WELCOME TO THE FUTURE OF USER-FOCUSED SOFTWARE 

Gérard Métrailler has made Ottawa his home since moving from Europe in 2006. Today he is Corel Corporation’s Executive Vice President of Global Products, where he is responsible for developing and maintaining worldwide product strategy, management, and marketing across major software brands such as CorelDRAW, MindManager, Parallels, Clearslide, and WinZip.

The world of work has never moved as quickly as it does now. Compelled to be more productive from virtually anywhere, it’s easy to be dazzled by the latest app or service that promises to make us smarter and more connected.

Things may be changing rapidly, but technology for its own sake will not unlock the tremendous benefits we need. No matter the role – creative designer, project manager, sales executive, or marketing professional – modern knowledge workers rely on constant product innovation to achieve more meaningful results. And as all of us modern knowledge workers can attest, we need these results faster than ever before.

Too often, claims of innovation are based on the ‘cool factor’ of the technology. This industry is infamous for building things simply because it’s possible, not necessarily because it’s needed. As the proponent of great design, Donald A. Norman said in his classic book, The Invisible Computer, “I don’t want to use a computer, I want to accomplish something.

I want to do something meaningful to me.” This idea is now more true than ever. If we want to unlock real value, we can never lose focus on what matters to the user. Deep understanding paired with continuous innovation are the only way to make sure we achieve it.

This relentless process keeps us striving for the next technology leap to push us ahead. And without question, it’s here today in the form of Artificial Intelligence. With the latest AI advances, we now have the opportunity to enhance the capabilities and productivity of human beings more significantly than ever. When the person and their needs, goals, and aspirations serve as the north star of our application design, AI delivers the power we need to create the next generation of interfaces and tools.

Thanks to AI, we can now develop apps that enable the complexity of technology to fade away, putting the focus on the user and their task at hand. Great user experience designers and software developers now have the ability to create applications that completely change the entire software user experience.

As you’ll see in the pages of this beautiful book, Ottawa is rich with the talent, skill, and drive to make the next generation of technology a reality. Proud to be in the nation’s capital for more than three decades, our company is excited to be leading the way with user-focused, AI-powered software that’s reshaping the way we work, connect, and collaborate.