“We’ve never had it so good” — my 10 minute talk at UX Australia
14 October 2011
I recently attended UX Australia in Sydney and had the privilege of giving one of the ’10 minute talks’ — the short presentations shown in-between the lunch break and the afternoon sessions. Limited to 10 minutes and only available to those who haven’t presented at the conference before, this was my first taste of presenting at a large conference.
My talk focused on the impact technology has on everyday experiences & user expectations. It was a fairly rudimentary topic — and certainly a challenging one to condense into 10 minutes — but it was something I thoroughly enjoyed putting together and delivering.
The idea for the talk came about when I found the clip below of Conan interviewing Louis CK a few years ago.
Whilst delivered with far more humour than I could ever muster, the idea that advances in technology enhance our experiences and — at the same time — heighten our expectations was something that really resonated with me. I felt it would be an ideal topic to present at a UX conference, where the attendees would likely be heavy users of technology as well as being experts in what makes great experiences. It felt like a good fit.
I spent the three weeks preceding the conference preparing & practicing my talk. I presented to colleagues, to my wife and to the bedroom wall many, many times. I made sure I practised enough so that I could present without slides, if required. I read Matt Gemmell’s excellent post on public speaking. I prepared as much as I could.
Despite being very nervous on the day I thoroughly enjoyed giving my talk. The 10 minutes flew by (thankfully I didn’t succumb to ‘on-the-day-rambling’ and delivered it within the time limit) and I felt fairly comfortable once I was in full flow. After the talk a few people came up and said they enjoyed it which — given the fact it was a short presentation, amongst many others, by an unknown Englishman — was very gratifying.
There’s more information on the UX Australia site and the slides are up on Slideshare.