On April 10th we celebrated the first Global Design Summit, a global event to get together everyone from the UX Design Studio to talk about design.
This year’s edition was all about diversity. Looking at best practices, holding workshops as well as ideation and creativity sessions, those in attendance considered design comprehensively from start to finish. We talked about what it means to think and live design according to our values and characteristics. And we kept inquiring what it means to promote diversity within design in itself, within the UX Design Studio, and within Globant.
“The summit was an invitation to think together about design, and build and strengthen ties. It was a unique opportunity to think as a community. To talk about our interests and concerns, and think about best practices; what we do and all we still can do, as professionals and Globers.” —Melisa De Lorenzo (UX Designer, Globant Madrid)
More than 300 Globers passionate about design participated in the activities. They took place both via streaming and in our offices in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Perú, Colombia, México, Spain, Romania, UK, India and in the United States. According to Jorge Uribe (Experience Manager, Globant Medellin), “it was all about collaboration and participation. Everyone’s voice got heard, from the icebreaker session until the last talk!”
We saw diversity: in all the offices where the Summit took place, in the agenda, and in Globers’ contributions. Each Glober helped from his/her place, offering his/her knowledge, experience, and work to present different activities. Motion Graphics and Illustration, Lettering, Blueprint and Customer Journey, Design Thinking, Usability Testing, and Service Design were some of the topics discussed, either in the form of talks or workshops. Everyone present thought through design focused on accessibility, branding, typography, UX methodologies, and more. Additionally, our PechaKucha open space invited attendees to propose themes and topics for sharing and collaborating.
“We gathered Globers working with different clients to share their point of view on subjects like working with Big Data, user interviews, the impact of a good UI. We also hosted a discussion panel with local UX Leads. They talked about the challenges of managing an UX department within a large corporation. At the end of the day, we had a great time sharing knowledge and building up the connection with our fellow designers.” —Guilherme de Deus (User Experience Specialist, Globant Chile)
At this event, we discussed Design to its fullest. Beatriz Sauret (Managing Director of Design and Productive Innovation in the National Production Ministry of Argentina) was one of our speakers at Design Summit 2019. Her observations drove home the relationship between design and diversity: “Design has to do with expansion. With connecting the dots. Design has a lot to do with diversity. When we work in terms of connecting with the person next to us, we work better.” The audience of Globers welcomed the idea.
The Takeaways from Design Summit 2019
The conversations united us even more, fostering team identity amongst Globers focused on excellence in design, worldwide. Melisa De Lorenzo (UX Designer, Globant Madrid) sums it up nicely. She said the Summit “was a unique way of building bridges, of helping us to realize that we are not alone. We are surrounded by a team that, globally and locally, has the necessary tools to keep growing.” After all, it helps keep us in perspective, recognizing how design can strengthen the community. As Vinaya Kadam (UX Tech Manager, Globant India) concluded: “The global moment of the Design Summit ensured that we can collaborate flawlessly with people across the globe and achieve so much besides knowledge sharing.”
All in all, for Globers worldwide, the Design Summit 2019 was a productive day to think big about design.
