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Designing in disaster
- Theme:Design craft
- Topic:Accessibility
- Topic:Research
- Topic:UX
- Topic:Strategy
Designing in disaster: lessons from the front lines of climate adaptation — Discover how designing for climate adaptation requires empathy, ingenuity, and a willingness to embrace imperfection. In this talk, Megan Metzger shares lessons from the field—ranging from offline disaster scenarios to designing for aging demographics—and how user-centered tools can empower communities to navigate the challenges of a changing climate.
Megan Metzger
Senior Product Designer
Forerunner
Crossing the chasm between quality and performance
- Theme:Design craft
- Topic:Collaboration
- Topic:UX
- Topic:Strategy
In this talk, Ricardo challenges the traditional assumption that quality is a UX-driven measure while performance is solely an engineering objective. Drawing from his experiences at Shopify and Dropbox, Ricardo shares how these two crucial elements are deeply interconnected and essential for crafting seamless, high-impact products.
Ricardo Vazquez
Director, Product Design
Dropbox
Writing is designing
- Theme:Design craft
- Topic:Content design
- Topic:Strategy
- Topic:UX
Imagine designing a product without words—users would struggle to navigate or understand its purpose. This talk explores how language shapes UX at every stage, from early wireframes to final microcopy. We'll cover how terms and verbs act as building blocks, voice and tone connect product to brand, and UX writing elements like tooltips and error messages bring the experience to life. By thinking about words as strategically and as deeply as the pixels, designers and product folks can create more intuitive, meaningful experiences that are as beautiful as they are useful and usable.
Andy Welfle
Content Designer, Author
Independent
Designing for play and friction in a fast-paced world
- Theme:Design craft
- Topic:Collaboration
- Topic:UX
- Topic:Strategy
In this talk, Michelle Lee, Partner and Managing Director at IDEO, delves in the power of play in designing for friction—a counterintuitive yet profound approach that slows us down to create more meaningful, joyful experiences. She highlights the unique power of play to embrace friction to foster connection and richer experiences. Drawing on insights from Gen Z and Gen AI, she highlights the value of authentic, imperfect moments over streamlined solutions. Her talk challenges us to rethink our reliance on technology’s shortcuts and inspires a reimagination of how we live, work, and play.
Michelle Lee
Partner & Managing Director
IDEO
About the speakers
Megan Metzger
She/herSenior Product Designer
Forerunner
Megan Metzger is a senior product designer at Forerunner, crafting tools that help local governments adapt to climate risks like floods, wildfires, and hurricanes. She specializes in user-centered, accessible solutions that enhance community resilience. Previously, Megan worked at Stripe as a product designer and design program manager, driving impactful user experiences, and at IDEO where she tackled complex challenges across a wide range of industries. Her unique approach blends technical expertise with empathy to address real-world challenges and foster lasting change.
Ricardo Vazquez
He/himDirector, Product Design
Dropbox
Ricardo is an accomplished design leader with over a decade of experience in the intersections of design, technology, and education. Having held key roles at industry-leading companies such as Dropbox, Shopify, and Mozilla Firefox, he has successfully led large teams across challenges of scale while executing strategies that have driven business value and customer delight. Ricardo’s leadership is rooted in courage, happiness of pursuit, and leadership from the heart.
Andy Welfle
He/himContent Designer, Author
Independent
Andy Welfle is a writer and content designer, living and working in San Francisco. He’s the co-author of Writing is Designing: Words and the User Experience, a book about UX writing fundamentals, and has built content design practices at large companies and small innovative startups alike. He’s currently building a practice at Glean. When he’s not working his day job, Andy’s probably making zines about bad AI poetry, or podcasts about wooden pencils, Find out more and get in touch at andy.wtf.
Michelle Lee
She/herPartner & Managing Director
IDEO
Michelle Lee is a Partner and Managing Director at IDEO, where she has applied her passion for play to leading interdisciplinary teams of designers and researchers in bringing engaging, interactive, and playful experiences to market. She believes in leveraging the principles of play to connect with people on a deeper emotional level that captivates, delights, and empowers. Immersed in a globally recognized user-centered design firm, Michelle's tenure includes research and product design roles.