Together with some key UX’ers in South Africa we have created the first exclusively user experience oriented discussion space: http://groups.google.com/group/sa-ux-forum
We have already uncovered a number of previously ‘hidden’ practitioners and tapped into some of the South African diaspora.
Off the back of this we hope to start having meet-ups in both Cape Town and Johannesburg.
| February 25, 2008 | to | February 27, 2008 |
DIS 2008 will be hosted in Cape Town, South Africa from 25 February - 27 February 2008.
Previous DIS conferences have been concerned with bringing together people from different disciplines: e.g. Computer Science, Design, Human-Computer Engineering, Psychology, Interaction Design etc. At DIS 2008 we want to bring together people from different cultures and understand how designs and techniques employed in affluent high-technology environments can be translated to relatively poor environments to be used by people with relatively low literacy levels. Due to the prevalence of cellular handsets throughout the continent, many Africans are now having their first experience of interactive technology. We believe that DIS 2008 will be an important step in understanding how to design interactive systems for these new users.
For the most part the term ‘user experience design’ does not exist in South Africa. This locale is working to increase awareness and uptake of the practice: in some instances through enabling practitioners to self identify and in others to increase learning. There is a huge opportunity to create demand from business and the application of these skills in civic and public sector projects which we hope to facilitate.
CHI-SA is the largest local group related to user experience.
Jason Hobbs, Local ambassador for South Africa
