Tickets are no longer available for Festival 2024.
- 13:30 - 14:00
Registration (in-person only)
- 14:00 - 17:30
The Power of Storyboarding – How to Present Research Findings and Inspire Action
Neuroscientific research has shown that presenting research as a story activates more brain parts, releasing hormones that stimulate emotions- compared to data alone. People are more likely to remember the details of a story and take action as a result. Don’t we all want that?!
Laura and Hannah both work at the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) and have discovered how valuable storyboards can be for research projects.
The great thing about storyboarding is that it’s accessible to everyone; you don’t need to have the ability to draw or use specialist tools. Laura and Hannah will demonstrate the methods and techniques required so participants can start creating their own storyboards based on their research.
After attending this workshop, you will:
+ Understand what a storyboard is as a UX research method and how to introduce it into your organisation.
+ Use the story arc technique to structure compelling stories and be confident in how to pull out a narrative from UX research.
+ Understand how to create the visual elements of a storyboard by either utilising physical materials or through Microsoft PowerPoint to be able to present digitally.
+ Take away a practical example of a completed storyboard as a reference for future storyboarding.
- 14:00 - 17:30
Decoding your Organizational Culture to Help your Research Strategy Succeed
If you are a seasoned researcher and in the position of forming research-led strategies, there might have been times when you feel stuck. You may have encountered challenges in making impactful breakthroughs in your organization or have trouble getting stakeholder buy-in.
As researchers, we miss the chance to interpret the unique cultural elements that define organizations and their people and then use that inside knowledge to set up research for success. This may be a challenge for all of us, whether in research teams of one, senior researchers, or research leaders.
Soma will empower you to decode your organization’s culture and align your research strategy in its unique organisational home. You’ll leave with frameworks to assess culture and a plan for improving your research programs.
By attending this workshop, you will gain:
+ Guidelines and frameworks: Tools for assessing your organization’s culture
+ Strategic evaluation: Knowledge of how to evaluate your research programs in the context of your distinct organisational culture
+ Actionable plans: An actionable plan for advancing and maturing research, prioritising research programs that work with (and not against) the org culture, and learning strategies for valuable stakeholder alliances to propel your initiatives forward.
- 14:00 - 17:30
Measuring UX – How to Enhance UX Maturity and Secure its Rightful Place in the Spotlight
Many large organisations face the challenge of not recognising the value of their UX teams’ contributions. They allocate credit solely to product or engineering teams and overlook customer-centric metrics.
How can we bridge the gap between UX work and measurable success?
Lucas and Fransisco empower you to initiate a self-sustaining metric program. This program showcases the quality and effectiveness of UX practices. It underscores how it inherently impacts stakeholder satisfaction, enterprise-level ROI, and the overall evolution of UX maturity within the organisation.
By attending this workshop, you will:
+ Go over a comprehensive measurement approach that highlights the significant influence of UX within organisations
+ Understand how to connect UX efforts and measurable ROI clearly.
+ Acquire the tools and knowledge to ensure that UX receives the recognition it deserves as a vital contributor to organisational success.
This newfound perspective will empower participants to enhance UX maturity and secure its rightful place in the spotlight.
- 14:00 - 17:30
If We Build It, Will They Come? Help Teams Predict Demand for Future Product Ideas
Many new products or feature ideas fail. They may catch consumers’ attention but don’t offer enough value, or they may be an innovation, but consumers perceive them as hard to use or are unwilling to pay for them.
In the quest for success, product and marketing teams tend to focus on improving user experience, assuming it guarantees adoption. However, they often overlook critical factors like price perception and adoption costs that have a strong influence on whether customers decide to switch.
This workshop aims to enhance UX researchers’ toolkit, introducing a holistic approach to understanding human decision-making when shopping beyond comparing feature-sets and usability.
Based on an evolved version of Jobs to be Done theory – refined through innovation projects with companies like Netgear, Miro and Candis – this workshop empowers researchers and their stakeholders to determine consumers’ ‘Willingness to Hire’ a new product and decide whether or not they should launch, iterate or abandon the idea.
