NIX Solutions UX-experts at ProfsoUX-2015

This IT spring was eventful: NIX Solutions experts had a chance to visit some of the best specialized conferences, to hold ThinkPHP #11 and schedule the second ThinkJava meeting.

One of the most memorable moments of this spring for our experts was ProfsoUX conference – a relatively new event, which took place for the first time in St. Petersburg in 2012 as a meeting of UX-pros, project managers and analysts.

This year St. Petersburg welcomed NIX Solutions’ delegation with a good weather, so our women had a chance not only to broaden their professional horizons at ProfsoUX-2015, but also to see the sights of the Russian capital of culture.

 

ProfsoUX-2015

The format of the conference suggested acquaintances and lively communication with colleagues and our experts took the most of it.

Presentations were held simultaneously in two halls and lasted only 20 minutes each, including 5 minutes allotted for questions from the audience.

During 15-minute long breaks speakers, who had just finished their reports, continued to answer questions – the event organizers had even reserved special place for that purpose.

The crowd would not let go the most interesting speakers even after the next report began.

Subjects ranged from usability testing to Smart TV and usefulness of ugly icons. A huge list of new words and books to read and apply in life and at work appeared in our women’s notepads.

Any trip is an interesting and exciting adventure. When I was offered to go with the girls to the UX-conference, and moreover to St. Petersburg, I gladly agreed and immediately started planning interesting lectures and places to visit.

Night-time Northern Capital greeted us with cold wide streets and the silent majesty of the architectural ensemble. This city immediately gives you a very special mood. It seems like every detail of the buildings, every lamppost keeps the imprint of interesting and exciting story full of contradictions.

Needless to say, St. Pete is a city with identity. We even managed to take a peek at it thanks to the excellent sunny weather the next day.

As for the conference, though it was meant mainly for business analysts, I still managed to find there something very useful for myself as a designer, and that was communication with managers, analysts and developers.

Lecture on icons design was very interesting, but the information regarding the intricacies of teamwork was even more useful.

Well-established communication is rather important in our profession, as it gives a clear vision of tasks and helps to improve the quality of the product.

Sometimes it is very hard to explain why some button should not be in one place, but in the other instead. So the conference has definitely expanded my knowledge.

The trip brought us all a lot of pleasant emotions, useful contacts and a lot of impressions.

Eugenia, NIX Solutions expert

Afterparty

After the reports we still had some time left for the afterparty, so our delegation decided to walk around the downtown embracing the beauty of the city, the grandeur of its architecture, the romance of the sea, and the raising of the bridges. After that, the girls went to the ProfsoUX-2015 afterparty.

Informal intercourse was really useful and interesting. UX-pros discussed many conferences, courses, our experts told about their work and shared their interesting cases and problems, received good advice/answers.

The conference and the trip in general have left a lasting impression.

Firstly, the conference venue – fabulous St. Petersburg – appeared to be even more beautiful and magnificent than I have imagined: wide streets, incredible architecture, Neva, bridges…

Though we were staying in St. Pete for 2 days only and almost all the time we spent at the conference and workshops, our mornings and evenings were devoted to long walks around the city and enjoying its majestic beauty.

Secondly, the conference theme – UX – is one of the components of our work. Though we, business analysts, have some experience and knowledge in this area, we still wanted to get advice and instructions on how to make our products user-friendly and able to solve customers’ problems.

An array of speakers and the workshop gave us a boost, pointed the direction to go and to guide our colleagues at NIX Solutions.

And there was the third, perhaps the most important part of the conference – communication with the speakers, master classes’ presenters and participants.

We met UX-pros and analysts from Russia and Belarus, found out how to get a solution through “out of the box” approach, how not to frighten users with errors, what can be done in order to avoid filling in large forms in mobile apps, and many other useful tips.

To cut the long story short – that was awesome!

Tatiana, NIX Solutions expert

User Experience Design

The second day of the conference was dedicated to the eight-hour workshop «User Experience Design».

Here participants practiced analysis of real-life users, created empathy maps, proto-personas, Experience maps and already familiar to our experts Impact map, designed and tested the obtained prototype.

Our colleagues are prepared to transfer all that knowledge to colleagues by arranging at NIX Solutions a master class summarizing the results of the conference.

I really liked the fact that before the master class guys had interviewed all the participants asking what they were expecting of the event, and afterwards decided collectively whether the goal was reached.

The guys promised to address those goals that were not achieved remotely via Skype and email.

Many thanks to NIX Solutions, ProfsoUX and St.Pete for the knowledge obtained and for the wonderful weekend!

Source: NIX Solutions