72 - Ladies that UX with Inez, Ridhwana & Lara

We chat to Inez, Ridhwana & Lara about the Ladies that UX communities in Cape Town, and as of today Johannesburg.

Chantal, Kenneth & Kevin are joined by the dynamic trio of Inez Patel, Ridhwana Khan & Lara Pietersen to talk about UX and the local Ladies that UX meetups in Cape Town and now Johannesburg.

User Experience (UX) is an integral part of design, be it in the physical world or the digital world. It is the practice of putting the user first, creating empathy for the users of your systems.

If the user can't use it, it doesn't work

-- Susan Dray

Lizzie Dyson and Georgie Bottomley, both UX (User Experience) professionals, loved their jobs but there was always a doubt about where the other women in the industry were. So they started the first Ladies that UX meetup in Manchester, UK, and it exploded. Lara was looking for an international community to connect with when she discovered Ladies that UX and it stuck. The Cape Town LTUX meetup is the first African chapter of LTUX, started by Lara. Inez and co-organizer Ridhwana launched the Johannesburg chapter of Ladies that UX on the 31st of August 2017.

We hear from Inez, Ridhwana & Lara about their general experiences as women in tech, and why community events are so important to support each other. With Ladies that UX having over 50 chapters around the world, it gives also enables them and other community members to connect with each other.

Both events focus on creating a safe and inclusive space for woman in the UX field to connect, share & learn from each other. Each event follows a slightly format, from lean coffee and/or cocktails to workshops and presentations.

We also chat to Ridhwana about her upcoming TechWomen trip to the US, and how she'll use her that LTUX connections to meet inspiring women over there, and then bring all her learning back to share with the LTUX community back here. We wish her all the best with her journey!

In close we ask each guest to relate with us some advice for incorporating UX into our work. The suggestions are great, go have a listen.

Find and follow Ladies that UX online:

• https://twitter.com/ladiesthatuxcpt
• https://www.meetup.com/Ladies-that-UX-Cape-Town/
• https://www.meetup.com/Ladies-that-UX-Johannesburg/
• http://ladiesthatux.com/cape-town
• capetown at ladiesthat dot ux dot com

Find and follow Inez online:

• https://twitter.com/Inez_patel

Find and follow Lara online:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/lara-pietersen/
• https://twitter.com/LaraPietersen

Find and follow Ridhwana online:

• https://twitter.com/ridhwana_k

Here are some resources mentioned in the show:

• TechWomen - https://www.techwomen.org/
• A journey through the eyes of a newbie female developer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXPN4UnrmuA
• Silicon Valley (HBO) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley_(TV_series)

Picks

• Inez
  • UCOOK
  • Simple Habit
• Lara
  • UX Strategy
  • Design Kit
• Ridhwana
  • Sketch
  • InVision
  • Egghead
  • Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• Chantal
  • 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
  • git it gurl t-shirt
• Kenneth
  • Pink-IT with Ruddy Riba
  • Sim Daltonism
  • Prototype on Paper
• Kevin
  • Clubhouse
  • You-Dont-Know-Js
  • Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems

Thanks for listening!

See all past picks on our picks page.

Shining a spotlight on the amazing and inspiring women in our community.