Finding Commonalities Among Websites, Pill Bottles, and Laptops — Experience Design is Everywhere

For Immediate Release

San Francisco, CA, August 1, 2007 – Finding Commonalities Among Websites, Pill Bottles, and Laptops — Experience Design is Everywhere

What do CNN’s website, the One Laptop Per Child project, the next generation of mobile devices, and Target’s new ClearRx system have in common?  They’re all products of superior experience design—and the design teams responsible for them are all presenting at Adaptive Path’s annual UX Week conference August 13-16 in Washington, D.C.  These examples demonstrate how user experience design has moved beyond the Web and can be applied to everyday items as disparate as cell phones and pill bottles.  Adaptive Path has finalized the conference schedule—which now includes a surprise announcement—and is touting the event as its most comprehensive and compelling to date.   

“We’ve got an amazing group of speakers this year, and the breadth of topics on the schedule is unparalleled,” said Peter Merholz, president of Adaptive Path.  “For anyone looking to develop their user experience skills, and to see how good design can change the way we do business and live our lives, UX Week 2007 is the place to be.”

UX Week is a forum for ideas and learning, a collaborative discussion about bridging optimal user experiences to good business.  What’s more, UX Week explores ways through which design can improve peoples’ lives.  Organizations big and small are capitalizing on good design work at every level; UX Week explores how all this fits together.  For a full schedule of events, visit www.adaptivepath.com/events/2007/aug/.

Drawing from the business world, academia, and beyond, this year’s diverse list of speakers provides seasoned practitioners and novices alike with numerous sources of information and inspiration:

• CNN: Members of CNN.com’s technology team will be talking about their new “Web 2.0″ redesign.
• One Laptop Per Child: Lisa Strausfeld of Pentagram will be discussing the One Laptop per Child project, how and why it was conceived, and what they hope to change.
• Nokia and Motorola: Jan Chipchase of Nokia and Kevin Brooks of Motorola Labs will be talking about lessons learned, thoughts on collaboration in the research and design process, and some ideas on what may lie ahead in the ever-evolving mobile device market.
• Target: Deborah Adler is a principle designer and the inspiration behind Target's ClearRx system. Motivated by a desire to make people's lives easier and safer, she designed a comprehensive system for packaging prescription medicine as her Masters thesis. The result – a completely reinvented prescription bottle and label. She brought this innovation to Target, and together they developed the ClearRx system.
• Adaptive Path: Dan Saffer will talk about generating fresh ideas by looking at different sources of inspiration for interaction design, a new way of looking at the world around us. 

More than 350 information architects, visual designers, interaction designers, user experience practitioners, business leaders, academics, and others interested in creating a superior user experience are expected to attend from all corners of the country and the world.  Microsoft, eBay, Vanguard, General Mills, Expedia, Wal-Mart, Mapquest, AOL, Bank of America, Xerox, Grey Advertising, and several leading colleges and universities are but a few of the organizations to be represented this August.

Adaptive Path is the founder and host of the annual conference, now in its sixth year.  A leading user experience research, development, and training firm, Adaptive Path has provided custom services to a range of clients, including Fortune 100 corporations, pure-Web startups, and established non-profit organizations.  This year’s conference will be held at the Washington Court Hotel, 525 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20001 from August 13th through the 16th, 2007.

Press can register for the conference through August 10.  Complimentary media passes are awarded on a first come, first serve basis, as space is limited. Proper identification, preferably a company-issued identification card or business card, along with picture ID, will be required at registration. Please contact Pete Selfridge via email, selfridge@adaptivepath.com, or cell, 773.620.2947 for more information.