Workshops

Looking for the workshops address and how to get there?

We have invited eleven leading thinkers and internationally renowned experts to join us in Berlin. Honestly, we can't let them leave without giving some great and insightful workshops.

All the workshops take place on Thursday, November 17, 2011, either in the morning or in the afternoon, and can be booked with or without the conference day (Friday, November 18, 2011).

Workshop Schedule (Thursday, November 17, 2011)


Workshop with Dan Saffer



Workshop: Brainstorming and Design Principles. Sold out!

Description: One of the core skills of design is the ability to rapidly generate concepts. This hands-on workshop will look at some of the best practices for doing just that, and, just as importantly, what to do once you have those concepts, both in clustering and categorizing them, but also in selecting the best. How do you go about deciding which concepts to prototype? One answer is Design Principles. By generating design principles, you can create criteria for determining your best concepts, but also "guiding stars" for making design decisions throughout the prototyping and production process.

Workshop with Darryl Feldman



Workshop: Designing for 'Microexperiences'.

Description: With reliable data connectivity and powerful hardware capabilities phones are now small computers. However, how people interact with them is fundamentally different and it is more important than ever to reduce overload and simplify the user experience. This may also be at odds with business managers who want to add new features in an attempt to compete in the market. This presentation and workshop explains the importance of 'Microexperiences' and provides guidance and tools to help reduce the complexity of your mobile UI and still remain competitive.

In the workshop you will get hands on creating 'Microexperiences' and learn a framework for simplifying your mobile UI.

Workshop with Josh Clark



Workshop: Designing for Touch. Sold out!

Description: Handheld apps that work by touch require you to design not only how your pixels look, but how they *feel* in the hand. This workshop explores the ergonomic challenges and interface opportunities for designing mobile touchscreen apps. Learn how fingers and thumbs turn desktop conventions on their head and require you to leave behind familiar design patterns. The workshop presents nitty-gritty "rule of thumb" design techniques that together form a framework for crafting finger-friendly interface metaphors, affordances, and gestures for a new generation of mobile apps that inform and delight. This is an intermediate to advanced workshop aimed at designers, developers, and information architects making the transition from desktop to touchscreen apps for mobile and tablet devices.

What will you learn?
  • Discover ergonomic guidelines for comfortable tapping and what that means for the visual layout of mobile apps.
  • Devise interface metaphors that invite touch and create emotional attachment.
  • Explore how touch suggests subtle cues for how your app works, and learn how to make use of this new class of affordances.
  • Learn why buttons are a hack. Tap into direct manipulation of content to encourage exploration in ways that traditional controls cannot.
  • Design gesture interactions, and learn techniques to help people discover unfamiliar gestures on their own.
  • Train in gestural jiujitsu, the dark art of using awkward gestures for “defensive design” and protecting against accidental mistaps.
  • Explore the psychology behind screen rotation and the opportunities and pitfalls it creates for designers.
  • Find out how the form and context of tablets create different interface requirements from phone handsets.

Workshop with Karen McGrane



Workshop: How To Do Content Strategy.

Description: Web content: it’s the meat in the sandwich, not the icing on the cake. So why does planning for useful, usable content get short shrift in the design and development process? Thinking about the content is always left until the last minute, always thought to be “somebody else’s problem.” Teams are forced into crisis mode at the 11th hour, trying to deal with content that arrives too late, doesn't fit in the designs, or fails to live up to user expectations.

When done the wrong way, creating new content and managing the approval process takes longer and is more painful than anyone expects. But planning for useful, usable content is possible—and necessary. It’s time to do it right.

In this workshop, we'll discuss approaches you can use on projects to:
  • Plan for content that aligns with business goals and user needs
  • Evaluate existing content and make decisions about what to do with it
  • Maintain content over time, with clear ownership and review processes

Workshop with Rod Farmer & Gabriel White



Workshop: Prototyping Mobile Experiences.

Description:New to mobile design? Want to know the important techniques used to uncover user needs and prototype designs for mobile user interfaces? In this hands-on workshop, you’ll understand some of the key considerations you need to account for when designing for mobile, and then quickly dive into experimenting with highly effective prototyping techniques that are great for revealing user needs and design opportunities for your mobile design solutions. You’ll walk out of this workshop knowing how to make the leap from web or desktop UI into the new and exciting world of mobile user experience.

Target Audience: This workshop is ideal for design practitioners who already have experience creating desktop and web user interfaces, and are new to designing for mobile and tablet.

  1. Learn about basic challenges designing for mobile
  2. Learn key techniques for effective and engaging mobile designs
  3. Work in small teams to explore real-world mobile design challenges
  4. Learn about rapid prototyping tools for mobile and tablet devices
  5. Work as a team to prototype and test your mobile designs in the wild
This workshop will include lots of hands on activities.

What else?

All workshops are half-day workshops (4 hours) and will take place on November 17, 2011).

All workshops take place in a wonderful location in the heart of Berlin. Located between the famous Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Fernsehturm (Berlin's television tower) and Rotes Rathaus (Red City Hall) there is plenty to do once your workshop is over.





How to get there

All workshops will be on Thursday, November 17, 2011, the day before the main conference. The workshop location is on the 7th floor, under the roof, with impressive views over Berlin. Look for "Satellite Office Berlin DomAquarée".


View MobX Workshops 2011 in a larger map

The best way to get there is to take the S-Bahn (Rapid Transit Train) or the tram to Hackescher Markt and then walk 3 minutes.

Workshops Address

SATELLITE OFFICE DomAquarée GmbH & Co. KG
Im CityQuartier DomAquarée
Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 5
10178 Berlin