Small Technology: Building Tech That Respects Our Rights

The technology we use tracks and captures our every move, habit, and facial expression. We’ve been taught surveillance is the only way we can create modern technology, and that our personal information is merely used to improve our experiences. Instead, we see data about us being used to perpetuate systems of oppression and discrimination. Being creators who are also users, we also have to reckon with how we both contribute to this surveillance system and are exploited by it. We can do better. In this talk, we’ll explore a few practical ways to design technology that prioritises human welfare. And how we can use whatever power we have to build towards a better future.

Digital Type, Pre-PostScript

In a common narrative of the canonical history of type manufacturing and typography, 500 years of printing from movable metal type end with the rise of commercial photocomposition in the 1950s and from there leap forward to digital PostScript fonts on the Macintosh in 1984. This narrative overlooks two decades of highly significant investigation and discourse in early digital type design technologies. Based on PhD research at the University of Reading, this talk explores that period of transition and rapid change, reviewing so-called ‘digital type design systems’ that could encode letterforms using numerical description, and explores the environment of an emerging community that first discovered and negotiated the challenging issues of digital type.

Designing with Words: Content Design at The New Yorker

You’ve done the research. Presented prototypes. Triple checked your color contrast. Everything’s coming together, until someone tries to create an account using the new site. “ERROR 8854! Operation Failed,” the field shouts, with no hint of a potential solution.
Content design communicates what visuals cannot, adding clarity, credibility, and consistency. In this talk, Sophie will discuss ways to think strategically about the words in your designs, from onboarding flows to error messages, using real-life examples from The New Yorker. You’ll learn what makes great writing great—and ultimately, how to design words that create a seamless experience.

Channeling Chaos: Role of the Artist in the Age of AI

In this pivotal moment dubbed “the age of AI,”what can the future be? What can this technology do? Who will be impacted, and how? In my role as director of Primer Design at GitHub, I am no stranger to these questions, and I find myself using my training as an artist every single day. In unprecedented times, being an artist often feels like a supernatural power.

Art and technology have been deeply intertwined for most of human history, and creative minds have played the key role of embracing technology and using it to shape the future. Modern times are no exception. Whether you’re an engineer writing code, designing in Figma, or shaping product strategy, this talk is for you. Forget the paintbrush, artistic practice is not tied to a single medium. Thinking like an artist means questioning everything, being a catalyst, shaping perception, and driving innovation. In this talk I weave together stories from history with hard earned personal lessons to share artistic practices that can help anyone better navigate moments of rapid change.

Most importantly, I’m not here to squeeze any more productivity out of you, introduce any clever AI hacks, or promise that I have all of the answers. As creatives in tech, we are as well positioned to shape the future as we are vulnerable to it. Embrace your inner artist and know that the future can be anything.

On the Way to New Work – 7 Stories from a Journey That Has Only Just Begun

Michael has been on a journey for more than 7 years. What began as the development of a new office for thjnk, the advertising agency he founded, is now his mission. How can we make people strong and not sick through work? What can we do as individuals, as a team and/or organisation and as a society to change not only how and from where we work, but also what issues and challenges we work on? In over 420 podcast episodes and a book, Michael, together with his companions Swantje Allmers and Christoph Magnussen, reports on people who are also on the path to a better way of working. In a mixture of presentation, reading and conversation, he takes us with him on this journey

No, Seriously, Fuck Engagement: Building a More Human Web

MLK said, “We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society.” As practitioners, what is our role in that shift? We’ll explore that question by looking at how “thing-oriented” design differs from “person-oriented” design. How might engagement, or our definition of it, perpetuate the very systems of oppression we dreamed the web might end? What if entering into a dialogue with Indigenous design could allow us to imagine a web that cares about people more than it cares about money? These are big swings, but it’s about time we took them.