Uday Gajendar

" Designers must understand their domain deeply or risk being glorified production artists. "

" Designers are theorists whether they realize it or not — they create solutions that have intended and unintended consequences. "

" You don’t need to take notes. We want you to pay attention and not be distracted. "

" This is a conversation, a conference is just a polished snapshot of a conversation that’s happening. "

" Iteration means don’t prepare your talk the night before. Start early, practice, and evolve your message over time. "

" Jenny and Will will take a foundational look at wielding data visualization and product analytics effectively. "

" What does it mean to bring a systems lens to a complex problem within the enterprise? "

" If a workplace is a dirty fishbowl, forcing someone to take vacation is just putting the fish in a clean bowl temporarily. "

" You cannot heal your way out of death or oppression by reforming oppressive systems; you can only do so when you dismantle them. "

" Leadership modeling ‘being human’ with stress and mental health normalizes trauma-informed culture. "

" The poetic and humanistic aspects of design are getting squeezed out by prescriptive delivery models. "

" Accessibility and inclusivity are not afterthoughts; they must be baked into the design from the start. "

" IIDX washing is when people replicate button by button and checkbox by checkbox, then claim better UX. "

" That seven-foot-wide diagram was our product, not just the cleaned-up UI screens—this artifact triggered a whole new conversation. "