The 1st UX Community Conference in Indonesia Held at BINUS INTERNATIONAL

The ‘User Experience in Indonesia’ community (UXID) collaborated with BINUS INTERNATIONAL to hold its first conference on November 6. The UXID Conference 2014 focused on the growth of UX in Indonesia.

The organizers invited experienced and well-known guest speakers Turi McKinley, Dan Szuc, Josephine Wong, and Matthew Magain.

Turi McKinley, a Participatory Design Director at Frog (a design firm) discussed the importance of consumer research. Dan Szuc and Josephine Wong, the founders of Apogee, a Hong Kong-based UX research company, also appeared. Matthew Magain, is a founder of UX Mastery from Melbourne.

The participants, who consisted of UX practitioners and industry representatives, were given a detailed lecture about UX. They were also involved in a panel discussion and workshop classes. The presenters delivered their materials through interesting and interactive discussions.

The event was opened with a speech by Cipta Pratama as the organizer of the event, followed by a presentation from Matthew Magain. In his presentation, Matthew explained about UX design and shared some of his experience about his UX career. Matthew emphasized that UX is a complex matter and that UX Design is a way to give the best experience to users. This experience can be in the form of a user’s journey, a design interface or its performance. “UX is a process, and that process is the one that will contribute the most to achieving success,” he said.

In the next session, Dan Szuc and Josephine Wong delivered a presentation about how to get ideasin using UX. Dan and Jo assisted the participants to have an active discussion by giving them questions. For both Dan and Jo, UX is a way to broaden a perspective since in running UX, people need to explore possibilities and their surroundings to get inspiration or ideas. One of these possibilities is to talk with the people around them, “You need stories from people. Spend time with them. UX is a humane practice but it ascribes roles. We need a shared language,” said Dan.

Next, Turi McKinley delivered a presentation about customer surveys and research. Turi explained about how customers are not just limited to statistical data or market data. She advised the participants that before doing a research, it was important to understand human motivation first. “Ask your users to share stories, and ask them to talk about their experience as well as how they reacted,” she said.

After the seminar, the participants attended a panel discussion that presented UX practitioners from various industries. There were four speakers in the panel discussion: Patrick Williamson (VP Product and Bus Development, KMK Online), I Made Hartawijaya (VP-Marketing, XL Axiata), Edi Taslim (Vice Director, kompas.com), and Joddy Hernady (Head of Innovation and Design Center, Telkom Indonesia).

Cipta Pratama, the UXID Conference 2014 organizer, hoped that the event may grow awareness of UX in Indonesia. He also hoped that the conference could be a medium for UX practitioners to share knowledge as well as to expand their network.

“Judging from the enthusiasm and the vast number of participants at the conference, UX has gained a lot of attention in Indonesia. We are optimistic this community will get bigger and UX will get more attention as well,” said Cipta. (RAW)