While many of us seek out the newest and shiniest tools, methods, and processes to build more successful products and services, we often overlook one of the oldest, leanest, most effective tools out there: the structurally sound st…

While many of us seek out the newest and shiniest tools, methods, and processes to build more successful products and services, we often overlook one of the oldest, leanest, most effective tools out there: the structurally sound story. In the moment, we humans experience everything as if it were a story. The better the story, the more likely we are to want to use a product, continue to use it, pay to use it, and recommend it to others.

In this presentation captured live at An Event Apart Denver, Donna Lichaw (@dlichaw) brilliantly explains how taking a story-first approach to product design and development helps you build more successful websites, apps, campaigns, and services that excite your customers, draw them in, incite them to action, and keep them engaged over time.

Donna is a certified professional coach, speaker, and author. She has spent 20 years at the forefront of technology helping leaders at places like Google, Apple, Logitech, Capital One, Central Park Conservancy, and WNYC develop successful products and services and now uses that same passion and approach to develop successful people—one story at a time. You can learn more about her process in her book, The User’s Journey: Storymapping Products That People Love.

Enjoy all the videos here in An Event Apart’s library. There are over 30 hours of them—all absolutely free! For more insightful presentations by the industry’s best and brightest, come to An Event Apart—three days of design, code, and content for web, UX, and interaction designers. And for your free monthly guide to all things web, design, and developer-y, subscribe to The AEA Digest.

We constantly stress-test our work by subjecting it to a wide variety of devices, by simulating different connection speeds, and by testing it under extreme server load scenarios. But have you ever stress-tested your work for unexa…

We constantly stress-test our work by subjecting it to a wide variety of devices, by simulating different connection speeds, and by testing it under extreme server load scenarios. But have you ever stress-tested your work for unexamined assumptions, emotional minefields, or usability in situations of extreme distraction?

In this free 60-minute video, captured live at An Event Apart Denver: Special Edition 2017, world-renowned author and consultant Eric Meyer uses real-world examples and interactive exercises showing how to QA your work for real life, enabling it to serve more people, more of the time.

Eric A. Meyer is an internationally recognized expert on the subjects of HTML, CSS, and web standards, and the author of Design For Real Life (A Book Apart), Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide (O’Reilly & Associates), Smashing CSS (Wiley), Eric Meyer on CSS and More Eric Meyer on CSS (New Riders), CSS2.0 Programmer’s Reference (Osborne/McGraw-Hill), and CSS Web Site Design (Peachpit), as well as numerous articles for A List Apart, Net Magazine, Netscape DevEdge, UX Booth, UX Matters, the O’Reilly Network, Web Techniques, and Web Review.

Enjoy all the videos in An Event Apart’s library. There are over 30 hours of them—all absolutely free! For more insightful presentations by the industry’s best and brightest, come to An Event Apart—three days of design, code, and content for web, UX, and interaction designers. And for your free monthly guide to all things web, design, and developer-y, subscribe to The AEA Digest.

Jeffrey Zeldman

Beyond Engagement: the Content Performance Quotient
No More FAQs: Create Purposeful Information for a More Effective User Experience by Lisa Wright
The King vs. Pawn Game of UI Design by Erik Kennedy
Why Perfo…