After attending this workshop, you will:
+ Be familiar with the fundamentals of an advanced version of the Jobs to be Done theory and its mental and data models that reveal the mechanisms that cause consumers to hire or not hire products.
+ Know how to apply the Simulated Selection method to identify and eliminate the risks associated with a new product or feature before building and launching it.
+ Enable stakeholders to make well-informed decisions about building, iterating or abandoning new product ideas or features based on market data and theoretical knowledge of the ‘Hiring Process’ and shopping heuristics.
- 17:30 - 18:00
Drinks
- 08:30 - 09:30
Registration (in-person☕/ online)
- 09:30 - 10:00
Opening day 2 – ‘Stay Curious, Be Bold’
- 10:00 - 10:30
Surviving Research Island with The UXR Hierarchy of Needs
UX Researchers are intelligent, resourceful, and courageous. If anyone can survive Research Island, it’s us! However, not all research teams are equipped with the necessary resources to succeed, and as a result, researchers worldwide are struggling to thrive in low UXR maturity environments that pose significant challenges.
In this talk, Aiden uses basic survival skills as a parable to give practical lessons that every Researcher needs to prosper in even the most hostile environments. From building shelters and assessing your environment to igniting the research signal fire to showcase value, tell stories, and build relationships across organisations, this presentation has all the practical and actionable steps researchers need to take to maintain fruitful research habits.
- 10:30 - 11:00
Breaking Bias in Machine Learning through UX Research
Machine Learning (ML) continues to garner increasing attention, with expectations that ML-powered products and services will increase in the near future. Jacob Nielsen emphasises the necessity for UX researchers to proactively explore the experiences shaped by these technologies.
In this talk, Corinne will share a research approach that begins with understanding human needs to determine machine learning goals, aiming to tackle one of the main challenges of engaging with ML: bias. The unique perspective offered in this session will encourage researchers and designers to shift their roles—from mere users of machine learning technologies to active shapers of these tools.
- 11:00 - 11:30
Break & networking ☕
- 11:30 - 12:00
Exploring AI’s Role in Qualitative Research Processes
How can artificial intelligence assist humans in qualitative research? In which stages of the research process does AI maximise its value? Can dialogic interfaces be used to conduct interviews without human intervention? What would be the quality of the collected data? And in this new context, what role does the UX researcher play?
Listen to the inspiring journey that Luca embarked on together with his innovative team. Through complex iterative experimentation, they evaluated three research approaches (human-based, AI-based, and mixed) in different phases of the research process.
- 12:00 - 12:30
Dispersed, not Disjointed: Sparking and Guiding the Growth of a Remote UX Research Team
As more research teams transition to hybrid, fully remote and distributed ways of working, it’s important to establish strategies for organizing and growing. But how do you craft a UX research vision that is relevant, impactful and valuable to your organization within this scattered context?
Maureen shares the journey of the Xello Insights team as they adapted an existing UX research maturity model to define a compelling team vision and set achievable goals for growth and impact. The talk explores practical tactics for overcoming remote-specific challenges, such as securing buy-in, fostering alignment, and enhancing communication and collaboration.
- 12:30 - 14:00
Lunch, Break & Networking 🍴☕
- 14:00 - 14:30
Understanding Your International Audience for Global Growth
How likely is it that you and fellow stakeholders have inaccurate perceptions of local audiences and markets? What if a lack of understanding of cultural intricacies leads to misguided or flawed business and design decisions?
In her talk, Chui Chui discusses how having a clear, holistic understanding of your global audiences and their context could lead to a better global market launch and growth. She will cover strategies for conducting international cross-cultural research to inform global strategic decisions, emphasising how to strategically frame your global research, prepare and run the research, and package the research findings to inform global strategic decisions.
- 14:30 - 15:00
Parallel Paths: UX Research and Strategic Design in Emerging Professional Fields
UX research is a maturing practice in many organisations. Compared to more institutionalised professions such as police or doctors, UX researchers still work on defining the boundaries of their work domain.
