Stephann Makri to talk on 17th Oct at IxDA London ‘serendipity’ evening

Join the local London chapter of the IxDA for an evening of talks by Oli Shaw and Stephann Makri on serendipity on 17th Oct (free to attend)

Oli has talked about serendipity in the past (see Martin Belam’s post) where he talked about “synthetic” serendipity (found on Amazon). He’ll discuss how serendipity can be used more effectively, favouring human-engineered serendipity (over machines), on some sites like Pandora and Shownar.

Stephann will talk about the difficulty of ‘engineering’ serendipity. Based on his findings during user interviews, he’ll talk about how we can include the possibility of designing systems that create opportunities for users to have experiences they might perceive as unexpected, insightful and/or valuable (and therefore potentially as serendipitous).

Oli Shaw’s Bio
Oli Shaw created his first homepage in 1995 on GeoCities, he has gone on to work in a range of industries from media to telecoms, finance to electronics and consumer goods, for clients which include: Nokia, BSkyB, Orange, UBS, Panasonic and Adidas to name but a few. In his 12 years in the industry, he’s gained extensive experience spanning; online, interactive TV, mobile, interactive narratives and installations. Moving between the worlds of advertising to products & services, he works to concept and maintain the quality of the idea. Ensuring that from the initial vision to the final output, it’s not only of a high standard but is also right for both the brand and the audience.

Stephann Makri’s Bio
Dr. Stephann Makri from University College London Interaction Centre is conducting research as part of a £1.87m UK Research Council funded project (SerenA: Chance Encounters in the Space of Ideas) which aims to gain a detailed understanding of the phenomenon of serendipity and to examine how we can use this understanding to design interactive systems that help users to have experiences that they might perceive to be serendipitous. His work involves understanding the nature and process of serendipity and how this understanding can inform the design of interactive systems. This work has resulted in the writing, narration and illustration of several empirically-grounded ‘serendipity stories’ (i.e. memorable experiences of serendipity as told by interviewees) and in design suggestions for creating opportunities for serendipity.

To be held on Wed 17th Oct from 6:30-9pm at:

Seren Partners, 57 Rivington Street London , EC2A 3QA

This is a free event, which is also open to non-members.