DUp 💃🏾 Issue 158 > FUI, Bad Data, Sites as Music, StepUpTo24 Speakers and more...

📣 Ready to #StepUpTo24? But there’s more

We know some of you’re confused about what this new “not-another-UI/UX-conference-as-usual” might look and feel like. So here’s a little sneak peek - but this newsletter has more: FUI (or Fantasy UI), Career Progression - and why it’s like Dungeons and Dragons, Eye Candy, Bad Data - and one of our faves - what if websites were music.

Plus a quick intro to some of our upcoming speakers. But first - what should you expect from #StepUpTo24

Over 6 short, sharp and interconnected sessions, our diverse experts help you prep up for 2024 and beyond, while tackling key questions like…
👉🏽 things that we don’t want to happen, but might just…
👉🏽 things we wish will happen, but might not, and
👉🏽 things that are very likely to happen

All in the wider socio-economic-tech-cultural contexts that will have an in impact on the product + design industry - your career, job, growth, and learning, in the year to come!

So will we talk of generative Ai, ethics? Our experts are likely to touch upon all of these and more - tech policy, India story, circular design, data privacy, and much much more… Plus a full spread cocktail dinner!

👉🏽 👉🏽 4 days to get a “just-in-time” pass - and ✨15% off for 5 or more passes✨ 

🌟 Speaker Spotlight

This year, a fantastic group of seasoned design leaders from the Indian design industry will share their perspectives on the current design milieu. What unites these speakers is that they have been around for decades, not years - survived and thrived amidst the rise and fall, peaks and troughs of trends, flavours, ‘fashions’, styles, and multiple recessions….

🎤 Sridhar Dhulipala

Sridhar Dhulipala - better known as Dhuli, is one of the pioneering figures in India’s UX/Design-In-Tech landscape. Dhuli worked closely with Nandan Nilekani in the early days of Infosys as UX Design started finding a voice of its own. In this talk Dhuli shares some unique concepts in design in tech, how these concepts have changed over time, and what that means in our work.

🎤 Rabia Gupta

Rabia Gupta is one of the pioneers of strategic Graphic Design in India, setting benchmarks with effective and culturally relevant designs, that always puts people first. In the article below she shares her perspective on the changing landscape of design and tech in India.

🎤 Shalini Raghunathan

Shalini is the co-founder of behavioural design studio 3 Big Things, and has decades of experience as a design practitioner at Autodesk, Salesforce, and Cisco. Over the years she has seen how user insights, user research have increasingly taken centre stage in the world of tech.

🎤 Rahul Saini

When Rahul joined entrepreneur Vishal Shekhar Sharma, PayTM was unknown, its future uncertain. Over the years and decades, it became part of everyday lives and Rahul’s role as, eventually as a Chief Design Officer scaled up many fold. Here, Rahul Saini speaks at length about the journey of PayTM from its inception to where it is today, and the role that design has played in its history and culture.

🎤 Navneet Nair

From the early days of Yahoo in India to Google and beyond - Navneet has seen the evolution of UX over the years. Now Design Head of PhonePe, Navneet Nair shares the key life lessons in this talk below and how these helped him navigate the ever-changing world of Design for the past few decades.

🌏️ Around the Web

🗃️ Your Toolkit

💝 Eye Candy

⏳ Don’t wait! Grab your “just-in-time” pass here!

🍀 Stay curious, and see you soon - in 18 days…

@soosixty & @jdallcaps