Understanding ourselves and our users better
Alastair Somerville is a globally recognised expert on sensory cognition and design and provides a range of standard and customised workshops for all types of organisation.
His workshops run from 60 minutes to multi-day and are designed to be both informative and fun.
Starting with workshops on accessibility and sensory design, Alastair is trusted to develop and deliver workshops on subjects ranging across information architecture, emotional design, active listening and more.
He has delivered practical workshops to museums and cultural organisations on prototyping as well as more conceptual workshops on hope and transcendence in UX.
Workshop feedback
“…engaging and fun…forward thinking…expertly handled…”
O’Reilly Design conference
“Best session in 10 years of SouthBy”
South By SouthWest
Designing for Human Perception
Since 2014, this workshop has been very popular at conferences and for in-house training.
This is an experiential workshop on how to design better for human imagination, perception and emotions. It is interactive and fun yet delivers the latest concepts from neuroscience and accessibility in ways that are contextualised to the work that participants are involved in.
Read more on the workshop page Designing for Human Perception.
Listening Better
A 90 minute to full day workshop on listening skills in terms of theory and practice.
A practical workshop on learning to listen that uses a core 3 part process to provide a simple, memorable outcome for any participant. How long the workshop lasts is flexible: longer means more time to learn ideas in depth and more time to practive different approaches to listening.
Read more on the workshop page: Listening Better.
Wayfinding: in theory and practice for place, websites and projects
A half day to full day workshop on understanding how humans find their way thru places and information and how design can enhance those experiences practically.
Wayfinding matters in how we design physical and virtual places and how we plan and manage projects. This workshop is about theory and practice applied to real contexts.
Read more on the workshop page Wayfinding: in theory and practice for place, websites and projects.
Moving Thru Mixed Realities
Since 2017, this workshop has been great for understanding the complex and complicated issues of building products and services in augmented and virtual realities.
This is a fun workshop that combines building maps and models with moving around and researching in physical spaces. The workshop links new methods of Threshold Spotting and Perspective Switching with established UX and Service Design tools.
Read more on the workshop page Moving Thru Mixed Realities.
Information Architecture and Meaning in Time/Place
A very experimental workshop on how meaning and sensemaking change as information and design artefacts move thru time and place. Using a 4D mapping process, we explore how clear meanings in one context can collapse or be radically shifted in another. This workshop is useful for discussing contentious issues as the temporal/geographical stretching can detoxify arguments stuck in the here and now.
Read more on the workshop page Information Architecture and Meaning in Time/Place.
Workshop On A Card
A new series of workshops for 2021 and 2022 is Workshop On A Card. They are a hybrid workshops built on the experience of facilitating workshops during 2020.
Read more about them on this Workshop On A Card page.
Designing Hybrid Workshops
Come along to a ‘Pay what you like’ workshop on ideas around designing your own online workshops.
This workshop is about clarity and confidence. Finding clarity in what content to deliver and confidence in designing and delivering it.
Bookings and more information on Designing Hybrid Workshops.