[Sigia-l] [EVENT] IxDA NYC - Tues May 12 - Cindy Chastain on "Experience Themes"

[MJ Broadbent]

RSVP http://tinyurl.com/ixdanyc-may09

IxDA NYC invites you to our May event:

CINDY CHASTAIN
speaking on
"Experience Themes: An Element of Story Applied to Design"

As designers we too often neglect to define a common vision, or  
coordinating force, behind the scope of what we’re designing, making  
or building. Without some means of unifying our efforts we can easily  
end up with a product or service that falls short of its potential of  
delivering an optimal user experience. One path to holistic  
coordination is to employ the concept of themes as used by fiction  
writers and filmmakers. For storytellers, themes are used as a  
compass, a means for examining every element in the story for its  
possible implication with regard to theme. For readers, themes offer  
an cognitive and emotional response to the story that is often much  
deeper and more memorable than details of plot. In experience design,  
themes can be used to pattern and unify product solutions as well as  
a  means of unifying teams, assisting in the work of defining strategy  
and helping to design for the intangible pleasure, emotion and meaning  
in experience. By aiming to capture the value and focus of the  
experience we intend to deliver to users, themes guide us in the  
design process and, by extension, strengthen the impact and meaning of  
that experience.

Please join us for a presentation about how experience themes were  
developed in the context of an interactive agency. The talk will delve  
into the notion of themes as they relate to user experience as well as  
discuss how they can be generated by a team and then used in the  
design process.

WHEN
Tuesday evening, May 12, 2009
6:30 - 7:00 networking and refreshments
7:00 - 8:00 presentation
8:00 - 8:30 Q&A and discussion

The event is free of charge.

WHERE
Digitas
355 Park Avenue South (between E 25th and 26th Streets)
New York, NY 10010
http://www.digitas.com
Map: http://tinyurl.com/dheq4y
Subway: 6 to 23th or 28th Streets, R/W and F/V to 23rd Street

ABOUT OUR SPEAKER
Cindy Chastain, user experience designer and screenwriter, has been  
exploring ways to engage an audience through storytelling, teaching,  
writing and design for over twelve years. She is currently the  
Director of User Experience for Interactive Partners, a New York-based  
agency specializing in entertainment and media websites. Most  
recently, she has lead projects for clients such as BBC Worldwide,  
Showtime, Fuse, Madison Square Garden, Coca-Cola and Unilever. She  
holds an MFA in screenwriting from Columbia University in New York and  
earned a BS in Radio, TV, Film from Northwestern University. In  
addition to moonlighting as a filmmaker and screenwriter, she is in  
the process of researching a book that explores how storytelling  
techniques can be used as a framework for design.

ABOUT OUR HOST
Digitas is a leading digital marketing agency, helping the world's  
biggest brands develop, engage and profit from building profitable  
relationships with their customers. The Agency pairs media, marketing,  
technology, creativity, imagination and analytics to ignite emotional  
bonds between people and brands. Digitas also operates the brand  
content platform, The Third Act, the independent healthcare marketing  
brand, Digitas Health, as well as Prodigious Worldwide, the world’s  
only standalone, global digital productions company. With sister  
agencies Starcom MediaVest, ZenithOptimedia and Denuo, Digitas is a  
member of Publicis Groupe's VivaKi -- a global digital knowledge and  
resource center that leverages the combined scale of the autonomous  
operations of its members to develop new services, new tools, and new  
partnerships.

RSVP http://tinyurl.com/ixdanyc-may09

See you there!
The IxDA NYC local leaders