__________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Source: NH-UPA email (2/22/08) Please join us for the NH UPA March Meeting... Topic: Expanding User-Centered Design in the 21st Century or Why Design Thinking is the Next Big Thing. Speaker: Sarah Bloomer, Sarah Bloomer & Co When: Wednesday, March 26th Refreshments & Networking: 6-7:00 PM – Food & beverages will be provided. Meeting: 7:00 PM – 8ish Where: Liberty Mutual 150 Liberty Way Dover, NH 03820 Parking Directions: Park in the front lot. License and plate number needs to be presented at security desk. RSVP required (see below). Abstract: What is design thinking? Why is it important? What does design thinking mean to the field of user centered design? Take a closer look: it seems design thinking heavily leverages user-centered design... Stanford University recently set up a new Institute of Design (the d.school), founded by, amongst others, David Kelley and Terry Winograd, big names in interaction design. Its website boldly states “we believe design thinking is a catalyst for innovation and bringing new things into the world”. Business Week Online includes a section on Innovation, where design is a major theme. And in his book A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink says that the new MBA is the MFA.  He claims we are moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. And people with design thinking will lead the way. This talk is an overview of how design thinking is finding its place in companies worldwide, and how user-centered design is being applied across many fields, from organizational design to product design. About Sarah Bloomer: Sarah Bloomer has designed user interfaces for 20 years. In 1991 she co-founded the interaction design company The Hiser Group. With Hiser, she helped establish the field of user-centered design in Australia. Upon returning to the USA in 2002, Sarah was a senior interaction designer for The MathWorks before starting Sarah Bloomer & Co, a consulting practice focusing on collaborative design facilitation. Sarah has delivered papers, tutorials and workshops at user interface design conferences in Australia and the USA. Her tutorial, Successful Strategies for Selling Usability into Organizations, became a CHI classic. Sarah also led the conceptualization and development of The Hiser Element™ toolkit, a user-centered design methodology created to help companies rapidly set up usability teams. Sarah holds an MS from New York University in interactive software design, a BA from Smith College, and served as masters supervisor at The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. RSVP: You must RSVP to attend, as security is tight at Liberty Mutual. Please send RSVPs to info@nhupa.org. NH UPA meetings are always open to anyone who is interested in attending. Membership to the UPA is NOT required.