications and in-vehicle testing.
Gowtham Nedunchezhian \ VSF Experts GmbH
Gowtham Nedunchezhian \ Pre-Event
Usability Engineer, VSF Experts GmbH
Gowtham has a background in Usability Engineering. He is passionate about finding the most impactful ways to bring user-centered processes, products, and experiences successfully to organizations and the market. He has wide experience in designing products for automotive, manufacturing & B2C domains. Over the years of experience with User Experience design and Agile product development, he has created a new framework called “UX BURNER”. It gives companies a practical way to harmonize UX Design practices in SCRUM. Product teams now have the potential to constantly deliver better product experiences in short iterations. He is working on his playbook. He actively presents in the conference; conducts UX burner workshops for companies and universities.
1. Author of the playbook UX BURNER ( ready to be published in the market)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gowtham-nedunchezhian-4a899a89/
Gülay Birand \ Google
Gülay Birand \ AI in UX
UX Lead and Manager, Google
UX Lead and Manager on Google Cloud Platform focusing on cross-platform user experience strategy and service design. MS in Human Centered Design and Engineering. Linked in profile for more information: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gulaybirand/
Hanna Köhler \ Deutsche Telekom IT GmbH
Hanna Köhler \ UX Strategy
Program Manager UX, Deutsche Telekom IT GmbH
Hanna is a senior UX expert with more than 15 years of in-house UX experience in large international companies. As Program Manager UX at Deutsche Telekom IT, Hanna is committed to the best UX of applications used by Deutsche Telekom employees all around the world. She and her team are passionate about working with users to develop innovative, meaningful products and services tailored to their needs.
Hanna is a software engineer who has always had a knack for design and creativity. Working in the field of UX enables her to express both her technical and her creative talents. Before joining Deutsche Telekom IT, Hanna worked at Siemens Healthcare (now Siemens Healthineers), where she worked as a senior usability engineer on user interface concepts for various medical imaging systems. Prior to her role as usability engineer, she worked as a user researcher/requirements manager, web designer, software localization manager and software engineer.
Jared Huke \ Daito Design
Jared Huke \ Software Development
CEO, Daito Design
Jared Huke helps the enterprise mobilize their workforce with a blend of contextual mobility and predictive User Centered Design. With a focus on utility, he has lead teams into the darkest corners of corporate infrastructure to bring these large companies to modern, mobile world.
UX, Print, and interactive design, Huke has a high level of skills ranging from 200+ page magazine layout and output to 500+ page websites integrating a large number legacy databases across multiple platforms, mobile application development, and responsive design.Directly managing teams as large as 25 designers, and indirectly managed as many as 120 person companies, he has played a key role in the turn around of five companies through design, team building, process and operational innovation.
Huke got started in the early dot com years in Austin, Texas starting his first company when he was 20 years old. After the bubble burst, Jared found himself spending over a decade traveling and designing the world in far flung places such as Vietnam, Thailand, Sweden, and China. Huke has returned to Texas to participate in the recent wave of technology innovation around Internet of Things, wearables, and mobility.
Specialties: User Centered Design, User Experience, Product Design, Ethnographic and Strategic Research, Interaction Design, Information Architecture, Design Management.
Management: Flexibility, team building, infrastructure, implementation of design culture at scale
Innovation: Developed a rigorous Data driven UX methodology
Joe Lanzisero \ Lanzisero
Joe Lanzisero \ Software Development
Creative Consultant, Lanzisero
With more than three decades of Disney experience, Joe Lanzisero is well equipped for his role as creative executive in charge of projects for Walt Disney Imagineering. Working with teams of artists, writers, architects and engineers, he serves as the eyes and artistic conscience of a project from conception through completion.
Joe was responsible for the creative development of the two newest ships for the Disney Cruise Line, and oversaw the teams that designed these new state-of-the-art ships (Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy) which launched in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Many features such as the innovative dinner show “Animation Magic” and the inclusion of an onboard water coaster (the AquaDuck) are cruise industry firsts.
At Hong Kong Disneyland, Joe oversaw the expansion of the park by more than 20 percent over a three-year period. The additions of three new lands – Toy Story Land, Grizzly Gulch and most recently, Mystic Point, adds more excitement and fun for guests of all ages.
