Hey everyone! I’m so happy to share my insights on the first learning cycle from our Penpod LATAM event in Perú, teamed up with @Elsie_Ralston and SurGlobal! 
Have a look. 
In a hybrid event in Perú, we took the opportunity to talk about accessibility and dark patterns, and how important it is to have transparency in strategies to create better UX but also to generate ROI without harming users.
We had the opportunity to be joined by Heidi Uchiyama, Director of Public Digital, and Sara Robles, a Service Design Lead. With both of them present in person, and an open Penpot file, we went through a couple of exercises on how companies use dark patterns and how to spot them so as not to be part of them. How designers can educate themselves and explore more trustworthy and responsible alternatives and how to convince stakeholders that this is not even the best strategy money-wise.
One of the fun highlights of the event was an incredible live contribution from Cesar Hijar, a visual thinking designer who created a real-time visualization of all the topics discussed throughout the entire event.
Things we learned
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The audience was curious about Penpot. It was the first time the tool had been showcased in Perú, and designers got to see and play with it in person.
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The majority of the audience’s comments highlighted how well the event format worked, allowing them to see the tool in action and view this as a great opportunity to transition to open source, which is also a topic not very common in Perú.
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How much it resonated with the audience when we talked about changing the narrative of design to take user safety into account but also the not so spoken bad results of picking dark UX patterns. – All of this, while adding Penpot into the picture in an elegant, “quiet” way, received high praises.
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A more product focused highlight was the ease-of-access and familiarity around Penpot. Another “aha!” moment was definitely how the entire design process felt like a full experience, that caters to both designers and developers. (Native design tokens, variants, as well as the ability to customize Penpot through MCP.)
Areas to improve
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It’s important to keep in mind that many attendees were not familiar with Penpot, at all. I think the content needs to evolve around this.
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Doing a hybrid, 3+ hours long event meant a lot of effort. Which is why teaming up with SurGlobal was essential.
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A nice problem to have was the venue ending up overbooked. For a future event in another country, I’d keep in mind the possibility of having more than expected turnout.
Notes for future viewers
- Topics around UX, user psychology, accessibility and tying it up with ROI feels evergreen. A topic you can cover for more years to come.
- Heidi talked about how we can change the narrative and pursue a different type of design that takes user safety more into account. Watch Heidi’s talk (in Spanish)
- And Sara talked about how a bad dark pattern, once implemented, can risk more money than expected. Watch Sara’s talk (in Spanish)
Photos and videos
Chef’s kiss!