Session type: Main Conference Talk

I'm living in this liminal space. I'm in a transition, but to what, I don't know. For 10 years, I saw working in our field not only as my career, but as my home.

And then, at the beginning of 2021, I left.

At first, I believed what I told others. I had left in order to become a writer. I set up a Substack, and I sent 500-1000 word essays each week to the wonderful folks who entrusted me with their inboxes.

But now, two years later, I recognize that this transition is more complex than a career change. This transition is a reckoning with my identity and my belief in a field that I once thought would make the world a more hospitable place.

And I do still believe in the tools of UX: the ones that get us to really understand and take responsibility for our effect on the people we touch. These ways of being and thinking are as important as they always have been.

In this talk, I'll tell you how I got here, but more importantly, I'll share how I'm staying hopeful even as I feel more disillusioned than ever before.

I’m a monarch in a chrysalis, a gelatinous goo, and I don't even know whether my wings will be orange, let alone if I will be a butterfly, when I emerge.

Come spend some time with me, and we can find some catharsis and stamina together.

You experience interactive rhythm whenever you scroll a social network feed, play an online game, or compose a PowerPoint slide. Eleven years have passed since Rhythm and Flow was last discussed at this conference in New Orleans. It's time to revisit the topic, evaluate how far we've come, and update the findings and recommendations. Hint: not all of it has been healthy. Where are we today, and how can we ensure the technique is used for good in the future?

We’ve all seen the cute dog with the fire raging all around, proclaiming “this is fine” when things are anything but. We’ve often been that cute dog: stuck in situations that are a bit out of hand but that we have to power through anyway.

When things feel overwhelming, people tend to turn to their leaders. What’s a leader to do?

In this talk, we’ll discuss how we can lead well through hard situations while still keeping our sanity, integrity, and sense of self intact.