In this session, we explore the importance of human-centered design (HCD) and research practices in developing digital solutions for Africa’s agricultural challenges.  By concentrating on agriculture—a sector vital to African economies and global food security—we highlight the necessity of designing solutions that are deeply aware of the local cultural, economic, and infrastructural contexts.

Our exploration will cover the comprehensive processes, methods, and tools essential for developing effective and widely adopted digital innovations. Through real-life examples, we’ll share the challenges faced and lessons learned, providing attendees with a deep dive into the practical aspects of creating impactful solutions.

Our aim is to showcase how these tailored solutions can meet immediate needs while fostering long-term sustainability and reducing environmental impacts.

 

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sasha-ena-ofori

 

Traditionally, design is all about consumer desirability. We know by now that this has created some unintended consequences for people and the planet. In this talk, Idun Aune will share her two cents on how to review and reshape your research process in a planet-centric direction. 

 

Idun is lead planet-centric designer, heading the sustainability efforts for frog’s Norway studios and as a core member globally. She is a value-driven designer on a mission to use design as a tool to make a positive societal difference. Her background in sociology makes her navigate societal structures and interests from a holistic and systemic perspective. She’s worked in many industries, including healthcare, transportation and finance, and specializes in helping clients move to regenerative business models and a build a planet-centric culture. She is a key driver of sustainable and regenerative transition within frog and in the design industry as a whole, and has been part of the UX Copenhagen community since the very beginning.

 

This workshop is an introduction to tools and ethical approaches to enable tech professionals to engage in critical discussion that will ultimately impact the design and deployment of technology products and services. This workshop is for all tech professionals, regardless of discipline or experience.

The workshop will support attendees to use tools that are informed by ideas from philosophy, psychology, sociology and anthropology. The workshop will:

• Give a short overview of why ethical thinking and considerations are important in the tech industry

• Introduce attendees to a set of ethical tools and frameworks that they can implement into their work

• Share case studies so that tools can be implemented in the workshop and attendees can immediately apply learning

The focus of this workshop is to provide tech professionals with a practical skill set that can be used to minimise the likelihood of negative consequences occurring from our tech creations. The workshop will also help to frame positive outcomes and how we can aim to amplify these. 

With the prevalence of data-driven products and services that are becoming increasingly intelligent and automated, ethical thinking is a frontier skill set that needs to be developed if we hope to create responsible technology.

Lisa Talia Moretti is a Digital Sociologist with 15 years experience working across product and content design. In the last five years, she has gained experience in data governance and new methods of data collaboration through her roles at the Ministry of Justice (UK Government) and The Governance Lab. Over the last seven years, Lisa has worked on the creation of ethical frameworks across the private and public sector and is currently engaged in this work for an international airline organisation. 

Lisa is employed by AND Digital in the UK, is the Co-Chair of the BIMA AI Council and in 2020 was named one of Britain’s Top 100 people influencing the technology industry in the category Champions for Change. Her talk, “Technology is not a product, it’s a system”, is available for viewing on Ted.com.

We had Lisa on stage in 2023 with a brillian talk about Designing for Relationships, and are super excited to have her back in 2024 – this time with a workshop!

Excessive consumption of unnecessary stuff is unquestionably one of the leading causes of climate change. And it’s not just the environment that suffers: the clutter we invite to our lives suffocates us.

Anna is a UX Researcher in cyber security who spends a substantial amount of her free time on her passion project: Kind Commerce. Challenging pushy e-commerce design is for sure an uphill battle when the only thing companies want is to sell more stuff. That is why she is coming to UX Copenhagen, to talk to passionate and thoughtful designers, like yourself, to raise awareness and get more designers excited about advocating for an alternative approach toward e-commerce design. 

Besides her sustainability-related work, she is also active in building a local UX community in Gothenburg, Sweden.