Beyond the Hero’s Journey Oct 25

Hand holding several leaves in a fan, from fresh and green to faded orange, while standing in the woods.For our first of many IxDA Sydney events at Macquarie Bank we have decided to focus on the value of stories in design processes. Stories run through many of our research, design and deployment activities. We elicit stories from people, we tell stories in customer journeys, we may employ personas and stories in the design process and there probably no shortage of user stories written as part of the build process.

Dreu Harrison: Stories in organisations.

Stories and storytelling are enjoying unprecedented attention recently, both as features of culture and products of design. However, the analysis of stories is popularly reduced to a study of form, a repetition of certain archetypal characters and plots. This presentation will consider how we can both respect and go beyond this devotion to the heroic, considering the ways we can expand our use of stories to better represent organisations (story as identity), structure experiences (story as journey), and plot objects (story as form).

Melody Ha: Storytelling in immersive technologies.

Melody Ha will be drawing from her experiences with dramatic and thematic presentations, and story-telling within virtual reality and immersive environments, to share the value and power of storytelling to give interfaces better meaning. Although Melody is not a designer by training, her wide experience of storytelling across several media, informs how she guides designers to consider how to approach immersive virtual reality. Melody will outline the challenges and considerations when designing a virtual reality product or content that carries meaning and clarity through to the final product.

Our first IxDASydney #Upfront

In addition, Melody will be presenting as an #upfront, where she will be joined onstage by a few volunteer non-participants, as Lauren Currie described so well at UXAustralia in Melbourne this August. If you are interested in how you can do this at one of your events, or are just curious about what it is, have a look at We Are Up Front for more information.

About the speakers

Portrait of Dreu HarrisonDreu Harrison

Dreu has spent over 10 years researching and applying new ways to understand client situations and solve complex problems. He started out undertaking doctoral research on resolving wicked problems using conversation and co-design. On completion, he honed his consulting skills at Second Road, a strategic innovation consultancy recently purchased by Accenture. In 2017, he co-founded Pivot, the business strategy and innovation unit within Frost*collective. In the last 12 months, he has worked with a range of clients including Macquarie Capital, CBA, Telstra, UTS, UNSW, and NSW Family and Community Services. Dreu enjoys bringing insights from outside into business, drawing on the humanities and design to drive more innovative outcomes for his clients.

Portrait of Melody HaMelody Ha

Melody is a multi-disciplinary producer with experience in a wide variety of mediums, from virtual reality to webseries, live action and animation, and everything in between – even the VIVID projections on the Sydney Opera House! Her interactive 360 thriller film 30 Minutes of Danger will be premiering at Melbourne International Film Festival, and she is currently producing VR Game, Sky Kraken: One For All. Last year she also produced the 2D animated webseries The Ibis Queen as part of the Fresh Blood initiative, and animated children’s webseries, Reggie and Friends. Her experience in post-production and animation combined with her past life as an actor give her the best combination for creating films with a creative and logistical eye.

Melody is currently in development for the VR series Remember and 300 Minutes of Danger at The Pulse Originals, and has recently launched website and interview series THE GREAT WAVE, which explores Asian-Australian creative talent. She is now currently producing two female powered comedy webseries, Chikas and Not That Easy.

Tickets now available on Eventbrite

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