IxDA is the largest and most respected interaction design organization in the world. So I was deeply honored when they asked me to speak at their annual conference along side my design heroes John Maeda and Bill Buxton.

For the past eight years, since my time at Microsoft, much of my focus has been on leveraging design to enable machine intelligence (machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc.). I quickly recognized that we’re at a critical juncture for consumer AI applications: the use of personal data as fuel has led to the emergence of powerful intelligent services, but people are waking up to the privacy and social implications of broad data sharing.

In this talk I discussed the role of the interaction designer as the gate keeper of customer data, and the challenges we face building trust and the engagement that’s needed to enable meaningful experiences. I also demonstrated how playfulness, as a design tactic, can unlock reinforcement learning in new and exciting ways. Lastly, I shared my Serendipity Watch project that leverages user empowerment and playfulness to create a deeply intimate experience that learns playfully.