What is one word you would use to describe your experience at DTVancouver 2024 and why?

Natasha: Fulfilling. The whole experience was a great break from our regular day-to-day. Not only was it inspiring and exciting to be in spaces filled with great designers it was a great team building trip. 

Elmira: DTVan 2024 was incredibly fun. Our team had a great experience in the city during our stay in Vancouver, and having Brent, our director, as one of the workshop speakers was a highlight. Also, there were quite a few speakers who were hilarious, making the event even more enjoyable for me!

Sarah: Connection. Both in terms of the themes that the speakers were touching on, and also the experience with the team. 

Melissa: I would choose Inspiring. Not only were the sessions at the conference really motivating and exciting, but attending DesignThinkers with the team always motivates me to work better.

Did you have a favourite quote or insight from the speakers at the conference?

Natasha: “Be open to the unknown.” — Lisa Congdon 
I’ve attended Design Thinkers 8 times now, and when I was a student I found every talk was an opening to a whole world my life could mimic. As I’ve gotten older and more settled into my career the talks have lost that for me. Hearing Lisa talk about her career and her “late start” reminded me that you never know where life will take you. 

Elmira: Don’t have a binary vision of your work.

Sarah: “Ask yourself often: What if it turns out better than you could have ever imagined?” — Tina Roth Eisenberg

Melissa: “We’re here to transform, not win.” — Tina Roth Eisenberg

We heard quite a bit about AI and its growing presence. What’s your take on AI and did your opinion change after attending the conference?

Natasha: AI is still unknown to me, with a lot of stigmatization around who is using it, how they’re using it and if it takes away the creativity of art as a whole. I personally am stubborn enough that if I’m doing something I typically want to figure it out on my own. Hearing how the presenters are utilizing AI opened up my brain to the different options and possibilities that AI has and will have in the near future. It made me feel calmer and more hopeful that soon it will just be another ordinary tool that we can use to create certain styles of design and art.

Elmira: The conference highlighted that AI is not a threat but a tool that can automate and speed up tasks. Personally, I believe anything can become a threat if not used properly. For example, while AI can significantly facilitate our work, it also comes with privacy and security risks, as our workload could become more exposed.

Sarah: I’m of the same opinion—I’m in the camp of approaching AI as a tool, and not really to be feared. I’d like to see AI take on the more challenging, time-consuming tasks so it frees me up to be more creative! We’ve barely scratched the surface of what it can do.

Melissa: I was actually pretty surprised to hear so many different takes on AI. I’m very much on board with using AI as a tool to aid in my creative process, but not as a means for final execution. Long story short: great as a jumping off point, not great when the output goes unchecked.

Were there any other emerging design trends or ideas that you found particularly interesting or relevant to our work at Fusion?

Natasha: The idea of automating different elements of our process with the help of AI. We always want to strive to make things smoother for us and our clients and although we will use AI to help with Coding or our social media it hasn’t been intergraded into our conceptual process yet. 

Elmira: I found some interesting AI tools: Leonardo.AI, Galileo.AI, Omnkey, and Lokalise. These tools could help us complete tasks much quicker, such as creating artwork, designing website UIs, generating content, and localizing everything according to brand guidelines. The last one is especially important for our multilingual websites in English and French, where maintaining design consistency in both languages can sometimes be a bit of a challenge.

Sarah: Considering what we think we know about designing user experience. Maybe it’s not always about getting people to information as fast as possible, maybe it’s using design elements to interrupt users, so they pay attention to something, or add something memorable to their experience.

Melissa: The list of resources and guides on decolonizing design can definitely help our team going forward as we pursue new projects and improvements in our design process. AI is also a “trend” that we’ve continued to have interest in, but the idea of really pushing it as a resource is something we’ve already spoken about amongst ourselves and with clients.

*BONUS*
Following your experience at DTVan 2024, would you travel back to Vancouver to attend future conferences?

Natasha: Yes, I would go back to Vancouver. The energy around the conference felt calmer than when we’ve gone to Toronto. It pushed me to slow down and think about how we’re moving forward as a team and as an individual. 

Elmira:  I’d love to go back to DTVan for future conferences if the team is up for it. 

Sarah: In a heartbeat. Vancouver is a beautiful city, fun to explore and full of inspiration. There’s a whole other “vibe” to the DT conference—it’s hard to articulate. But it was such a great team-building experience. 10/10 would go back.

Melissa: Absolutely! I had such a great experience spending time with the team and the more intimate feel of the conference. I love the west coast!