Yesenia Perez-Cruz is a designer, speaker, and writer based out of Philadelphia. She is a Senior UX Manager at Shopify, Polaris. Previously, she led the Product Design team at Vox Media. She also worked at agencies like Happy Cog and Ey-Intuitive for clients like Viacom, Papa John's, Harvard University, fonts.com, and BBVA Compass.&nbsp;
She's spoken around the world at conferences like An Event Apart, Velocity, and SXSW Interactive about the intersection of design and technology. Yesenia's passionate about increasing inclusivity in tech, designing responsibly, and leading with empathy. When she's not designing, you may find her photographing her beautiful city of Philadelphia, trying a new recipe, or digging into her stash of unread books.
Throughout her career, she’s helped countless teams strategize, design, and implement their brand identity and design systems. Currently, she leads a cross-functional team on the Polaris design system team at Shopify. Previously, as Senior Director of Product Design at Vox Media, she led the design system for Vox Media properties, including The Verge, Vox, and Eater.
Yesenia has been a featured speaker at conferences around the world, like An Event Apart, Design Matters, and SXSW Interactive, on topics like web performance, responsive design, and design systems.

Yesenia

Tim Brown is co-chair of IDEO. He frequently speaks about the value of design thinking, creative leadership, and innovation to business leaders and designers around the world. He participates in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and his talks Serious Play and Change by Design appear on TED.com.
An industrial designer by training, Tim has earned numerous design awards. He has exhibited work at the Axis Gallery in Tokyo, the Design Museum in London, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He takes a special interest in the convergence of technology and the arts, as well as the ways in which design can be used to promote the well-being of people.
Tim advises senior executives and boards of global Fortune 100 companies. He serves on the Board of Directors of Steelcase Inc. and is a member of the board of trustees of IDEO.org. He writes for the Harvard Business Review, The Economist, and other prominent publications. His book on how design thinking transforms organizations, Change by Design, was released by Harper Business in September 2009 and revised and updated in 2019. Tim holds honorary doctorates from The Royal College of Art (London), Keio University (Tokyo), Claremont McKenna Graduate University (Los Angeles), and Art Center College of Art and Design (Los Angeles).
In 2021 Tim was awarded a CBE for services to design in Queen Elizabeth’s new year’s honors list. In 2022, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law from Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK. Tim contributes as one of LinkedIn's original top 150 Influencers. He is also an instructor for the IDEO U Leading for Creativity course.

Volker is a tech enthusiast and an avid networker across the digital business industry in Germany. He is co-founder and CEO of FAKTOR 3, along with Sabine Richter and Stefan Scraps.
Since the three partners founded F3 in 1995, the agency has been busy bringing the digital idea forward, starting with the rollout of AOL in Germany back then and shaping the digital communication transformation of companies across various industries today. F3’s headway toward digitalization also includes its approach to” Content Relations,” a virtuous cycle of storytelling and content distribution backed by genuine, sustainable relations.
Today, FAKTOR 3, with its subsidiaries F3 Live, F3 Design, and F3 Consulting, is one of Germany's top 10 communications agencies and “Agency of the Year 2017,” as awarded by The Holmes Report. The agency employs more than 200 communication consultants, industry experts, and content creatives. Current clients include Samsung, Adobe, Microsoft, Twitter, Beiersdorf, Porsche, REWE, Velux, STIHL, and many more.

Volker

Reid Hoffman is a venture capitalist and entrepreneur. He co-founded LinkedIn, a business-oriented social networking service, and was an executive at PayPal, an online payment company. Hoffman is also a partner at Greylock Partners, a venture capital firm. In addition, he is a board member or advisor to several technology companies and is the host of the podcast "Masters of Scale."
Reid Hoffman is also an author; he has written two books, The Startup of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career and Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies. In "The Startup of You," Hoffman writes about how to create a career and life adaptable to change and position oneself to take advantage of new opportunities.
In "Blitzscaling," Hoffman shares his experiences as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist and provides insights on how to scale a business quickly while maintaining a solid company culture and sustainable growth. Both books have been well-received by critics and praised for giving practical advice for entrepreneurs and career-minded individuals.
Reid Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn in 2002 and served as its Executive Chairman until Microsoft acquired the company in 2016. Under Hoffman's leadership, LinkedIn became one of the most popular social media platforms for professionals, with over 700 million members as of 2021.
He was also instrumental in the company's initial public offering (IPO) in 2011 and its growth and expansion in the following years. He has also been recognized for his role in developing LinkedIn as a pioneer in social networking for professionals and for his contributions to the technology industry as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist.

