UX is a collection of different careers that work towards a common goal of making better products for people to use. Not everyone who works on a UX team will push pixels on a site or app. Each career focuses on a different aspect of UX design and requires a different set of skills.

On most teams, you need to understand how the other UX person brings value and benefit to your product team. Some careers are more suited to people who enjoy using the creative side of their brain, while other UX jobs are more suited to people who enjoy using the evaluative side of their brain.

In this month's meeting, we have gathered a panel of UXers together to discuss their UX job, what they do, how they got there, and where they are going. They will discuss how they collaborate and communicate with other UXers and their product teams. All questions are welcome.

Doors open at 6:30pm with pizza and drinks. The panel begins at 7:15pm. Panelists want to answer your burning questions, so bring plenty of them.

Your Panelists include:

Mike Courtney

Mike is the founder of Aperio Insights, an agency focused on marketing research, ethnography and foresight. He holds an MMR degree (Masters in Marketing Research) from the University of Georgia and has more than 20 years of research and strategic consulting experience.

His areas of expertise include new product development, long-range scenario planning and digital ethnography. Mike's clients include American Airlines, Lexus, Lundberg, Mercer, Nokia, Siemens, Pearson, Post Foods, Rent-A-Center, Texas Instruments and Continental ITS in addition to pro-bono work with startups and non-profits.

Sophi Marass

Sophi is a Senior UX Designer with Hireology, a Chicago based HR technology company. Before joining Hireology, she worked with some seriously talented individuals at Sabre, Active Network and Spring CM. She is a product designer with a heart for understanding people, listening to their stories, studying their routines and learning how their lives are shaped by everyday technology. She is also an avid book lover and a part-time ballerina with 6 o'Clock Dance Theatre.

Cassini Nazir

Cassini is a designer of conversations, curriculum, and interfaces. He is a Clinical Associate Professor in the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication at UT Dallas where he teaches classes in interaction design. He is also Director of the ATEC Usability Lab, which fosters collaborative research with industry partners and offers experiential learning to students. He was previously Director of Design and Research for the ArtSciLab, a transdisciplinary research lab helping the arts, science, and technology communities by pursuing initiatives of societal urgency and cultural timeliness.

IxDA Dallas is hosting an evening workshop where you get a chance to sit down with a senior level designer and finally focus on your portfolio.

Whether you're a graduating student or a professional looking to make a move, you'll find some answers here from the people who look at your work when you go for that dream job. You'll be seated with a few of your peers at a table with a mentor who will walk you through the process to show not just what you've done, but how you think through it.

Hosted by Pivotal Labs Dallas, come ready to have kind discussions and tough love with your community to get your career to the next stage of growth.

Seats are limited due to the individualized nature of the event. RSVP now to secure your free spot.

Tickets Here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/crafting-your-portfolio-an-interactive-workshop-tickets-58601013208?aff=Default&mc_cid=ec289b6e75&mc_eid=03ed390062

Pivotal Labs is located inside the Core Logic building just north of I-635. Parking is on the East side of the building and the Pivotal entrance is marked by a teal sign.

If you get lost or need help, reach out on Twitter @ixdaDallas

Empathy provides designers with deep insights into how another person experiences a product or service. When you perform empathy immersion, you understand emotionally, not intellectually, about an experience. Your senses become your learning tools.

Empathy immersion motivates you to build solutions because you identify with your customer's inner states. You make a personal connection to a pain point. You experience the user's journey with them. Empathy immersion helps you to know and feel.

In this month's meeting, you will learn how to perform Empathy Immersion on your projects. Empathy Immersion activities are deeply impactful and great team-building exercises, especially at the start of a project.

Your workshop leaders are Seda Maurer and Brian Sullivan. Seda Maurer is an award-winning designer and Accessibility Manager. Brian Sullivan is a Design Strategist, User Researcher, College Teacher, and author of the Design Studio Method.

Doors open at 6:30PM. The workshop begins at 7:15PM.

Experts in marketing, design/UX, and e-commerce will present their go-to data visualizations from Google Analytics and how they help them in their job. There are a number of data visualizations that Google provides to website owners including time series charts, sankey diagrams, global maps, tree maps, bar charts, Venn diagrams and much more. These visualizations are used by different departments to optimize website performance for many different objectives.

Come learn what data these visualizations are communicating, and how professional are effectively using these charts to constantly improve their websites!

Cost: Free

UT Dallas Computer Science department is thrilled to introduce one day conference series to introduce the latest technologies to local professionals and our students & faculty. Primary focus of these conferences will be Industry lectures, workshops and networking.

You are strongly encouraged to register in advance. Registration fee will go up few days before the conference & registration may be shut down any time if we reach the capacity.