USC’s Jaime Levy talks Hyperloop and UX Strategy at CanUX 2017

The renowned UX strategist makes her CanUX debut in 2017.

 W3: Conducting Competitive Research and Analysis for Devising Innovative Products
} Nov 3, 2017   1:30pm / 3.5 Hours

User experience (UX) strategy lies at the intersection of UX design and business strategy. It is a process that should be started first, before the design or development of a product begins. It relies on empirical, lightweight tactics for pushing cross-functional teams toward a unique digital solution that customers want. Today, a UX differentiation is the digital-product game changer. Differentiated user experiences have completely revolutionized the way we shop, travel, communicate and experience our day-to-day life.

When building a digital product you need to learn as much as you can about the competition. That’s why conducting market research and analysis is a crucial component of business strategy. You want to know what’s out there, what’s worked, and what hasn’t. This requires firsthand knowledge of the good and bad user experiences and business models provided by your competitors. If done thoroughly, the research can provide a treasure trove of insight into current trends and outdated manifestations of mental models.
Take this workshop to experience a deep dive into the subject matter with both lectures and hands-on exercises. We’ll practice with a made-up value proposition of an online product so that you can learn the steps you need to take for informing strategic UX-centric decision-making. It is highly suggested that you bring a laptop to the workshop or be okay with sharing one with another participant.

You’ll learn:

• Why the empirical practice of user experience strategy is crucial for devising successful online products
• How to identify direct and indirect digital competitors of your value proposition
• How to locate and capture quantitative and qualitative data about both UX and business-centric attributes using a customized shared Google spreadsheet for organizing your research
• How to conduct a methodical analysis so that you can take a stance on the opportunity space
• Why by doing thorough competitive research and analysis on the online marketplace, you can ascertain new opportunities for leveraging killer UX design and innovative business models for your product, platform, or service.

 Hyperloop Case Study: Where UX Strategy and an Innovative Transportation System Collide
} Nov 4/5, 2017   TBD / 35 MINUTES

Speaker Jaime Levy will discuss her recent role in defining the UX Strategy for the futuristic international transportation system called Hyperloop. The general public’s understanding of Hyperloop is that it is a high-speed rail concept originally put forth by entrepreneur Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla, Paypal, etc.) back in 2013. But this revolutionary transportation system using pressurized capsules riding on air cushions is just a small part of the customer experience.

The “big picture” solution is a unified network of digital touchpoints where shared big data and interwoven dashboard/app interfaces are seamlessly connected across multimodal transportation systems (i.e. bikes, tuk-tuks, ride-sharing services, buses, planes and the future Hyperloop rail system). This required a UX strategy that sought to dramatically improve how people transport themselves either locally or globally by making the time they spend traveling more productive and cost-efficient.

 Speaker Bio: Jaime Levy

Jaime Levy is an author, university professor and a user experience strategist. For more than 25 years, Jaime has been a pioneer in the creation of innovative digital products and services. She currently runs a UX design and strategy consultancy, JLR Interactive, in downtown Los Angeles, CA. Jaime also teaches a graduate-level course on UX design and strategy at USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering.

In 2015, she published her top-selling O’Reilly Media book UX Strategy: How to Devise Innovative Digital Products that People Want. The book presents a solid framework on the practice, which lies at the intersection of UX design and business strategy. A number of online video courses that supplement the book are available online at O’Reilly Media.

Before the internet, Jamie created the first electronic magazine on floppy disk in 1990. In 1993, she worked with EMI Records where she designed, animated, and programmed the first commercially released interactive press kit (IPK) for Billy Idol’s Cyberpunk CD digipack. She also founded Silicon Alley-based start-up Electronic Hollywood, a company focused on web design, interactive advertising, and original content development.

Jaime has previously done work for companies like Razorfish, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Cisco Systems, Sony and many more. She is a frequent speaker at major design and innovation conferences worldwide, and conducts public workshops and in-house training courses.

For more info, you can follow Jaime on on Twitter @jaimerlevy

*Image credit: Paul Vachier