The Boston Chapter of the User Experience Professionals Association will be holding their 18th Annual User Experience Conference on Friday, May 10, at the Sheraton Boston Hotel.

Eva Kaniasty, chair of the User-Centered Design program at Graduate Professional Studies, will participate in the Innovation Fishbowl (9:15 a.m.), a debate-style panel session that will cover several controversial topics around UX and innovation:

  • What’s the state of UX design for emerging technologies (voice, IoT, etc)?
  • Are we inventing new processes and methodologies, or just re-branding the old?
  • When we creatively adapt a method or process to fit project realities, are we losing its core benefits/value?
  • Are standards and design systems good for UX, or are they forcing us to design to the least common denominator?
  • Can design collaboration and reliance on user feedback devolve into groupthink and rejection of new ideas?
  • Does UX foster or kill innovation?
  • Have we finally found a way to make Agile and UX play well together?

The Fishbowl format is designed to facilitate discussion in large groups, making it ideal for an advanced conference session. First the panelists will discuss a topic while the audience listens. Next, the audience is invited to join the discussion with questions and comments. The fishbowl round continues for 10-15 minutes, at which point a new topic is introduced and the process repeats.

Eva will also be facilitating a lunchtime discussion at the conference. If you’d like to learn more about the event and programs offered, check out the website and follow along with the hashtag: #UXPABOS19.