A decade ago, the emergence of strategic design followed a similar path as it became recognised as a core capability in business. In her academic research, corporate anthropologist Natalja highlighted what it means for strategic designers at the design agency Fjord to work in an emergent occupation. In this talk, she will explore parallels between the experiences of Fjord designers and her own experience of being part of the UX community, specifically, working as a UX researcher at Adyen.
Natalja provides a new organisational perspective on UX research and actionable learnings to help the UXR field mature.
- 15:00 - 15:30
Break & Networking ☕
- 15:30 - 16:00
UX Research in High-Stakes Environments: Lessons from a Paramilitary Organisation
Working as a UX researcher within a paramilitary organisation (Toronto Police Service) presents a unique challenge compared to working in other public or private sectors.
There’s the challenge of officers being cautious about intentions and unsure of sharing their opinions. This made the researchers modify their communication strategies and techniques, revise their research methods, and, in some instances, immerse themselves by participating in ride-a-longs and shadowing officers to demonstrate their genuine commitment to understanding and assisting their roles.
But there’s also the challenge of conducting culturally sensitive UX research with residents and visitors of Toronto, one of the world’s most diverse cities.
The knowledge that Julie acquired in this unique context offers valuable insights and practices for UX researchers that can benefit any industry.
- 16:00 - 16:15
Tell Me Why? – What the Backstreet Boys Got Wrong about User Research
What if one of the most commonly recommended and used questions – “Why?” – is not as effective as we believe?
In this talk, Glenn uses psychological science to challenge the conventional wisdom surrounding the widely used “Why?” question in qualitative research. He will equip you with tangible alternatives that elicit more authentic and insightful responses.
- 16:15 - 16:30
The Power of Music in UX Research
How can we prioritise the comfort and well-being of participants when designing our research or workshop? Dive into the transformative potential of music in UX research with Diana.
- 16:30 - 16:45
Closing ‘Stay Curious, Be Bold’
- 16:45 - 17:30
Drinks (In-person)
- 16:45 - 17:15
Online Networking Session
- 18:00 - 22:00
UXinsight by Night ✨ – dinner activity – supported by Condens (limited spots)
Seize the opportunity to spend more time with your like-minded peers and UXR experts in addition to the conference. Get to know each other informally during a casual get-together, including dinner 😋.
The in-person ticket includes a ticket to UXinsight by Night, but it is limited. After buying the in-person conference ticket, reserve your spot. The deadline to register is April 5, 2024, at noon (12:00 CEST).
- 09:00 - 09:30
Registration (in-person☕/ online)
- 09:30 - 10:00
Opening day 3 – ‘Stay Curious, Be Bold’
- 10:00 - 10:30
Prego! A Board Game for Early Product Concept Validation
Based on the method of output-driven validation, the Canon Production Printing UX team created a research tool that helps identify the aspects of a product that are important to the customer: a board game named Prego.
Playing the game with customers provides valuable insights into their considerations and trade-offs. In addition, Andrea will explain that creating the game options within the product development team is as essential as the validation sessions themselves, as it delivers a sharper and more aligned view of the product.
Andrea’s story will inspire the UX research community by showing how it empowers cross-functional collaboration and enables non-designers in a research team to have meaningful customer conversations.
- 10:30 - 11:00
Balancing Progress and Responsibility: AI in UX Research
According to the State of User Research 2023, 50% of user researchers hesitate to use AI as they have a negative sentiment towards it. How about you?
Annegret will share practical ways to integrate AI into UX Research that you can apply right after in your own research endeavours. She invites us to break free from the limitations of traditional research methods while at the same time addressing critical concerns like sustainability, inclusion, privacy, and well-being.
- 11:00 - 11:30
Break & networking ☕
- 11:30 - 12:00
Adapting Digital Solutions to Optimise Use in Low-resource Settings
Government and public organisations put much effort and investment into digitising public service systems. But what if digital system uptake differs from what organisations expect?
In low-resource settings, there are significant barriers to using digital to be considered, like limited access to digital infrastructure and low digital skills.