Lanzisero began his Disney career in 1979 in Feature Animation (now Walt Disney Animation Studios), working on the animation, special effects, storyboarding and story development of numerous features, shorts and special project. He came to Imagineering in 1987 as a concept designer and was on the design teams for Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park at Walt Disney World, Critter Country at Disneyland, and Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris.
In 1991, Lanzisero was promoted to senior concept designer and immediately plunged into the development of Mickey’s Toontown, the wacky cartoon “community” that opened at Disneyland Park in 1993. He also developed the concept for Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, a wild and funny dark ride that opened in Mickey’s Toontown the following year. Lanzisero also supervised the concept design for the Tokyo Disneyland version of Toontown that opened in 1996.
Before joining the Tokyo Disneyland project team in 1999, he developed the concept for Fantasia Gardens and WinterSummerland, a pair of unique miniature golf courses at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Another new venture, Disney Cruise Line, benefited from his work on children’s spaces and activities. And he was behind the conceptual design and development of DisneyFest, a unique Disney entertainment venue that traveled throughout the Far East and South America.
In 2001 Joe was promoted to creative vice president for Tokyo Disney Resort, charged with overseeing all design in Tokyo. For Tokyo Disney Resort, he worked on such attractions as Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, Toontown, Critter Country and Splash Mountain. He did the concept development for Mermaid Lagoon and Arabian Coast in Tokyo DisneySea as well as many other projects. He directed the creative development of Tower of Terror attraction and Monsters, Inc. Ride and Go Seek. In March 2007, Joe was promoted to creative senior vice president with the added responsibilities of overseeing all design for Hong Kong Disneyland, including leading the design of a major three-land expansion of the park.
A member of the first graduating class of the Walt Disney Character Animation program at California Institute of the Arts in 1979, Lanzisero developed his artistic talents with old-time Disney professionals. He applied his education as a teacher at the Otis Art Institute and in the animation industry before joining The Walt Disney Company.
Jürgen Blematl \ aurena.at
Jürgen Blematl \ eCommerce
Head of Product Development and Innovation , aurena.at
Jürgen is project leader for the development of a new online auction platform based in Styria. At aurena.at, he has been building an in-house startup company from scratch and has successfully managed the implementation of a user-centered development process.
As an expert in modeling complex software solutions, Jürgen focuses on agile development and user-centered design. He sees UX as a team sport and puts great effort into creating a shared understanding within a project.
Jürgen is a certified Scrum Master and holds a UX certificate from the Nielsen Norman Group. He has a master’s degree in Logistics Engineering from Montanuniversität Leoben.
Equipped with strong entrepreneurial skills, Jürgen founded his first company at the age of 18. He has been working as a business development consultant for numerous institutions and companies and gained international experience in Malaysia and Germany. His analytical, yet creative approach is also expressed in his passion for photography.
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Quotation
“Talking to the users will change your perspective – every time. Go from guessing to testing and build better solutions.“
Kate Fischer \ Design Italia
Kate Fischer \ GUI & Motion Design
Dedicated and devoted to cars, I tend to constantly reimagine and reconsider User Experience. Or better to say Driver Experience. My role today is not about generic solutions following well-known patterns, I don’t like to think you can fit DX into a box of display in a car.
Why? Because I am the person, who has been lucky to have very different experiences in my lifelong professional portfolio not related to the automotive world. Biochemistry gave me a sense of the beautiful logic of nature, plus a structured approach to deriving results and drawing conclusions.
Several years working as an User interface artists for mobile and triple A games taught me how to track the user and engage her attention. Until the moment, when I found a perfect field to apply those skills – automotive. Good things come in three, right?
What I like to do has both rational and emotional aspects – I consider myself as a conceptual designer first but I absolutely sure that not only scientific approach but combination of both can lead to beautiful and smart solutions. And these, I believe, are essential aspects of the Driver Experience
Kevin Lee \ Visa, Inc
Kevin Lee \ Keynote
Executive Director, Visa, Inc
Kevin Lee is Executive Director, Vice President and Head of Design at Visa, Inc, responsible for setting the vision and the strategy of design and user experience for Innovation Centers in Europe and CEMEA. Previously he was responsible for building and leading Visa’s global digital design team and brought in human-centered design and design thinking expertise to help designing the innovative digital product experiences as well as innovative design systems platform which has been recently recognized by Fast Company for 2017 Innovation by Design Awards.