Reid

Jason Fried is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder and President of 37signals (now Basecamp), a Chicago-based software company. Fried is a prolific writer and speaker on topics related to technology, productivity, and business.
Fried is a self-taught programmer who began his career in software development in the late 1990s. He co-founded 37signals in 1999 and has since grown it into a successful business. Fried has been the President since the company's inception and is responsible for overseeing product design, customer support, and business strategy.
Fried's vision for 37signals has been to focus on creating simple, user-friendly web-based productivity tools. He believes that the most successful products are those that are designed with a focus on the user experience and on providing value to customers. In addition, Fried wants to create products that are easy to use and don't require extensive training for users to be successful.
Fried's writing and speaking engagements focus on topics related to the software industry, productivity, and business. He has written several books, including "Rework" and "Getting Real," which have become bestsellers. Fried is also a sought-after speaker and has been a featured speaker at many industry conferences.
Fried is committed to helping other entrepreneurs and startups succeed. He has been involved in a number of initiatives to help foster entrepreneurship and innovation, including the Start Small Foundation and Y Combinator. Fried is also a mentor to a number of startups and regularly provides advice and guidance to entrepreneurs.
Fried is a believer in the power of collaboration and shared knowledge. He has been an advocate for open-source software and has been actively involved in the open-source community. In addition, he is a proponent of using web-based tools to help improve collaboration and productivity within companies.
Fried is passionate about his work and is an inspiring leader. He is a firm believer in the power of simplicity and in the importance of focusing on the customer experience. With a strong vision for 37signals, Fried has been able to create a successful business out of the company and has helped many other entrepreneurs and businesses to succeed.

Jason

James Clear is a writer, entrepreneur, and thought leader in the field of habit formation. He is the author of the international bestseller Atomic Habits, which has sold over 2 million copies and has been translated into over 30 languages.
Clear is a frequent contributor to high-profile publications such as The New York Times, Time Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine. He is also a popular speaker and has given talks at TEDx, Google, and the United Nations.
Clear's work focuses on the science and psychology of habit formation and how it can be used to build positive behaviors. He has a special emphasis on "small wins" and how they can add up to major changes in our lives. He emphasizes that small changes can lead to big results and that we should focus on creating the right habits.
Clear's research is based on a combination of scientific studies, interviews with leading experts, and personal experience. He has a degree in finance and entrepreneurship from the University of Michigan and a master's degree in psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian. He was also named one of the world’s top 100 most influential people in health and fitness by Greatist.
In addition to writing, Clear is an advocate for the power of habits and is the founder of the Habits Academy. This website provides free resources for people interested in forming better habits. He also runs an online course and a membership program for those looking to take their habit-building to the next level.
Clear's work has been praised by people from a wide range of backgrounds and industries, from CEOs to athletes to celebrities. He is also a two-time recipient of the James Beard Foundation Award.

James

Matthias Schrader’s practice focuses on domestic and international litigation and arbitration matters across a broad spectrum of industries. Matthias has acted as counsel to both claimants and respondents in a wide variety of commercial litigations and arbitrations before various courts and leading arbitral institutions.&nbsp;
He has also successfully negotiated out-of-court settlements of complex disputes for various commercial and private clients. Furthermore, Matthias has represented sovereigns in litigations as well as international investment arbitrations.

Matthias

Laura Kalbag is a British designer living in Ireland and the author of Accessibility For Everyone from A Book Apart. She’s co-founder of Small Technology Foundation, a tiny two-person-and-one-husky not-for-profit organization advocating for and building small technology designed to increase human welfare, not corporate profits.
On an average day, Laura does everything from design and development, learning how to run a sustainable not-for-profit, and trying to make privacy and rights-respecting technology accessible to a wide audience. You can find her making design decisions, writing code, nudging icon pixels, or interpreting a privacy policy into something humans can understand. Sometimes she speaks at conferences and writes articles too.

