A Day in the Life of a UX Designer

This month, we’ll be exploring the role of a UX Designer!

Some UX designers do a little bit of everything (concepting, information architecture, wireframing, prototyping, and usability testing) on a project, while others might specialize or lean more toward one area of the field.

Our guest speaker for this session is Emily Holmes, the Director of UX for R&D at Hobsons, Inc. Emily will talk about her role as a UX Designer on an innovation team, the path that brought her to UX, her activities she does in her role, and what she really enjoys about her role. We’ll do a short Q&A session and then try an activity to get a feel for what it’s like to be in her shoes. 

Agenda

• 6:30-6:55pm: Sign-in, grab some refreshments 
  
• 6:55: Intro 
  
• 7:00-8:30pm: Presentation, Q&A, Activity

Activity Description
Story mapping is one of the best tools for helping a team move from discovery to development, while building consensus around what should actually get built first. In this collaborative activity, participants will assume the roles of various stakeholders with competing priorities, and work together to build a story map that represents the MVP for a fictitious startup company.

Location 
The Citrix Raleigh office is in the Warehouse District of Downtown Raleigh. We have ample free parking in the parking deck, which you can enter from S. West Street. This is a gated deck, so hit the call box button to bet let in. The security office will ask for your name - MAKE SURE YOUR FIRST AND LAST NAME ARE USED ON THIS MEETUP (If you don't want your full name listed here, you can email me through meetup.com). There’s also street parking available. When you arrive, enter in through the first floor (level CY on the elevator) and sign in at the security desk - they will have a roster of attendees for the event.

RSVPing and the Waitlist
To register, visit the exploreUX event listing and RSVP there. We will close the RSVP list by noon on the day of the event - this is so we can provide security with a list when they need it. Please be kind to your fellow members and update your RSVP to “No” if you cannot attend the event. We know it’s easier to be less accountable for free events, but we really like to keep these events free to advocate for UX in the community. We really trying to avoid imposing a fee or a 3-strikes policy to hold people accountable.

If the event fills up, you will automatically be put on the waitlist. If someone changes their RSVP to “No” the earliest person on waitlist will be notified that their RSVP has been upgraded from “Waitlist” to “Yes”. Closer to the event, keep an eye out from a message from the organizer.

About Emily
Emily is the director of User Experience for the innovation team at Hobsons, a global education solutions company that provides tools to 6 million K-12 students in more than 80 countries. A Lean UX advocate, she believes in the power of design thinking and collaborative, rapid design. Over the past 6 years, Emily built the first UX team at Hobsons, introduced user research into the product development process, and brought Lean UX methodology into the corporate culture. In her current role, she is responsible for ideation, research, design and prototyping of new business initiatives within the company's Discovery Lab. Using Lean Startup, Design Thinking and Lean UX methods, the Discovery Lab team rapidly generates and tests potential business ideas for market viability within the K12 education space.

A visual designer and entrepreneur, she has previously been an exhibit and graphic designer for an interactive children's science museum; a professional singer; an IA and front-end developer for a Fortune 5000 company; the founder and partner in a successful web consulting business; a fire juggler; and the proprietor of a stained glass studio that designed, produced and sold glass giftware to galleries and catalog companies around the world.

About the A Day in the Life Series 
Each month, we'll explore a different role in the UX field. This gives an opportunity for you to learn about what people do in that particular role, ask them questions, and participate in activity to “test drive” what it’s like to be in this role. Join this meetup to be the first to know about  upcoming events!

This event series is brought to you by exploreUX and Triangle UXPA. Special thanks to Citrix for hosting the event.