KAIST’s Department of Industrial Design (idKAIST) and UXEYE jointly held the 2010 UX Symposium on November 8 at the Construction Hall located in Nonhyeon-dong, Seoul.

UX, also known as User Experience, describes the overall experience the user feels and looks back on after using a system, product or service, both directly and indirectly. Executive teams from Korea’s top corporations, professors and students discussed the meaning and strategy of the UX-based paradigm. The symposium was sponsored by LG Electronics, PXD, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) and Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP).

The symposium started off with the opening address by Professor Myung Seok Kim of KAIST’s Department of Industrial Design, followed by the keynote addresses by Professor Donald A. Norman, founder of the UX field, Bill Buxton, who is an expert in the UX field and Professor Kun-Pyo Lee, the pioneer in the UX field in Korea.

Professor Norman gave a lecture based on his recent publication, “Living with Complexity.” The lecture focused on the nature and importance of complexity compared to simplicity, the concept pursued by conventional trends. It gave new insight into how we see UX. Professor Norman is currently the distinguished visiting professor at KAIST’s Department of Industrial Design through the National Research Foundation (NRF) World Class University (WCU) Program and also helped plan the symposium.

The second speaker, Bill Buxton, talked about “Sketching Experience: Design Thinking & Thinking about Design” based on his book, “Sketching User Experience” and covered the importance of UX-based design and what design is in a practical point of view.

The third speaker, Professor Kun-Pyo Lee, currently the vice president of LG Electronics, focused on the theme, “After User-Centered Design.” He gave a lecture on the role of the designer in the new paradigm where the user designs directly and the user and designer work together to make new innovations, in contrast to traditional user surveys and participation.

After the lecture, a panel where all the lecturers and the participants gathered and discussed the future of UX was held.

All the lectures are now available on the Global e-Learning Center homepage (cyber.kaist.ac.kr/) free of charge and the details of the symposium can be found at www.uxeye.net/.

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