Love in the Time of Coronavirus: what the pandemic can teach us about creating a more caring, inclusive, and equitable world.

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Love in the Time of Coronavirus* What a pandemic can teach us about creating a more caring, inclusive, and equitable world * with huge respect and love for the writings of Gabriel García Márquez

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The most important thing in this talk We can choose a more human-centered way

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Who the heck are we? Nicola du Toit Product designer working at Luno, living in Joburg @sophdex linkedin.com/in/ nicoladutoit nicoladutoit.com

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Steve Barnett Front-end developer and UX person working at Totara, living in New Zealand Who the heck are we? @maxbarners linkedin.com/in/ steve-barnett naga.co.za

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Quick question (foreshadowing!) What’s the most recent thing you’ve done that was human-centered?

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Agenda 1. “The COVID switch” 2. Examples 3. How does this help us as designers?

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“The COVID switch” 1 of 2 ● COVID-19 is highlighting, for more people, a wide set of systemic and structural inequalities in the world. ● Of course, this stuff has been clear to many people for a long time, namely the people directly affected by it.

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“The COVID switch” 2 of 2 Can’t be done ➡ can be done. ➡

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Agenda 1. ✔ “The COVID switch” 2. Examples 3. How does this help us as designers?

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Before COVID For medical care and test results, we had to: ● pay money to travel and see a doctor or nurse in person. ● queue with lots of other sick people. ● wait days or weeks for test results. Example 1: Access to healthcare

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During COVID ● Many medical services are free and online. ● We have drive-thru testing. ● We can get test results in hours - by text or via WhatsApp! Example 1: Access to healthcare

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Before COVID Most of us had to: ● Survive a long commute to work. ● Work Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. ● Work in busy, noisy, open plan spaces. Example 2: Working from home

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During COVID ● No more commuting in awful traffic! ● More flexible hours! ● More relaxed working environments that we can control! ● Pyjama pants and office pets! Example 2: Working from home

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Example 3: Community care Before COVID ● We didn’t necessarily know our neighbours. ● We weren’t engaging with our community. ● We weren’t taking collective responsibility for the well-being of other humans.

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Example 3: Community care During COVID ● We are reaching out and supporting each other more. ● We are self-organizing to help those in need. ● We are taking better collective responsibility for everyone’s well-being.

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2020 has been horrible This year has been really shite. But some things have become more human-centered, and we can use this.

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Agenda 1. ✔ “The COVID switch” 2. ✔ Examples 3. How does this help us as designers?

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How does this help us as designers? The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us that humans are actually really good at being: ● Empathetic ● Flexible ● Inclusive

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How does this help us as designers? When we do human-centred design: ● Can’t be done becomes can be done! ● Unusable becomes user-friendly! ● Feature-focused becomes human-centred! ➡

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Empathy For example: do user research with the actual humans we’re designing for. Understand who they are, what they need, and how our product can help them.

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Flexibility For example: make stuff that works for a wide range of technology. We can build products and services that work on a variety of screen sizes, on low bandwidth and at slow speeds, on older and slower devices.

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Inclusivity For example: accessibility! Remove barriers that might block people from using our stuff (e.g. low colour contrast, small fonts, not keyboard-friendly). Making things even a little more accessible will improve our product for everyone!

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Quick question (callback!) What's the next thing you can do in a more human-centred way?

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Agenda - recap edition 1. ✔ “The COVID switch” 2. ✔ Examples 3. ✔ How does this help us as designers?

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Recap: the most important thing in this talk We can (still) choose a more human-centered way!

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“It doesn't have to be perfect, it just needs to be a little bit better than yesterday." - Leonie Watson

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Love in the Time of Coronavirus Thank you! Slides at bit.ly/uxsa2020

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Questions? Nicola: nicoladutoit.com || @sophdex || linkedin.com/in/nicoladutoit Steve: naga.co.za || @maxbarners || linkedin.com/in/steve-barnett Slides at bit.ly/uxsa2020

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