Another keynote for the ages is on deck for the seventh edition of CanUX in 2016.

 Keynote: Ranch Stories
} Time: TBD / 45 MINUTES

Five years ago, I sold my suburban home in Silicon Valley and moved to an old farm deep in agricultural country. Everything was new to me, but I was most surprised to discover how the new lessons of farming paralleled the important lessons of interaction design. This talk will give you some useful insight into your work by reflecting on the farmer’s job.

 Speaker Bio: Alan Cooper

Alan Cooper has been a pioneer in the software world for more than 40 years and, in his role today as éminence grise in the user experience field, he continues to influence a new generation of designers, technologists and entrepreneurs.

In 1992, Alan and his wife, Sue, co-founded the first interaction design consulting firm, Cooper, in San Francisco, California. Within a few years Cooper had established the basic design methods that are used across the industry today and helped to popularize the notion that digital technology shouldn’t terrorize its human users . Alan created a new methodology called Goal-Directed design, based on the concept that software should speed the user towards his or her ultimate goal rather than ensnare him or her in computer minutiae. He also introduced the world to design personas, a technique almost universally used in the field of interaction design today.

He shared his tools, knowledge, and experience in two best-selling books, still in print and widely referenced: About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design (1995), now in its fourth edition (originally published as “About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design”), and The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity (1999). In 1994, he became one of the eight individuals who ever received a Windows Pioneer award from Microsoft chairman Bill Gates in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the success of the Windows platform. He was also named a recipient of Software Visionary Award awarded by the Software Forum in 1998.

In 1988 Alan invented a dynamically extensible visual programming tool and sold it to Bill Gates, who released it to the world as Visual Basic, arguably the most successful programming language ever. This is how Alan earned the sobriquet, “The Father of Visual Basic”. Alan also created the visual programming paradigm that was used as a basis for Visual Studio. Back in 1976, Alan started his first software company and produced what has been called “The first serious business software for microcomputers.”

In addition to his work at Cooper, Alan is an Instrument-Rated Private Pilot with more than 1500 hours as Pilot in Command. Nowadays, he continues to advocate for more humane technology from his 50-acre former dairy farm in the rolling hills north of San Francisco where he raises sheep and chicken, and is known to quote Kurt Vonnegut.

For more info, you can follow Alan on Twitter @mralancooper

*Image credit: Alan Cooper