Prior to Visa, Kevin led the design studio at Samsung responsible for the overall product strategy and design of wearable and IoT and launched Gear Fit, Level and Circle. Kevin also led the global design team at eBay and Paypal, where he led the design efforts on several key products such as checkout, shopping cart, and shopping showcase to name a few. Prior to eBay, Inc., Kevin led the design team at Whirlpool Corporation designing and launching the company’s first digital touch screen consumer products and connected device strategy with several CES awards and industry recognitions. Before Whirlpool, Kevin led a global cross-functional team of designers and engineers at GE Healthcare driving and launching award-winning software and hardware products, one of which is called Vscan where it was named by TIME magazine as The 50 Best Inventions of 2009.
He has a M.S. in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University, and graduated from Mercer University with a B.S. in Technical Communication / Ergonomics. Kevin is contributing author for several books and speaks at some of the influential design conferences in the world.
Maricel Cabahug \ SAP
Maricel Cabahug \ Keynote
Chief Design Officer, SAP
As Chief Design Officer, Maricel is responsible for SAP’s overall design strategy and product design. Maricel’s overarching goal is to deliver the best user experience to the world’s business users. She and her organization are passionate about co-innovation with customers to realize greater business value through technology that works for people. At the heart of everything she is does is her goal to improve people’s lives by making work delightful.
Maricel is a software engineer turned thought leader in design and user experience. Before joining SAP, Maricel worked for Yaskawa Electric, an SAP customer, where she grew from an application developer to the CIO of the company. Her SAP journey to the position of Chief Design Officer began in 2011, when she joined the company as VP of Solution Architecture. She then moved to the Office of the CDO as Global VP and Chief of Staff. In 2013, she became Senior Vice President and Head of Global Design and Fiori Product Management. In April of 2018, she was named Chief Design Officer.
Being a multi-passionate intrapreneur, she is defining a completely new market category of Enterprise Artificial Intelligence with her team’s latest products: SAP CoPilot, a digital assistant and bot-integration hub for the enterprise, and SAP Inscribe, a natural, freestyle pen and paper experience that leverages the power of system intelligence.
Martina Mitz \
Martina Mitz \ Masterclass
Martina started as a self-taught Web Designer in 2001. From the very beginning her approach was user-centred despite not being familiar with the now-common phrase of ‘user experience’. In 2007 she finalised her study in Psychology and started working in the field of clinical Psychology. It was at this point that Martina’s academic background and her passion joined and she started a career as UX Designer, being called “Conceptioner” at first. Since then Martina has contributed to the digital ecosystems of many recognisable companies such as eBay, PayPal, Emirates Airlines, Volkswagen, Telekom and many more. Hosting UX Sofia for the past years was a crowning moment of Martina’s UX path, so she decided to give something back to and work closer with the amazing global UX community.
Minqing Zhou \ Alibaba Group
Minqing Zhou \ Keynote
Director of International User Experience and Design Business Unit, Alibaba Group
Minqing is a director of International User Experience and Design from Alibaba Group. She leads the design effort for Alibaba’s two global e-commerce platforms: AliExpress, a retail marketplace, and Alibaba.com, a wholesale marketplace. Under the mission “to make business simple and delightful”, her teams are helping consumers and SMBs from more than 200 countries enjoy the convenience and value through global trade. Prior to Alibaba, Minqing worked at PayPal for years on major consumer and merchant product design efforts. She holds a MFA degree in Digital Media Arts from San Jose State University, USA.
Mirjam Wouters \ Philip Research
Mirjam Wouters \ Masterclass
Manager InnovationLab, Philip Research
Innovate the innovation processes.Blend passion, experience, skills, and creativity to the development of meaningful products, services and experiences that are designed around the need of their users.
Being able to utilize my passion for Design and User Experience within a business context involving cutting edge technology. Committed to deliver disruptive creative solutions within constraints of todays technology and markets.
Specialties:
• Experience managing a community of Research and Design, organise Events, Hackatons and Rapid co-creation sessions that deliver innovation.
• PMI certified project manager
• Experience in leading development of multi disciplinary platforms, which involved technology development and consumer research.
• Broad experience of Experience Design direction in different business areas; Lighting, Healthcare, Home automation, Domestic Appliances and Strategic Futures.
