Hot Off the Press: UX in Media Technology

21
Apr
2016

18.30-21.30

The News Building, 1 London Bridge Street, SE1 9GF, United Kingdom

In a world that is increasingly becoming disengaged with traditional news media, can the insights offered by UX expertise help media outlets and content producers find new and effective ways to capture audience attention, and deliver rich, marketable and customer-led media?

Join us at this event to find out how our diverse group of speakers conquer these challenges in UX and media technology, and discuss together the strategies for what lies ahead in this exciting domain for UX professionals.

This event is curated by Anja.

Date – Thursday, 21 April 2016
18:30 – 19:00 – Mixing and mingling with drinks and nibbles
19:00 – 21:00 – Presentations
21:00 – 21:30 – Networking

How to get there:
The News Building is on top of the London Bridge Station and right next to the Shard and the main Bus Terminal. If you are at the front of the Shard, please go up the viewing elevator, the News Building is on the left.
From the Underground you have three options (depending which exit you use):

Borough High Street exit: turn right up Borough High Street and take a right onto London Bridge Street
Tooley Street exit: turn left towards the traffic lights, turn left on to Borough High Street, and left on to London Bridge Street
“The Shard” exit: take the escalator on to street level and walk down London Bridge Street

Talk 1: Jane Austin - The Telegraph

Details to follow shortly.

Jane Austin is Head of UX at The Telegraph

Talk 2: Dan Griffiths and Claire Dracott - The Times & Sunday Times

The Times & The Sunday Times have recently re-done the website and smartphone apps – launched in March 2016 after 18 months of research, concepts and development. Dan and Claire want to take this opportunity to focus on the usability research that has been done and review the process that they have taken, the benefits it has given to all departments, the precedence it has now set within the business, and finally the main challenges they have had.

Key takeaways from the presentation will be:
– An overview of how to setup a remote usability lab
– Outlining core challenges their team faced whilst running these usability session in such a large organisation and how they overcame these
– Hints and tips to get core teams and stakeholders engaged and championing the findings of user research

Dan Griffiths is Head of Digital Products for The Times & Sunday Times.

Claire Dracott is a User Research for The Times & Sunday Times products.

Talk 3: Adam Hutchinson - Signal Media

‘If I miss a story, I lose my job’ – Designing the news experience for professionals

Signal Media is a machine learning startup that helps professionals get across the world’s media. Their service is used by PR, communications, marketing and research professionals in financial & legal firms and agencies, to learn about the most important news stories to understand how their company is being perceived, what their competitors are doing, and what the wider trends are in the market place. In Signal, they carry out UX activities both within the teams and at a company-wide level. Adam is increasingly of the view that UX is a skill set, not a role, and how they work in Signal reflects this. This talk will be useful for anyone looking to hear about UX practice in the intersection of startup culture, machine learning, news content, and B2B.

Adam worked in design leadership roles at Morgan Stanley and the BBC as well as agency-side. He has a MSc in HCI from UCLIC, and a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Warwick. He enjoys creating innovative products & tools that help people achieve their potential and he’s been designing and building user-centred products and teams for 13 years.

Adam Hutchinson is COP at Signal Media.

Talk 4: Jon Watts - MTM

How will the media and technology industries develop during the next five years?

This talk will bring a broad overview of the key trends impacting the development of the TMT industries – and some thoughts on what this means for UX design.

Jon Watts is a founding Director and Managing Partner at MTM, a leading international research and strategy consultancy focused on media, technology and advertising. MTM provides award-winning consumer and industry research, strategic advice, service and business planning, and support organisational change. Jon has nearly 20 years of professional experience, helping leading enterprises understand and respond to digitally-driven change. MTM’s clients include Sky, Google, Facebook, Discovery, Viacom, NBCUniversal, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, BARB, BT, Ericsson, Adobe, NAGRA, ESA, the Guardian, DMGT, Time Inc, Penguin Random House, and many others.

Jon Watts is Director and Co-founder of MTM.