As an interaction designer I was a bit concerned about attending JavaOne. Don't get me wrong. I was excited and curious. This would be my first JavaOne experience. But would I feel uncomfortable being around so many technical folks? Was I going to be surrounded by technical jargon that would mean little to me? Would I be able to engage in mutually beneficial conversations with other attendees? I hoped so, but before getting to the conference, the jury was definitely still out as far as I was concerned!
One extremely busy week later I have my answers and am happy to report that JavaOne 2009 was a terrific experience for me, a user- (not technology) focused interaction designer. To be honest, at first I did feel a little uncomfortable being around so many technical people. But this was my own creation. As I came to learn, everyone there, from the presenters to the attendees to the conference staff seemed to have the same intention - to make this a conference where people felt comfortable, informed, engaged, and able to create, play, learn, and share freely.
I attended most of the General Sessions and many Technical Sessions (and also participated in/helped out with a couple of Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) sessions). Some sessions were more technically oriented, but most talks included an overview that outlined the conceptual message so I understood the benefits (and usefulness from the user's point of view) of the described technology, even if the technical details were not where I was most interested. I was also thrilled to hear, in so many of the talks and general sessions, an emphasis on the user experience. This was certainly music to my ears. (I did belong there!) And some Technical Sessions were unabashedly dedicated to explaining how to create compelling user experiences. I both learned some new things and was reminded of many things I already knew. Regardless, the benefit of stepping back and reflecting cannot be denied. It is one of the reasons why I enjoy attending conferences and find them so important and rejuvenating. And JavaOne, though not a conference specifically for designers, was no exception.
I also had the opportunity to work at the User Experience Design pod that my group sponsored.
Maya Venkatraman
I found myself engaging with conference attendees having a variety of backgrounds. It was sincerely my pleasure to expound upon the importance of the user experience and how our design group (which includes both interaction & visual designers) works with engineering, marketing, legal, documentation, and quality assurance groups to ensure the best user experience possible - how design is iterative, how we conduct usability studies to ensure we're on track or find out what adjustments need to be made, and how we apply design principles to a variety of products and web sites at Sun. I knew I was helping some gain an appreciation for an area they may not have paid much attention to in the past. In other cases, I learned about design at other companies. Mutually beneficial conversations? I'd say so.
So there you have it. The user experience is alive and well at JavaOne. It shows in the cool products people are building using Java. It shows in the General, Technical and BOF sessions. And most important, it shows in all the people who were their learning and sharing with each other. It was a good place for this interaction designer to spend her week.
