richard.sison

A recurring theme in the tech industry is one of Ethics in Design. It's often a point of discussion online and was a prevalent  topic at conferences I've attended recently. There is still a lot of work to be done to make design and product teams more aware, responsible and proactive about ethical issues where technology is shaping society and defining culture.

Web Directions covers a lot of ground when it comes to design and technology conferences within Australia. Right now they have seven conferences targeted towards designers, developers, leadership, product and culture. 

Web Directions Summit is the big one — it's their conference that brings the whole team together. This year it was held in Sydney at the fantastic new International Convention Centre (ICC) in Darling Harbour.

Last week I had the privilege of attending and speaking at my first UX Australia conference. This year it was held at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne.

UX Australia is the largest conferences in Australia for our industry — there were 850 of us running around apparently — so it was only appropriate for the keynote speakers to be industry heavy-hitters.

With big names like Steve Portigal (California), Lauren Currie (NOBL Collective) and Alan Cooper (The "Father of Visual Basic") floating around, the bar was set very high and it did not disappoint.

Web Directions Design was held over three days in April 2018 with great presentations spanning a broad range of topics across the design industry. Some were focused on emerging technologies such as eye tracking, Blockchain and voice UI, others on the importance of research and ethics in design.