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Chris LaRoche, User Experience Consultant (DSL)

With the expansiveness of the concept and idea of user experience everywhere in our digital and physical lives today, the question remains: how did we get here and how did this topic become so pervasive in such a short time? The discussion will describe how the field has evolved, matured, adapted, and continued to expand: from humble beginnings, as human factors and usability, to becoming an all-encompassing term user experience that includes so many professions and areas. To answer this question, this talk focuses on the evolution of the journey of the UX field from its incubation in World War II and post war, through the evolution of the consumer society in the 1950s/1960s, through the software explosion of the 1980s/1990s, and the Web explosion of the 1990s/2000s. We will then discuss specifically how this professional solidified and became so important within the last decade. Finally, a wrap up will include where the idea and concept of user experience is headed in the immediate future, with a call to action to understand the risks and benefits on the field’s horizon.