Areas to discover

• Do participants of industry meetings want to make contact with each other?

• If so, how and what is the role of new technologies?

• If they encounter difficulties, how can they be helped?

Goals

Main goal

Specific goals

Examining the communication processes taking place between the participant and during industry events related to new technologies and design

Research methods used

Analysis of the role of new technologies (devices, applications, etc.) in establishing relationships with other participants in events

Acquiring information on emotions related to establishing contacts and networking at various stages of the meeting

Understanding the motivation of participants in industry events to make contacts with strangers

Goal: better understanding of the target group, examination of motivation related to participation in industry events, role analysis networking, the way of establishing and maintaining contacts contained during industry meetings, their quality and structure.

Online survey

Goal: to obtain quantitative data on the habits and behavior of participants in the context of communication

Interviews

Goal: to observe the listeners directly during the event

Goal: to get to know the feelings that dominate among the respondents, at different moments of the industry event

Card sorting

Observation

Interviews

Recruitment criteria: the respondents were selected based on the screener response analysis:

• 11 single and multiple choice questions and descriptive commands

• people who have expressed their willingness to participate in the study in the last two years qualified participated in at least four industry events related to IT, new technologies, design and design (5 questions)

• the remaining 6 auxiliary questions were aimed at preliminary identification of the personality of potential respondents and their attitude to new technologies and participation in industry events

Factors such as age, place of residence, education were not taken into account because they do not determine participation in industry meetings

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Respondents: 7 men 6 women

Industries: 9 IT 2 Design 2 Finance

Artifacts: 2 Videos 11 audios 13 card sorting​

Average survey time : 45 min

Observation

Observations were conducted at 2 conferences held as part of Word Usability Day:

WUD Silesia 

WUD Kraków 

note: Both meetings at which observations were made were important events for the industry UX, meetings were free and took place on a non-working day. As a result, many participants came to the meeting together with friends from the industry, which could have influenced the result of the observation.

Survey was published on Facebook:

posts in thematic groups corresponding to the sample on which interviews were conducted

on the wall of private persons •

sent via Facebook Messenger - as amessage addressed directly to the respondent (15 people)

duration: 4 days 82 answers

51% of the respondents are men, 49% are women

Online survey

Card sorting

The respondents received a set of 7 moments related to the conference and a set of 8 positive and 8 negative emotions. Their task was to assign feelings to moments according to their own vision

Conclusions from research

Additional conclusions

Primary objective

To facilitate communication for participants of conferences and industry meetings

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Conclusions:

Conference participants have no major problems with establishing contacts. this facilitates common context - participation in the same presentations and workshops (main staffs).

Only people who participate in the conference for the first time do not approach other people, remain passive and observe the situation.

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New goal

To increase the engagement of participants during the conference.

Problem:

a sense of alienation in a large group of unknown people - too many conference participants make it difficult to enter a contact. The strategy for the project: supporting moments where there is the lowest sense of belonging to a group (eg the beginning of a conference)

Solution:

Creating groups and subgroups (you can use meetings in small groups to discuss a topic (open space, open mic), which is a great time to make friends.

Problem:

boredom during uninteresting / too long conference. Project's motivation: activating participants when they have nothing to do, looking for a job, wanting to kill time.

Solution:

a tool that will allow time to develop more productively (many respondents reported that they were for a mobile phone with internet access).

Problem:

participants do not like most of the currently used methods of integration of conference participants (they are referred to as pre-school). Project for the project: to propose an interesting solution that will be closer to the target group.

Solution:

using elements of gamification that will increase participants' involvement and create more opportunities for direct conversation.

Personas

Based on the interviews/surveys we set up three personas. We referred to them throughout the entire product development process.