Ethical Personality Design, Digital Fabrication, and Data Visualization: Design Track Sessions for SXSW 2018

Design mediates our interactions, shapes our experiences, and plays a critical role in problem solving. The Design Track examines the field’s evolving responsibilities and disruptive opportunities in our increasingly frenetic world. Designers, artists, and creatives of all disciplines will gain inspiration and understanding of design’s potential during these sessions at the SXSW Conference. Explore what our 2018 Design Track has to offer.

"Bias is a design problem. Or, more accurately, a designer’s problem," says SXSW Programmer Julie Yost. "It’s commonly said that designing for inclusion is the goal, but what does that process really entail? At SXSW 2018, the design process is being held up to the light, and experts are sharing how to uncover how implicit bias, toxic work cultures, and bad practices can impact your practice and your final products."

"In The Shadow Side of Human Centered Design, Dr. Melis Senova breaks down the disconnect between good intentions and good results," adds Yost. " While Sophie Kleber of Huge breaks down our tendency to abuse our virtual assistants and introduces an ethical framework of HCI in Ethical Personality Design: The Future of HCI."

Take a closer look at the Design Track as we feature numerous sessions that showcase ethical personality design, data visualization, and sessions where design collides with other subjects, and much more. Design Track sessions are held March 9-13 with primary access to Interactive and Platinum Badges; secondary access to Music and Film Badges.

Design Session Highlights

Ethical Personality Design: The Future of HCI

Speaker: Sophie Kleber (Huge)

As intelligent systems make their way into our lives in the form of virtual assistants, humans are forming relationships with them as well. What happens when those relationships turn sour, or the servant/master dynamics inherent in the relationship permit abusive behavior? Based on our experience designing conversational UIs, we examine the emerging relationship dynamics between people and virtual assistants and introduce an ethical framework for the future of human computer interaction.

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Exploring New Frontiers in Digital Fabrication

Speakers: Annina Koivu (ECAL - Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne), Skylar Tibbits (Self - Assembly Lab, MIT), Christophe Guberan, Benjamin Dillenburger (ETH Zurich)

We have entered an age of exponential manufacturing. Traditional fabrication processes have recently been disrupted by advances in automation techniques, exploding capabilities in computer power and novel material technologies. 3D printing has created unprecedented opportunities. But what is next? Intelligent and self-assembling materials are paving the way for tomorrow’s applications in smart production processes, large-scale printed complex architecture, and industrial fabrication techniques.

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Facts, Truth, and Data Visualization

Speaker: Scott Berinato (Harvard Business Review)

Is there such a thing as an objective data visualization? Can a chart be “true”? Dataviz has become a common way for us to communicate—and argue. Dataviz literacy has become an urgent need. We'll examine the ways charts are used to manipulate perception, both deliberately and accidentally. We'll focus on how to spot manipulative techniques. We'll talk about using the persuasive power of dataviz responsibly. And we'll have some fun messing with charts to mess with the reality they portray.

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Arts at CERN: When Art Meets Science

Speakers: Monica Bello (Arts at CERN), Cecile Vulliemin (Swissnex Boston), James Beacham (Atlas Experiment At CERN), Laura Couto Rosado (Digital Alchemy)

An artist examining the smallest things in nature with the largest experiment ever? The Arts at CERN COLLIDE Artists Residency Award offers a unique opportunity to artists and particle physicists to join forces in addressing imagination, creativity, and perceptibility matters while exploring the CERN and its Large Hadron Collider. Let's learn more about this initiative from the most important scientific institution in Europe together with its director and residents.

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Designers Who Broke the Internet

Speakers: Grace Kim (Twitter), Ian Spalter (Instagram), John S Couch (Hulu)

Their designs anticipated your wants and needs which, in turn, revitalized everything you knew to be visually true about the app experience you were familiar with. Join the designers behind some of your most widely used apps and hear what their rationale and guiding principles were when they disrupted their respective ecosystems.

Hulu, Twitter and Instagram will share will share musings and lessons learned in their disruptive design journeys.

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The Shadow Side of Human Centered Design

Speaker: Dr. Melis Senova

Designers intend to create for the whole human experience, but tend not to. Dr. Melis Senova discusses the suppressed part of design and invites us to explore the practice with participants sure to leave with perspectives challenged.

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Browse All Design Sessions

Crossover Track Recommendations

Adventure outside of the Design Track – explore SXSW sessions across all 24 Tracks of Conference programming. These sessions are not a part of the Design Track, but these subjects will interest anyone with an interest in design.

• Breaking the 4th Wall: Drone Swarms in Art - Bill Keays (Verity Studios AG), Federico Augugliaro (Verity Studios AG), Lea Pereyre (Verity Studios AG), and Philippe Labouchere (Swissnex Boston)
  Track: Experiential Storytelling

• Design in the Criminal Justice System - Ryan Menefee (frog design) and Kelsey Mckay (McKay Training & Consulting)
  Track: Government

• There Is No Other Hand: Inclusive Design & Kids - Jen Lee Reeves (Born Just Right) and Jordan Reeves (Born Just Right)
  Track: Social Impact

Grab your Platinum Badge today for primary access to all SXSW events. Register to attend by Friday, February 9 and save. Book your hotel through SXSW Housing & Travel for the best available rates.

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Photo of Marie Kondo Teaser - Photo by Errich Petersen