Troy Winfrey

User experience consultant

Biography

Troy Winfrey

Troy Winfrey is a user experience consultant whose practice has moved from usability to “suitability”–it’s important that things be easy to use, but more important that the right things get built in the first place. He has worked with education, healthcare, and consumer goods companies, helping them to improve their interactive presence by understanding the real motives of their customers.

A native of Atlanta, Georgia, he is currently writing a dissertation on services design in the Doctor of Communications Design program at the University of Baltimore.

Presentation

Hidden Motives... Hidden Treasure

User experience, Conference Day #1, Wednesday May 5th, 4.00 pm - 5.00 pm

User experience can be difficult to define and even harder to work with. One time-tested way of dealing with the complexities of UX is to focus on user tasks, or what people are trying to get done with an interactive product or application. But even if you get this right, this approach usually only leads to good products. For truly great products, applications, or experiences, a designer needs to understand the hidden motives and hidden needs of users. But what do you do when these motives are even hidden from the users themselves?

Using examples from scholarly work in innovation and product development, as well as actual clients, my talk will focus on useful techniques for discovering what people actually want from your product--whether or not they know it--and how to use this knowledge to transform your user experience. Some techniques will require planning and effort; others can be put into practice Monday morning. Attendees will also be encouraged to ask questions about their own products and possible "hidden treasures" for their own users.

See slides online