Niveen Sayeed \ Medallia
Niveen Sayeed \ UX Strategy
Lead UX Researcher, Medallia
I have been working in UX Strategy and research roles for several years now, with a broad range of experience. Currently at an enterprise SAAS company and was at a presentation software company before that. I also worked at AT&T’s innovation center, where the projects were very diverse, including smartwatches, drone technology, connected cars etc.
Olaf Preissner \ Luxoft
Olaf Preissner \ Autonomous Driving
As an initiator and part of the Creative Lab, Olaf Preissner is responsible for all Automotive and Innovation projects at Luxoft across the different locations. Focus is to develop state of the art and process optimized solutions for advanced Infotainment solutions. July 2012 to present: Head of UX Design Automotive & Innovation Luxoft Responsible for design, ergonomics and development of Headunit, Instrument Cluster, HUD for series production, Prototypes and Research & Innovations May 2003 to June 2012: Manager Design/Human Factors Harman Automotive Division Responsible for design, ergonomics and development of consumer products and driver information systems Close collaboration with multinational project teams September 1994 to January 1998: Diploma graduate engineer (media technology, Audiovisuelle Medien) Media University of Stuttgart, Germany Courses taken included: Design, Multimedia, Computer animation, Studio Technic, Studio Production, Marketing and Promotion
Oliver Pitsch \ eTrusted
Oliver Pitsch \ Software Development
Head of UX & QA, eTrusted
Oliver Pitsch is Head of UX & QA at eTrusted in Cologne, Germany. He’s a UX professional with more than 10 years of experience in the field. Before joining Trusted Shops to build an entire UX process and implement it in the existing teams he founded Reputami.com, which was acquired by eKomi in 2015.
Paolo Pretto \ Virtual Vehicle Research Center
Paolo Pretto \ Autonomous Driving
Principal Researcher - Human Factors & Driving Simulator, Virtual Vehicle Research Center
Experienced Project Lead with a demonstrated history of working in the research industry. Skilled in Experimental Design, Human Computer Interaction, Research, Psychology, and Scientific Writing. Strong program and project management professional with a PhD focused in Neural and Behavioural Sciences / Perception and Psychophysics from International Max Planck Research School.
Pawel Lenart \ Tricentis RPA
Pawel Lenart \ UX & Robotics
Lead UX Designer, Tricentis RPA
I’m the Lead UX Designer for RPA, working for Tricentis – a company which is the global market leader in software test automation. I’ve been working on and leading UX projects in several industries (gambling, aviation, meteorology, software testing etc…) for big companies like:
– bwin
– novomatic
– UBIMET
– Tricentis
– Sabre
I have studied visual communications in Poland and I’m also starting my PhD this year.
Reinoud Bosman \ Philips Design
Reinoud Bosman \ UX Strategy
Creative Lead Digital Innovation, Philips Design
I am an experienced designer who has worked across many industries and platforms. I am comfortable both leading large design projects, or to work as an integrated team member of innovative teams. Currently my interests particularly lie in healthcare solutions, artificial intelligence and bio-tech.
I am well versed in design methodologies such as co-creation, user-research, analytics-based testing and of course sketching and prototyping. At the heart of design lies deep understanding of the people you design for.
Sascha Wolter \ Cognigy
Sascha Wolter \ Pre-Event
Senior UX Consultant, Cognigy
Sascha Wolter is a professional developer and user experience enthusiast. His true passion is to improve the human-computer interaction: He loves to build conversational and multimodal experiences with text (chatbots) and voice (aka Alexa). Sascha used to work as a consultant, trainer, lecturer, speaker, and author who focusses on understanding, innovation, and value. As such he is committed to the interests of all kinds of developers, users, and prosumers. When Sascha is not developing new ideas, he likes hiking and skiing in the mountains, enjoys good Italian coffee and loves to explore the world together with his kids in an odd way.
After organizing internationally renowned events like beyond tellerrand from 2001 to 2011, he is now board member of the Usability & User Experience working group at the federal association BITKOM. Furthermore, he is Google Developer Expert for IoT/Assistant (GDE)and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP). Before he joined the Conversational AI Platform Company Cognigy as Senior UX Consultant and Principle Technology Evangelist, he worked as Senior Developer Evangelist at Deutsche Telekom (i.e. Smart Home) and Senior Technology Evangelist for Alexa at Amazon.
Simon Rosenqvist \ Combine A/S
Simon Rosenqvist \ AI in UX
UX Designer, Combine A/S
My passion is to create happy people through great experiences. I do that by working strategically and methodical with UX-design.
