Speaking at CAST 2014 & The Saturday Night Project

Over last 2 years, I have done crazy things. I attended a Design conference, Developer conference, Story Telling workshop by well known Brand Expert and Master Storyteller Ameen Haque, took a design course tutored by Don Norman on 'The Design Of Everyday Things' and also took up some singing classes with my daughter (Oh! I just bray!). I also did several things at work that I have not done before. All along, I went with the flow, picked up any challenge that appeared exciting and enjoyed what I did.

The Saturday Night Project

I spent more than an year studying design and user experience between 2013 and 2014. I was amused by what User Experience Design field had to offer when I led a User Experience testing project at my previous job. The experience has been exhilarating. I learned about design, about applying design concepts to testing and about life itself. All this, happened on saturday nights after I put my kids to sleep. It's been a wonderful journey. These learnings are very special because a lot of effort went into it.

It's time I share these learnings with the world. Which better conference than at CAST 2014!

CAST 2014

CAST is a very special conference for me (apart from Let's Test and Bug DeBug). I have several friends who have attended this conference and told me that I MUST attend this conference, even if it is at my own expenses. Two years ago, I told myself that someday I will present at CAST. My dream is coming true this year. My family thinks I am crazy to be spending a bomb on this trip. For me, it's worth my time, effort and money for the wonderful testers I am going to meet at this conference. I am excited about this conference.

I am presenting a paper "Testing Lessons From The Design Thinking World" at CAST 2014 at New York. You can check out my Abstract HERE.

Date :: 12th August 2014, 4.50 PM
Venue :: KC909, Kimmel Center, New York

Key Highlights of My CAST Talk
Emotions Testing
Multi-Sensory Experience
Testing for Errors
Customer Touch Points

Trailer of My CAST Talk
CAST 2014 Team (Lalit Bhramare and Ben Yaroch) helped set up a video trailer of my talk which is a sneak preview into what I am going to talk about in my session. Watch it below.

Token of Thanks

I would like to thank scores of my friends and colleagues who helped me in this journey. The first and foremost in the list is my teacher and colleague Pradeep Soundararajan without whose push, I would have not gotten till here in my UXD study. I would also like to thank Dhanasekar Subramaniam, Bhavana, Ravisuriya, Dheeraj Karanam and David Greenlees who kept sending me information about related topics/articles for several months in a row. I would also like to thank all my team members who have supported me in my search for UXD Nirvana :)

Special Thanks to James Bach, David Greenlees and Lee Copeland for agreeing to review my slide deck and providing their valuable feedback. Without these people's inputs, my talk would not have been what it is right now.

I would also like to thank Don Norman, Jason Pollard, Rob Sabourin (Testing Lessons series) whose work inspired me a lot in last one year.

What Next?

Come to my session on 12th Aug 2014 at KC909 at 4.50 PM

See you there!

You can't make it? Don't lose heart! Watch CAST 2014 Live HERE

Regards,
Pari