Speaker Spotlight: Chris Bernard (John Hughes: Lessons in Big Design)

Chris Bernard is a user experience evangelist for Microsoft, whose passion is working with the software design, development and business domains to communicate Microsoft’s position on the importance of user experience in software design. Chris likes to focus mostly on motion graphic and interactive design but these days he find himself usually working on transactional Web-based applications and design specification artifacts. As a design professional, Chris’s mission is to apply the principles of contextual research, cultural, human, physical and social factors to the products, services and systems that he develops. Chris is passionate about linking the value of design to business and measurable objectives and does not like people that think designers are merely decorators or designers that act like decorators.

Keynote Talk: John Hughes–Lessons in Big Design

We can often learn the most about ourselves and our professional practice when we look adjacently at the world. John Hughes, an accomplished filmmaker, writer, director, humorist, parent and husband left a legacy of lessons and insights that are timelessly important to the discipline of Big Design. Join Chris Bernard as he distills some of these lessons that we should all be employing in our profession by looking at John Hughes, his work and that of a few other great designers and learn how to tangibly and explicitly employ these principles in your daily work.

Some Other Things About Chris Bernard

Chris calls Chicago his hometown, which is great because there are alot of John Hughes films based there. I got chills when Chris told me about his talk. Instead of “Buehler, Buehler, Buehler”, I keep hearing the monotone voice of Ben Stein saying, “Bernard, Bernard, Bernard.” Anyway, Chris is a great speaker. Everyone should come on Saturday to hear it—lots of surprises!!!