I’m a Senior UX-designer at a danish digital agency. I have worked for +5 years as a UX-consultant in my own UX-agency as self-occupied and at my current workplace Combine – a digital agency focusing on the interplay between people and technology.
I hold a Master’s degree in Engineering Psychology from Aalborg University. An education focusing on applying knowledge of human psychology to create great user experiences and usability.
Skot Carruth \ Philosophie
Skot Carruth \ GUI & Motion Design
CEO, Philosophie
Skot Carruth is the CEO and co-founder of Philosophie, a digital innovation firm with offices in Los Angeles and New York City. Philosophie helps organizations validate and develop their promising ideas through agile design, rapid prototyping and software craftsmanship.
Skot is passionate about design and entrepreneurial education. In addition to co-authoring General Assembly’s UX design curriculum, Skot speaks regularly at design and entrepreneurship conferences, UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, various startup incubators, and local meetups. Skot graduated cum laude from UCLA, where he studied media and business.
Stefan Bauer \ Talent Garden Austria
Stefan Bauer \ UX Strategy
Innovation School Director, Talent Garden Austria
Educator. Innovator. Driving digital innovation in a major Austrian bank by leading the UX department in an agile organization. My passion for technology and creative industries was accelerated during my career as a researcher and university lecturer.
Thomas Michel \ VSF Experts GmbH
Thomas Michel \ Pre-Event
User Experience Researcher & Designer I Product Owner, VSF Experts GmbH
As a Product Owner with a focus on User Experience and Human-Computer Interaction, Thomas aims for the best possibilities to create products that are easy and delightful to use. Educated in Communication & Psychology, he found his way to Berlin in 2009 to specialize in the field of Human Factors Engineering. In Berlin, he gained a lot of experience in working on diverse projects and managing usability studies, to create user-friendly and interactive systems for entertainment, as well as medical contexts. Thomas currently works at VSF Experts running agile development teams with requirements engineering that arrives at the sweet spot of both, business needs and user goals.
Tim Scanlon \ ABB
Tim Scanlon \ UX & Robotics
Group Vice President Customer Experience & Innovation, ABB
I am a competitive, high-energy, data-driven Customer Experience (CX) and User Experience (UX) Design and Marketing leader who brings differentiated software and brands to life. I lead globally diverse teams delivering innovative and delightful online, mobile and cloud-based software and services that engender well-designed epic customer experiences.
With expertise in Software as a Service (SaaS), strategic marketing, service design, business development, start-ups, change management and more, I employ design thinking (and doing) to look beyond the obvious, discovering new opportunities in unlikely places. Businesses must innovate faster and offer highly differentiated solutions to compete in today’s fast-paced global economy. Organizations have the capacity to innovate, but often do not know how. My passion is leading teams to new solutions competitors may not see.
In the past year, I’ve met with customers in nearly every corner of the globe and have spoken at many design conferences. I’ve consulted on user-centered design innovation across industries and applications, including design, engineering, manufacturing, automation, Internet of Things (IoT), E-commerce and healthcare. Connecting design/marketing to ROI, along with my global intelligence, is key to building high-performance, culturally diverse teams that create useful, usable, desirable products that lower barrier to entry and translate across cultures.
A pragmatic hands-on leader, I coach, mentor and nurture team members’ creativity, positioning them for success.
Tomasz Pieta \ Booking.com
Tomasz Pieta \ eCommerce
Senior UX Designer, Booking.com
Passionate about delivering top-notch UX design solutions to solve problems and reach business goals. I love the challenge to utilize technology to improve user experiences and make the business thrive.
Currently based in Amsterdam working on UX challenges for Booking.com with the scientific approach of A/B testing. Founded and managing Creative Point Meeting space in Amsterdam.
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What you can expect from me:
• 10+ years of hands-on experience in extremely fast-paced environments
• Data driven design approach focused on A/B testing & experiments
• Solid design skills
• Mastery of Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch and prototyping tools
• Agile methodologies and facilitation (SCRUM, Kanban, agile coaching)
• Growing people
• Bring design thinking culture to an enterprise
• Significant user research experience (Qualitative research)
• Public speaking and presentations
• HTML, CSS, jQuery and GIT
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I am constantly seeking for adventures. A trip to a new destination, off-piste skiing in the Alps, rock climbing or taking my kitesurf to enjoy some waves.