Akinyi based her talk on a multi-million investment project in Ethiopia’s health sector. She will share practical strategies to inspire UX professionals to tailor digital innovations for low-resource settings, increasing the likelihood of successful innovation adoption.
- 12:00 - 12:30
Using Research Skills to Take the Lead and Pitch to the CEO
At UXinsight Festival 2023, Vidhika Bansal presented ‘How your Research Skills can Double as Leadership Superpowers’. Youp and Anna took Vidhika’s lessons at heart and returned this year to share their story.
They present a case study of how they used UX skills to take the lead in their organisation and managed to pitch UX work to the CEO. They reflect on their journey, which was full of ups and downs, doubt and insecurity, and celebrate successes.
Youp and Anna will encourage you to proactively seek strategic opportunities rather than waiting for such work to come your way.
- 12:30 - 14:00
Lunch, Break & Networking 🍴☕
- 14:00 - 14:30
Research <3 Data: Building Stronger Alliances with Data Analytics
This talk addresses the evolving landscape of UX research in the era of Big Data, emphasizing the need to integrate human insights with data analytics for more dynamic digital product development.
Jes and Ana share their experiences from a global financial organization, highlighting the challenges of language and interpretation in merging UX research and data. They advocate for researchers to become translators, helping to drive stronger hypotheses, getting at the biggest “whys”, and ushering the research practice into the future.
- 14:30 - 15:00
Navigating the Horizon: IKEA’s Research Blueprint
With an increased focus on data, new opportunities brought by AI and continuous discovery practices, clarifying and sharpening our value as UX researchers has become more relevant than ever.
In this talk, Marie and Nidhi will share how the Experience Design Research team at IKEA has approached this sensemaking process which resulted in the ‘Research Blueprint’. Together they will share this Research Blueprint and emerging initiatives that are helping develop the function and impact of UX research at IKEA.
- 15:00 - 15:30
Break & Networking ☕
- 15:30 - 15:45
Applying UX Research Principles to Enhance Confidence for Personal Growth
As UX researchers, we deal with sensitive situations, receive feedback gracefully, maintain a non-judgmental approach, and ensure that users feel heard and understood. However, we often forget to treat ourselves and those around us with the same care as our users.
Krutika, who has battled impostor syndrome and anxiety, shares a personal journey of aligning therapeutic practices with professional principles. She will share a straightforward framework that adapts key UX research questions to personal growth.
- 15:45 - 16:00
Can Researchers Have a Personal Style?
To HR recruiters, we stand out by showing experience in a wide range of methodologies and tools; in our organisations, we strive to be the less-biased voice in and help design smooth experiences with our insights; we try to tick all the boxes. No surprise we end up with the same LinkedIn bios and with impostor syndrome.
What if we shift the narrative from ticking boxes to embracing differences and leveraging weaknesses? Can a ‘complementary’ perspective replace competition in research?
Join Daniela as she shares insights from a personal journey—transitioning across roles from design consultancy to product research, facing layoffs, starting anew, and becoming a manager. Discover how these experiences, almost accidentally, boosted confidence, garnered recognition, and helped her better understand the space we take as researchers.
It’s time to explore the untapped potential of our uniqueness in the field!
- 16:00 - 16:30
From Information to Innovation: How Researchers Help Build Iconic Companies
More urgently than ever, companies need to innovate. From inspiring the organisation around a shared vision, to building competitive advantage and securing enduring success, innovation is the pulse of a perennial company. It’s also top of mind for your senior stakeholders: 82% of leaders say a company will become extinct within five years if it fails to innovate.
In this talk, Emma will explore how an organisation’s knowledge is its portal to innovation… but this won’t be the usual discussion of insight repositories or research ops. We’ll examine how knowledge management is as much about people as it is about insights, and how UX Researchers play a fundamental role in both knowledge creation and curation. Join us as we discuss how researchers can transform curiosity into bold innovation.
- 16:30 - 16:45
Closing ‘Stay Curious, Be Bold’
- 16:45 - 17:45
Drinks (In-person)
- 16:45 - 17:15
Online Networking Session
All times CEST