‘Design Friday’ at Extentia Featuring Michael Youngblood, Benjamin Chesluk, and Nadeem Haidary

On Thursday, February 10, 2022, Extentia hosted its first Design Friday session of the year. Design Fridays are a series on thoughtfully curated topics around design and experience. These sessions are an opportunity for attendees, both Extentians and non Extentians – to level up their skill set. The theme for this Design Friday was 'Rethinking Users' based on the book titled, 'Rethinking Users – The Design Guide to User Ecosystem Thinking.' Our hosts for this session were authors Michael Youngblood, Benjamin Chesluk, and illustrator Nadeem Haidary.

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The session was very informative, interactive, and educational. The hosts shared how and what inspired them to create this concept. They outlined the process of discovering the archetypes and activities that accompany the toolkit with the book. Hosts stressed and elaborated how knowing all types of users concerning your products and services will help you understand them better and help you approach them from various perspectives through a creative and innovative approach.

They also spoke about a unique perspective on user experience that challenges some of the most fundamental assumptions. All the attendees then participated in an activity where they were all told about a product and assigned different archetypes. The audience had to brainstorm and present problems and solutions for their respective archetypes. This activity was very interactive and generated a lot of questions that were addressed in the Q&A segment of the session.