Following a user-centered design process can help you balance business, technical and customer requirements. But there is a politics of design – onethat can involve negotiations between various project stakeholders, designers and developer for the duration of a project and beyond.

That this process has political aspects to it is not new. But whether one has to deal with office “politics by pixel” when designing a web home page, or deal with the controversial outcome of an election because of a poorly designed ballot, managing the politics of design becomes an essential activity.

In this keynote, Whitney Quesenbery will talk about how to keep the customers’ needs and preferences front and center and deliver the best designs possible. She’ll also talk about how designers can empower people to speak up when faced with products that are hard to use or learn.