One of the best things about the SXSW interactive, film, and music festival is that the public, you and me, get to have a say in which sessions make it into the official schedule. But to do that, you need to vote!

The SXSW PanelPicker is now open for the 2020 festival, and ESI Design has three sessions for your consideration. We’d appreciate your help getting these panels chosen.

Please be sure you’re signed in to the SXSW system (or create an account) to easily vote and thumbs-up one (or all) of our proposed sessions. Voting ends Friday, August 23, 2019.

This year, we’re presenting three different topics for your consideration: Data Visualization with Mary Franck, a Statue Of Liberty Museum case study, and a look at how to design state-of-the-art accessible digital experiences for museums.

Vote for the one that excites you the most, and share with your friends and family on social media. Remember, the more votes we receive, the more likely we’ll be part of the event next year!

Read on to learn more about the talks we proposed.

Designing Data for Emotional Experiences

Ever wondered how it’s possible to use data to have an emotional impact? The secret lies in finding the stories in the numbers, focusing on the emotions not the information, and bringing some mystery back into a world dominated by sleek data viz interfaces.

In this talk, ESI Design’s senior designer and creative technologist Mary Franck, will highlight how data visualization can be utilized in immersive environments, outline how to translate spreadsheets into emotional experiences, and show how technology is secondary to story.

What you’ll learn:

• How to use data to tell emotional, not quantitative, stories.
• How to conceptualize data as another design element and open up new opportunities for connection.
• All data tells a story. How do you parse out the important stories from the mundane records?

Vote here: Designing Data for Emotional Experiences

Bringing Life to Lady Liberty: Cultivating Connection and Interaction in our Cultural Institutions

At the new Statue of Liberty Museum, interactive media is used in atypical forms to cultivate an experience as diverse as the Statue’s interpretations. Innovation within the experience design industry allows for spaces to become doorways into new digital worlds. The convergence of digital displays, advanced motion sensors, AI, touchscreens and more allows for the Statue’s 4.3 million annual visitors to explore her history, symbolism, and role in the lives of many across the world.

The panel discussion brings together the team of experts responsible for creating some of the digital and immersive experiences at the new museum which opened in May 2019 including:

• Nick Hubbard, Senior Designer, Content & Activity Design from the museum’s experience and exhibit design firm ESI Design
• Carol Feeley-Vario, Senior Project Manager from systems integration firm Diversified
• Jeremy Bloom, Sound Designer responsible for the immersive soundscapes
• Alexandre Simionescu, Principal interactive exhibit design and software production firm Float4

What you’ll learn:

• How to understand the attributes, conceptualization, production and integration of a successful digital experience
• How to enrich connection with a space and with those around us interacting with the space, within the context of an individualistic experience
• How to give content the primacy of place; build from an idea or a goal that enhances your space, and then choose the technology that best suits it

Vote here: Bringing Life to Lady Liberty

Designing a Museum for Everyone: Accessibility for Museum’s Digital Experiences

Thanks to ever-improving technology, museums are offering more interactive experiences than ever before, but many of these exhibits remain inaccessible to people with disabilities.

The Statue of Liberty Museum sets new benchmarks for making museums more accessible and inclusive. This talk brings ESI Design’s Senior Designer of Content + Activity Design, Nick Hubbard with Walei Sabry, an Accessibility Coordinator for Inclusive Digital and New York City Mayor’s Office to talk about how to make all types of digital content and public technologies accessible to a wide array of users. Together they will present a case study of their collaboration for the Statue of Liberty Museum (recently opened in May 2019) and show how you can create accessible interactive and digital experiences. Also covered will be best practices, and accessibility innovations that must be considered for public experiences.

What you’ll learn:

• How can museums make interactive experiences accessible to all people, regardless of ability?
• How have federal ADA guidelines changed in relation to digital interactive experiences and IT at museums?
• What are new ways that audio, video, and digital media can be used to make museums more accessible?

Vote Here: Accessibility for Museum’s Digital Experiences

Let us know in the comments which talk resonates mostly with you, and don’t forget to vote!

#ESIDesignSXSW