Ashby Fiser, a UX designer here at Deloitte Digital, wanted to combine her personal love for the concept of flow—the mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed—with the Fremont studio’s tradition of “Whiskey Wednesdays” and share it with the UX community. So we teamed up with Seattle’s User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) and put on “UX + Whisky = Flow” in January.
Mark Palfreeman, a front-end developer at the Fremont studio and co-founder of the Seattle Whiskey Collective, led the whisky tastings at the event. Interspersed between presentations, Mark shared his whisky knowledge in an accessible and informative way to whisky newbies and experts alike.
Along with Ashby, DD UX designers Ronald Lyp and Rohit Sharma and Senior Art Director Hayato Itakura presented at the event. Their talks ranged from an introduction to the concept of flow to an experiential example of how design can facilitate flow.
We chanted along with Rohit to learn how to pronounce “Mihály Csíkszentmihályi,” who named the concept of flow. Ronald talked about the importance of having empathy for clients and understanding their perspective. Ashby explained her “pulse” method on how to include user testing in the design process on two-week sprints. Hayato’s video showed us how wearable technology and design can greatly improve the flow of work for engineers and other employees in the field. And last but not least, we mingled with our fellow UX-ers between and after talks. It was great to look around and see people engaging with one another and having a great time--the true goal of the evening.
Check out the photos from UX + Whiskey = Flow!
All in all, the event was a great success–about the concept of flow and with its own flow, as well. A big thank you to the UXPA and their volunteers, our speakers, and our guests. We look forward to hosting the UX community again. Who knows what kind of combination we’ll come up with next?
Gabrielle Mehlman is a UX designer at Deloitte Digital and a lover of yoga, music, cycling, and travel (and cycling + travel). Outside of work she can be found strumming a guitar and singing loudly or listening to someone strumming a guitar and singing loudly. Keep up with her on Twitter or Instagram.