Laura

Nir Eyal is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, and lecturer on the topics of consumer psychology and behavior design. He is well-known for his book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, which focuses on understanding how technology companies create products that users become addicted to.
Eyal has a background in business and psychology, having received his MBA from Stanford University and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. He has worked in the tech industry for over a decade and has held executive positions at several companies, including Yahoo and Time Warner.
Eyal has also founded two tech companies, AdNectar and Insightera, and is an investor in several startups. He has been an advisor or board member for numerous companies, including Eventbrite, Product Hunt, and BloomThat.
In addition to his business career, Eyal has written several books, including Hooked, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life, and The Business of Habit: Designing Products and Services That Create Loyalty. He also writes a popular blog and hosts a podcast called The Nir and Far Show.
Eyal is a sought-after speaker, presenting to audiences all over the world. He has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes and has been a guest on many podcasts, including The Tim Ferriss Show and The Joe Rogan Experience.
If you are interested in gaining a better understanding of how to design products and services that capture and keep users’ attention, Nir Eyal is an excellent resource. His books, blog, podcast, and talks offer valuable insights into the world of consumer psychology and behavior design.

Basecamp is a small team that creates simple, focused software. Our products help you collaborate and get organized. Millions of people and small businesses use our web-apps to get things done. Jeremy Wagstaff, of the Wall Street Journal, wrote, “[Basecamp] products are beautifully simple, elegant and intuitive tools that make an Outlook screen look like the software equivalent of a torture chamber.” Our apps never put you on the rack.

Basecamp

Chris Anderson is the Head of TED, a non-profit organization devoted to spreading ideas through short, powerful talks. He is also the founder of TEDx, a program that allows communities and organizations to host TED-like events.
Anderson has been involved with TED since 2001 and took over as Head of TED in 2002. Under his leadership, TED has grown into a global phenomenon, with talks being viewed by millions of people in more than 100 languages. He has also been instrumental in expanding the reach of TED by making the words available for free online and by launching the TEDx program.
In addition to his work with TED, Anderson is also an entrepreneur and author. He is the founder of several successful companies. In addition, he has written several books, including "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More" and "TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking."
Anderson is a firm believer in the power of ideas to change the world, and he has dedicated his career to promoting this idea through TED. He is a charismatic and dynamic speaker and has been praised for his ability to bring together diverse groups of people to share their thoughts and inspire change.
Anderson is also known for his innovative approach to curation, which has helped to make TED one of the most respected and widely-watched platforms for ideas. He has a keen eye for identifying new and emerging trends and is always looking for ways to bring fresh perspectives and voices to the TED stage.
He has also been a champion of using technology to democratize knowledge and ideas, making them more accessible to people worldwide. In addition, he has been an early adopter of new technologies, such as online video and social media, to help spread TED's message and reach new audiences.
Various organizations and publications have also recognized Anderson's work with TED. He has been honored with numerous awards for his contributions to the field of communications and education and has been named one of the most influential people in the world by Time Magazine.
In addition to his role at TED, Anderson is a sought-after speaker and advisor and has been invited to speak at conferences and events worldwide. In addition, he is a regular contributor to various publications, where he shares his insights on the future of technology, business, and culture.
Overall, Chris Anderson is a respected leader and a thought leader in the field of ideas and education, and he continues to inspire and innovate in his role as Head of TED. His work has helped make TED one of the most critical and influential platforms for sharing knowledge and ideas, and his contributions to the field will continue to be felt for years.

Chris

Alina Wheeler has enjoyed a lifelong fascination with how people and organizations express who they are. Her business is strategic imagination. Her passion is brand identity. In 2013, Alina Wheeler launched the fourth edition of her book, Designing Brand Identity: an essential guide for the whole marketing team (DBI4). Over 150,000 copies of the book have been sold to date. DBI4 addresses the global marketplace and rapidly changing communications tools.&nbsp;
As the world migrates to mobile and social networks dominate the marketing budget, there is a greater need for brevity, simplicity, and coherence across platforms. From research and brand strategy to design execution, launch, and governance. Alina Wheeler believes that DBI4 is the best branding reference book in the world. Fifty percent of DBI4's content is new, with over 700 images and 37 new case studies.
Alina Wheeler frequently speaks to management teams about brand fundamentals, processes, best practices, and critical success factors. Brand leadership requires courage and building relationships across touchpoints. In addition to her consulting projects, she has been coaching business leaders, and brand and design consultancies.
Over the last 40 years, Alina Wheeler has had the honor of working with hundreds of companies and organizations in the public and private sectors. She has led multidisciplinary teams to revitalize brands and marketing systems to accelerate brand clarity and awareness. Alina says that it is harder than ever to be the brand of choice. Collaboration is key, as is courage and a sense of humor.

