We’ve been making some improvements to the Dot Dot Dot Lectures based on attendee feedback. As we’re on our third iteration of the lecture series, we wanted to take the time to let you know about some of the changes.
After each lecture, we send out a survey to each attendee, asking for feedback. How appropriate was the venue (a bar)? We have 10-minute lectures—a bit of an unusual format. Are they too short? Who else would attendees like to see speak?
Each month, we comb through attendee feedback and decide how to improve the lecture experience for the following month. Below are some of the improvements we’ve made in a number of areas in response to what we’ve heard:
Visibility
During the first two lectures, attendees noted an inability to see the screen/speaker unless they arrived early and got a seat in front. In response, we’ve added more seating and an additional projection screen for viewers to be comfortable in both the north and south ends of the venue, White Rabbit. Michael Surtees, an attendee of all three lectures has written about the iterative lecture experience.
Seating
We’ve had to limit the RSVPs because of seating in the past, so we’ve added more seating to avoid the uncomfortable sitting-on-the-floor option.
Timing
We had heard it was difficult for people with full-time jobs to make it to the lectures at 6PM, so we’ve moved the time to 6:30-8:30PM going forward, allowing for an extra half hour to arrive.
Networking
Attendees asked for more time to network—both to ask speakers questions (we don’t allow time for Q&A) and to meet other attendees. We’ve added a short intermission between the two sets of speakers.
Topic Integration
We asked, “Who else would you like to see speak? What kind of topics would you like to see covered at upcoming lectures?” and our topics and speakers are direct result of your feedback. The following are just some of the topics that have been suggested:
- Agile UX
- Brainstorming
- Content
- Design thinking
- Distillation
- Environmental issues
- Illustration
- Iteration
- Mediated conversations
- Photography
- Prototyping
- Translating the experience (how we tell our families what we do)
- Visualization software
MFA Interaction Design Faculty
Attendees note that they want to see more MFA Interaction Design faculty in the lineup, and we want to take a moment to share our framework: Each Dot Dot Dot Lecture hosts one MFA Interaction Design faculty member and three guests. So a faculty member is part of every program. Likewise, each event typically has 3-4 faculty members milling about as attendees themselves.
As always, thanks to our lecturers and all the enthusiastic attendees. We’re listening to your feedback and continuing to iterate on the series.