Trip O’Dell \ Dark Matter
Trip O’Dell \ UX Strategy
Managing Partner, Dark Matter
Trip’s design work at Adobe, Microsoft, and Amazon has touched the lives of billions of people around the world with products that shape the ways we learn, shop, communicate with loved ones, experience literature, get our packages and even turn on the lights.
Trip combines a deep sense of empathy, an analytical mind, and a knack for connecting complex systems with the human needs. His work has resulted in numerous awards, patents, new products, features and a reputation for building and leading high performing teams that get to the right solutions and outcomes quickly.
His experience features projects that range from designing video games for the Chicago Field Museum to building the service design team responsible for multiple Alexa service horizontals, and scaling Amazon’s ‘last mile’ delivery experience from a 2-city pilot to an $11.5 billion global logistics system delivering over 1.5 billion packages globally, in just 18 months.
- Product design leadership roles at Adobe, Microsoft, Amazon, startups and as an independent consultant.
- 5 US patents for interaction design concepts related to accessiblity, and inclusion, media and publishing, voice interaction, and social interaction.
- Design leadership for two design led product concepts that were built and shipped by Amazon.
- Featured speaker at Interaction 13 (Toronto), IXDA Redux NYC and Fluxible 1 in Waterloo CA”
Vandhana Bhaskaran \ Emirates
Vandhana Bhaskaran \ Software Development
Head of Experience Design, Emirates
A passionate human-centered design leader driving design led business change. I help businesses dream, design and deliver high performing customer and employee experiences.
Verena Seibert-Giller \
Verena Seibert-Giller \ Pre-Event
Consultant,
Dr. Verena Seibert-Giller is one of the European pioneers of Usability and User Experience, having worked in respective industrial as well as research settings for 25 years.
Currently her prime interest lies on enhancing user experience work through insights of modern cognitive sciences. “Know your brain – understand your users better”. Her work has already positively influenced several projects and trainings, while astonishing clients and attendees!
In the 90ties she co-founded the CURE Usability research centre and then the USECON consultancy and directed both until she decided to downsize work for a while for her kids. Verena shows one of the broadest experiences in the field, which is well founded in the spectrum of her past and ongoing international activities (more than 500 relevant projects in numerous domains and technologies, publications and talks, activities in committees and expert groups, development of university and industry curricula and training courses, e.g. IBUQ User Experience Certifications).
Vivian Gomes \ Human Factors Research & Design
Vivian Gomes \ Pre-Event
Director of User Experience, Human Factors Research & Design
Vivian Gomes is an experienced Human Centered Design professional. Hands-on and practical to the core, he believes that insights at the intersection of user needs, technology and business helps create highly effective and innovative products and solutions defining a brand on the foundation of DESIGN. His strengths lie in creating a vision for experience design, crafting compelling stories and developing a solution’s design ecosystems across multiple media and devices for a connected, seamless end-user experience for customers from a variety of industries. He is also a teacher-mentor and a usability/ UX specialist with a successful track record of innovating, creating, delivering, while collaborating, motivating and working with local and globally disparate design teams, studios, stake holders and partners. Vivian enjoys interfacing with customers globally and with internal and external partners to bring innovative and disruptive design ideas to life. He thrives on managing and mentoring creative talent, collaborating with multi-disciplinary teams, maneuvering through project and business challenges and most importantly, envisioning and conceptualizing intuitive, cohesive, immersive design experiences that delight users and profit end customers. On a day today basis Vivian plays many roles, driving creation of compelling products and solution portfolios for customers that include healthcare, Social innovation in community uplifting program design and application, retail, Analytics and data Science, Military, Government, GIS, payments/finance, social, search, e-commerce, startups, cloud based web applications, portals, IOT products and solutions, mobile/telecom, wearable tech, and so on. He has been working with core management team of many leading organizations and on on company boards as an advisor. He has set up many design innovation labs across the globe to make ideas come to life, focusing on future of design needs. He has built UX/design teams, imbibed a culture of design thinking, mentored design managers and leaders, set up global design centers and design research labs in India, EUROPE, Asia, UK, Middle East and USA. A certified Design thinking trainer from LUMA Institute, Pittsburgh and a UX / Design mentor on Google Launchpad and Tien OS, he leads by example to drive a cultural transformation in organizations through Design.
More Speakers will be announced soon.