Canvas Conference 2017 review

Last week I attended Canvas Conference (dead-link) in Birmingham, a conference for product enthusiasts packed with great stories from people working in the space. This year’s speakers came from companies including Thriva, Microsoft Research, Starling Bank, and Monzo.

One presentation in particular caught me off guard - and it seemed I wasn’t alone. Emotionally, it was a rollercoaster.

Haiyan Zhang, an Innovation Director at Microsoft Research Cambridge, shared her work using technology to improve and enrich lives - particularly for people whose daily lives are affected by medical conditions.

She talked through several projects, including a new platform for participants, and the critical need to make sure solutions are financially viable in the long run.

Parkinson’s disease (dead-link) affects 10 million people worldwide, causing a loss of motor control. There is currently no cure.

I know first-hand how devastating this disease can be - it’s been close to me since childhood, and it has a way of stripping away the things you cherish most.

The part of Haiyan’s talk that stuck with me most was Project Emma: an attempt to help Emma, a woman diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s, regain the ability to write and draw - giving her back a small piece of what the disease had taken away.

Haiyan and her team spent months understanding Emma’s specific challenges, including how central drawing was to her life, before landing on a solution.

Remarkable, isn’t it?

The story reminded me of the responsibility we all carry. Most of us design solutions aimed at the majority - but people, and their needs, are diverse and complex. We owe it to the minority of users, not just the majority, to build things that genuinely work for them.

That’s exactly why research, analytics, and how we build matter so much. Doing right by our users - whoever they are - takes real care and effort in understanding and meeting their needs.