Alina

Robin Patricia Williams (born October 9, 1953) is an American educator who has authored many computer-related books, as well as the book Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare? Among her computer books are manuals of style The Mac is Not a Typewriter and numerous manuals for various macOS operating systems and applications, including The Little Mac Book.
Williams was born in Berkeley, California. She grew up in San Jose and Fremont, California, and graduated from Washington High School in Fremont. After high school, she worked in hospitals and then traveled to Europe for two years. She moved to Santa Rosa, California, to attend a graphic design program at Santa Rosa Junior College, and began teaching graphic design at the college in 1981. In 2011, she received an MA degree from Brunel University, London, in Shakespeare Authorship studies, and in 2014 she completed a doctoral dissertation for the same university; her doctorate is on the history (and future) of reading Shakespeare—out loud and in community, with an emphasis on editorial practice.
Williams is a graphic designer, typographer, author, college instructor, and lecturer. She began writing in the 1980s after teaching graphic design and a course about the Mac computer at a California community college. She has taught Shakespeare at Santa Fe Community College and leads the Shakespeare Close Readers reading and discussion groups about individual plays. She has been a leader in the New Mexico Internet Professionals Association and the Santa Fe Mac Users Group. She is a founder of the Mary Sidney Society and read Shakespeare.
She has three children she raised as a single mother, including while working as a part-time instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College. She has written, designed, indexed, and produced more than seventy computer-related books, and by 2005, many of her books had been translated into twenty-three languages. Some of her early works include The Little Mac Book, and The Mac is Not a Typewriter. By 2002, The Little Mac Book had published its eighth edition. By 2005, she had published 51 books about Mac computers.
Williams has spent years studying William Shakespeare and, in 2006, issued her book Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare? in which she presented evidence in support of the theory that the writer Mary Sidney is the author of Shakespeare's work. Mary Sidney was first proposed as an authorship candidate as part of a group theory by Gilbert Slater in 1931.

Robin

Jake Knapp is an inventor, designer, and author. He is most well-known for inventing the Design Sprint, a five-day process for solving problems and creating new products, services, and strategies. He is also a New York Times bestselling author, having written two books, Sprint and Make Time.&nbsp;
As a design thinker, Jake has worked with some of the world’s leading companies, such as Slack, LEGO, IDEO, and NASA. He has coached on design strategy and time management, helping these companies take their products and services from ideas to reality.
An advocate of the design-thinking approach, Jake has been a keynote speaker at conferences and workshops around the world. He has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Wired, and Forbes and has been invited to TEDx and Google's Zeitgeist conferences to discuss his methodologies.
Jake is currently a Design Partner at Google Ventures, where he helps companies use design sprints to create innovative products and services. He also serves as a lecturer at Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, where he teaches Design Thinking and Design Sprints.
Jake has a passion for creating and innovating, and his approach to design has helped countless companies realize their potential. He is a firm believer that with the right combination of processes, people, and tools, any problem can be solved.

Jake

Jef Raskin was an American human-computer interface expert best known for starting the Macintosh project for Apple Computer in the late 1970s. Jef Raskin was born in New York City to a secular Jewish family whose surname is a matronymic from "Raske," a Yiddish nickname for Rachel. He received a BA in mathematics and a BS in physics with minors in philosophy and music from Stony Brook University.&nbsp;
In 1967, he received a master's degree in computer science from Pennsylvania State University after having switched from mathematical logic due to differences of opinion with his advisor. Even though he had completed work for his Ph.D., the university was not accredited for a Ph.D. in computer science. The first original computer application he wrote was a music application as part of his master's thesis.
Raskin later enrolled in a graduate music program at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), but stopped to teach art, photography, and computer science there. He worked as an assistant professor in the Visual Arts department from 1968 until 1974. There, he did a show toys as works of art.&nbsp;
Raskin announced his resignation from the assistant professorship by flying over the Chancellor's house in a hot air balloon. He was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to establish a Computer and Humanities center which used several 16-bit Data General Nova computers and glass terminals rather than the teletypes which were more common at that time.
Along with his undergraduate student Jonathan (Jon) Collins, Raskin developed the FLOW programming language for use in teaching programming to art and humanities students. The language was first used at the Humanities Summer Training Institute held in 1970 at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. The language has only seven statements (COMMENT, GET IT, PRINT IT, PRINT "text," JUMP TO, IF IT IS " " JUMP TO, and STOP) and can not manipulate numbers.&nbsp;
The language was first implemented in Fortran by Collins in under a week. Later versions of the language utilized "typing amplification," in which only the first letter is typed, and the computer provides the balance of the instruction eliminating typing errors. It was also the basis for programming classes taught by Raskin and Collins in the UCSD Visual Arts Department.
Raskin curated several art shows, including one featuring his collection of unusual toys and presenting toys as works of art. During this period, he changed the spelling of his name from "Jeff" to "Jef" after having met Jon Collins and liking the lack of extraneous letters.
Raskin occasionally wrote for computer publications, such as Dr. Dobb's Journal. He formed a company named Bannister and Crun, which was named for two characters playing in the BBC radio comedy The Goon Show.

