Webinar Event: Spreading Design Thinking in Organizations

Due to Covid-19, many conferences and networking events have been cancelled or significantly postponed till further notice during the 2020 spring semester. However, agencies and corporations started to utilize virtual conferences, interviews, and events in order to stay connected with employees, clients, and other individuals of interest. The webinar, Spreading Design Thinking in Organizations, was an online event hosted by Julie Baher, the Senior UX. Director at Illumina. At lllumina, Ms. Baher leads different departmental teams who are dedicated to improving human health through design thinking.

The SDTO webinar created by UXPin was based on three main points such as: how to build a culture of design thinking, improving design maturity, and how Citrix developed design skills for 3000+ employees. The first point focuses on creating a culture to which innovation thrives. Innovation through group sessions and activities fosters the creative process, resulting in new methods and solutions for long-term success. The second point pertains to design maturity and its improvement which can be grouped into three aspects: design systems, design process, and design vision. Design System is defined as the effectiveness of interface elements within its composition such as icons, images, color, typography, and other visual assets. The Design Process aspect refers to a high-level of discovery and research through interviews, social sessions, QAs, and group collaboration.Β 

The final point is based on the Citrix Consulting Methodology which consists of five phases: Define, Assess, Design, Deploy, and Monitor. According to the Citrix VDI Handbook, the first phase is defined as β€œ…high-level project roadmaps and requirements for virtualization.” Assess, the second step, is solely based on how the β€œ…current environment is reviewed for potential problems and to identify solutions or the project.” The Design Phase focuses on specific topics such as: environment scalability, user interface, redundancy, user experience, hardware, etc. Citrix’s Deploy Phase states β€œ…all components of its digital infrastructure should be tested before users are provided with access to the system.” The fifth and final stage is simply maintaining and monitoring the system and its operational performance.