Rachel Appel
Rachel currently works for JetBrains as a Developer Advocate. She has been in the business of creating software for over 25 years, as an author, mentor, and speaker at top industry conferences such as Techorama, //build, Øredev, NDC and SDD. During her career, she has worked on projects of all sizes from the smallest of apps, to the largest enterprise systems at some of the world’s leading companies.
Rachel’s expertise is in web development on the Microsoft stack, specifically Azure Functions, ASP.NET MVC, Web Forms, SignalR, C#, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and TypeScript. Her hobbies include science, AI, reading, languages, and travel.
Use Principles of Psychology to Build Better Software
We make software for humans. So we must understand how humans work to design the best software possible. We don't need to be psychologists or anthropologists, but we do need to know a few things about what makes users do what they do when it comes to software. So come to this session, where you'll learn how to apply critical thinking to developing software solutions and designing digital products. You'll learn about what makes users behave in certain ways and how you can design software with those behaviors and biases in mind. With this knowledge you can provide the best possible experience while you meet your goals. Bonus: It's not just the users' behaviors and biases we need be concerned with. You'll learn how those same behaviors and biases can affect the productivity and functioning of your team - from communications to meetings to code. And how to properly mitigate them.
What Sorcery is This? How Software Uses Dark Patterns to Manipulate Users
You've signed up for that streaming service, but now you can't unsubscribe. You put a single item in your basket, and somehow there are now also two warranties in there. Boxes of vitamin supplements are piling up every month like a subscription, but you are absolutely sure you only bought one bottle! In your living room is a big pile of stuff that you bought online, that you didn't intend to. And you feel bad about it because now you're way over budget! If you've had something like this happen then you may have experienced a dark pattern - something software does to trick you into taking an action you wouldn't have otherwise taken. In this talk, you'll learn how to spot and avoid dark patterns when using or creating software. You'll also get pointers about talking to management about the impacts of dark patterns. And of course, a look at a few physical-world examples of dark patterns too.
Rachel currently works for JetBrains as a Developer Advocate. She has been in the business of creating software for over 25 years, as an author, mentor, and speaker at top industry conferences such as Techorama, //build, Øredev, NDC and SDD. During her career, she has worked on projects of all sizes from the smallest of apps, to the largest enterprise systems at some of the world’s leading companies.
Rachel’s expertise is in web development on the Microsoft stack, specifically Azure Functions, ASP.NET MVC, Web Forms, SignalR, C#, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and TypeScript. Her hobbies include science, AI, reading, languages, and travel.
Use Principles of Psychology to Build Better Software
We make software for humans. So we must understand how humans work to design the best software possible. We don't need to be psychologists or anthropologists, but we do need to know a few things about what makes users do what they do when it comes to software. So come to this session, where you'll learn how to apply critical thinking to developing software solutions and designing digital products. You'll learn about what makes users behave in certain ways and how you can design software with those behaviors and biases in mind. With this knowledge you can provide the best possible experience while you meet your goals. Bonus: It's not just the users' behaviors and biases we need be concerned with. You'll learn how those same behaviors and biases can affect the productivity and functioning of your team - from communications to meetings to code. And how to properly mitigate them.
What Sorcery is This? How Software Uses Dark Patterns to Manipulate Users
You've signed up for that streaming service, but now you can't unsubscribe. You put a single item in your basket, and somehow there are now also two warranties in there. Boxes of vitamin supplements are piling up every month like a subscription, but you are absolutely sure you only bought one bottle! In your living room is a big pile of stuff that you bought online, that you didn't intend to. And you feel bad about it because now you're way over budget! If you've had something like this happen then you may have experienced a dark pattern - something software does to trick you into taking an action you wouldn't have otherwise taken. In this talk, you'll learn how to spot and avoid dark patterns when using or creating software. You'll also get pointers about talking to management about the impacts of dark patterns. And of course, a look at a few physical-world examples of dark patterns too.