Hi there, remember me? Wow, April was a busy month for us, and looking ahead, it’s getting busy again.
Busy is good, and also good, is the emergence of new voices here at the ‘Lab. They’ve done a great job holding down the fort. Since my last post in late March, you’ve heard from Raymond (@yuhuaxie), Os (@vaini11a), Tawny (@iheartthannie), Ben (@goldenmean1618) and Mark (@mvilrokx).
Because it’s been a while, here comes an update post on what we’ve been doing, what we’re going to be doing in the near future, and some nuggets you might have missed.
What we’ve been doing
Conference season, like tax season in the US, consumes the Spring. April kicked off for me at Oracle HCM World in Chicago, where Aylin (@aylinuysal) and I had a great session. We showed a couple of our cool voice demos, powered by Noel’s (@noelportugal) favorite gadget, the Amazon Echo, and the audience was visibly impressed.
@jkuramot @theappslab #oaux wows @OracleHCM customers with emerging tech demos & HR tasks use cases #OracleHCMWorld pic.twitter.com/CwkzVeKdVJ
— Gozel Aamoth (@gozelaamoth) April 7, 2016
I like that picture. Looks like I’m wearing the Echo as a tie.
Collaborate 16 was next, where Ben and Tawny collected VR research and ran a focus group on bots. VR is still very much a niche technology. Many Collaborate attendees hadn’t even heard of VR at all and were eager to take the Samsung Gear VR for a test drive.
During the bots focus group, Ben and Tawny tried out some new methods, like Business Origami, which fostered some really interesting ideas among the group.
Business origami taking shape #oaux #CLV16 pic.twitter.com/PJARBrZGka
— The AppsLab (@theappslab) April 12, 2016
Next, Ben headed out directly for the annual Oracle Benelux User Group (OBUG) conference in Arnhem to do more VR research. Our research needs to include international participants, and Ben found more of the same reactions we’ve seen Stateside. With something as new and different as VR, we cast a wide net to get as many perspectives and collect as much data as possible before moving forward with the project.
Oracle Modern Customer Experience was next for us, where we showed several of our demos to a group students from the Lee Business School at UNLV (@lbsunlv), who then talked about those demos and a range of other topics in a panel session, hosted by Rebecca Wettemann (@rebeccawettemann) of Nucleus Research.
#UNLV #MBA students discuss the future of work with @theappslab @usableapps #ModernCX #SalesX16 pic.twitter.com/5tPl8Y6c95
— Geet (@geet_s) April 28, 2016
The feedback we got on our demos was very interesting. These students belong to a demographic we don’t typically get to hear from, and their commentary gave me some lightning bolts of insight that will be valuable to our work.
As with VR, some of the demos we showed were on devices they had not seen or used yet, and it’s always nice to see someone enjoy a device or demo that has become old hat to me.
Because we live and breathe emerging technologies, we tend to get jaded about new devices far too quickly. So, a reset is always welcome.
What we’re going to be doing in the near future
Next week, we’re back on the road to support an internal IoT hackathon that Laurie’s (@lsptahoe) Apps UX Innovation team (@InnovateOracle) is hosting in the Bay Area.
The countdown has started! Register at https://t.co/Gyx8d2Oh7k and be part of this huge Oracle Conference in June. pic.twitter.com/18fGbG9L74
— AMIS, Oracle & Java (@AMISnl) May 9, 2016
Then, June 2-3, we’re returning to the Netherlands to attend and support AMIS 25. The event celebrates the 25th anniversary of AMIS (@AMISnl), and they’ve decided to throw an awesome conference at what sounds like a sweet venue, “Hangaar 2” at the former military airport Valkenburg in Katwijk outside Amsterdam.
Our GVP, Jeremy Ashley (@jrwashley) will be speaking, as will Mark. Noel will be showing the Smart Office, Mark will be showing his Developer Experience (DX) tools, and Tawny will be conducting some VR research, all in the Experience Zone.
I’ve really enjoyed collaborating with AMIS in the past, and I’m very excited for this conference/celebration.
After a brief stint at home, we’re on the road again in late June for Kscope16, which is both an awesome conference and happily, the last show of the conference year. OpenWorld doesn’t count.
We have big fun plans this year, as always, so stay tuned for details.
Stuff you might have missed
Finally, here are some interesting tidbits I collected in my absence from blogging.
I love me some bio-hacking, so here’s an ingestible meat robot prototype and flexible electronic skin.
And here are some OAUX (@usableapps) links you should read:
- The bots are coming! We love bots, and in October, we’re partnering with the Apps UX Innovation team to run an internal bots-focused hackthon.
- New ways of input still on the verge of the enterprise. Over on VoX, you can read about our work in voice and gesture input and how these technologies are shaping future experiences.
- Smart user experiences: Machine learning and the future of enterprise applications. Check out what Bill has to say about how “smart” experiences are shaping our thinking.