Richard started designing Web sites in 1995. At the beginning of his career, he designed the user experiences of Web sites for numerous dot-com startups, as well as large organizations such as Barclaycard. He later became the user experience lead at Multimap, Europe’s most popular mapping site, which was acquired by Microsoft.&nbsp;
In 2005, Richard co-founded Clearleft, a digital design consultancy that has since helped hundreds of clients across five continents embrace digital and become more efficient and competitive. He helps the team at Clearleft work with clients to create new and improved digital presences through a pragmatic combination of research, delivery, and digital transformation. In 2010, Wired UK named Richard one of the UK’s top 100 people shaping the digital world.

Richard

Matthew

Defensive design for the Web is what defensive driving is for the road. Good site defense can make or break the customer experience, just as good or bad highway driving can.&nbsp;
This book shows you what to do (and not do) to ensure that your customers' needs are met and their questions answered; gives guidelines to prevent errors; and retrieves your customers if a breakdown occurs. It also shows you how to evaluate and improve your own site's defensive design.

John Maeda's career has spanned various design, technology, and education roles. He began his career as a computer scientist, working on projects at MIT's Media Lab. In 2001, he joined the faculty at the MIT Media Lab as an associate professor and later served as the director of the research lab's Aesthetics and Computation Group. In 2008, he was appointed President of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he served until 2013.
After leaving RISD, Maeda joined Kleiner Perkins as a Partner, focusing on design in technology startups. From 2015 to 2017, he was Design Partner at a venture capital firm. In 2018, he joined Automattic as Global Head of Computational Design and Inclusion. In this role, he leads the company's design and inclusion efforts and works on further integrating technology and design into the company's products.
John Maeda has received several awards throughout his career for his contributions to design and technology. Some notable mentions include:
<ul>
<li>Design Mind Award from the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in 2012</li>
<li>AIGA Medal in 2012</li>
<li>Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business in 2012</li>
<li>BusinessWeek's Design Innovator of the Year in 2006</li>
<li>National Design Award for Communication Design from the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in 2001</li>
<li>Id Magazine's Interactive Design Review in 2001</li>
<li>Webby Award for Best Use of Animation in 2000</li>
</ul>
He also served as the Jury President for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2018. These are just a few of the many awards and honors that John Maeda has received over the years. He is highly respected in design and technology, and his work has significantly impacted the industry.
Throughout his career, Maeda has also been an active speaker and author. He has given talks at various conferences and events worldwide and has written several books, including "The Laws of Simplicity" and "Redesigning Leadership." He has also been honored with numerous awards for his contributions to the field of design and technology.

John

Jeffrey Zeldman

Don Norman

Jakob Nielsen

Steve Krug

Jared Spool

Jason Fried emphasizes the importance of defensive design in web development. He suggests that a well-designed website should be able to handle errors and guide users through the process, rather than leaving them frustrated and confused.

Importance of Defensive Design

Fried introduces the concept of contingency design. This means planning for what could go wrong and designing your website to handle these situations. It's like having a plan B ready to kick in when plan A fails.

Contingency Design

The book explores the importance of user-friendly error messages. Instead of technical jargon that leaves users baffled, he suggests using clear, simple language that helps users understand what went wrong and how to fix it.

User-Friendly Error Messages

Preventing errors is just as important as handling them. Jason Fried encourages you to research and understand common user mistakes and design your website in a way that helps prevent these errors from happening in the first place.

Preventing Errors

Fried emphasizes the need for testing and iteration in web design. He suggests that you should constantly check your design, find issues, fix them, and then test again. This continuous cycle of improvement can lead to a more robust and user-friendly website.

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