Book now to take part in our UX Community Day in September
Building on the success of UX24, an in-person conference organised last year in collaboration with UCISA, we’ve now confirmed an exciting programme of speakers for a new hybrid event happening on Thursday 11 September. Tickets are available now, free for University staff as part of our institutional UCISA membership.
In my role co-chairing the UCISA UX Group, I am keen to identify opportunities for people who practice UX and related disciplines such as user experience design, user research, content design, interaction design and service design to come together, recognising the benefits this can bring both for building supportive networks as well as the chance to put heads together to address shared challenges. This was the motivation behind UCISA UX24, a one-day conference held in Manchester in September 2024. This year, we’re experimenting with a new hybrid format aimed at making the event more open and accessible to all by being free-of-charge to attend.
Read more about the UCISA UX Group:
Read about UCISA UX24 in my blog post from last year:
Eighty UX HE professionals sharing, collaborating and ideating: The magic of UCISA UX24
What’s on the schedule for the UX Community Day?
In planning this event, we were fortunate to have received a large number of varied submissions in response to our call-for-speakers. As a result, we’re proud to have lined up a schedule with the opportunity to hear from a range of speakers from different institutions, in a range of roles. Taking feedback from last year, we’ve included a mix of case-studies as well as ‘How-to’ sessions to guide you through practical tips for implementing UX techniques and approaches. We’re also thrilled to have some authors and celebrities from the UX world presenting too, generously sharing their wisdom and expertise.
Here’s what’s planned for the day:
09:45-09:50: Mingle and Chat
09:50-10:00: Welcome and Introduction – Emma Horrell, UCISA UX Group co-Chair
10:00-10:30: How We’ve Approached Staff Training to Improve Digital Content – Nick Daniels, Senior Content Designer, Katie Spearman, Web Content Design Assistant and Mel Batcharj, Web Content Design Assistant, University of Edinburgh
10:30-11:00: Redefining UX: How to Impact the Entire Customer Experience – Paul Boag, founder of Boagworld
11:00-11:30: Using AI In Your UX Work: My Journey From Newbie to Basic Competence in 3 months – Naomi Bain, Usability Analyst and Designer, Birkbeck, University of London
11:30-11:40: Break
11:40-12:10: Case study: Oxford Admission Test System Design. Advocating UX Design Through a Real Project and Evolving the UX Practice with Project Teams – Nanami Nakamura, Lead Designer, University of Oxford
12:10-12:40: Collaborative Usability Test Reviews: Bringing Your Team Closer to Your Users – Neil Allison, Head of Prospective Student Web, University of Edinburgh
12:40-13:20: Lunch
13:20-13:50: Making Employability Visible: Embedding Employability into the Applicant Journey – Chloe Smith, Product Manager, University of Southampton
13:50-14:20: How Does It End? Designing Better Endings in the University Experience – Joe Macleod, founder of AndEnd
14:20-14:30: Break
14:30-15:00: “Everything I need”: How Good Usability Supports Student Experience and University Strategy- Jenny Hill, UX Designer and Cherry Doyle, Product Owner, University of Birmingham
15:00-15:40: Always Be Creating Clarity: Daily Habits for Strategic Storytellers – Ben Sauer, Author, Speaker, Leader: teaching people the art of strategic storytelling
15:40: Closing Remarks – Emma Horrell, UCISA UX Group co-Chair
15:45: End of Day
How does the hybrid format work?
In our new hybrid format, we were keen to keep the feel of being in a room together while making our event available to everyone. For that reason, the event will be primarily virtual, run on a widely familiar platform: Microsoft Teams but with the option to join the sessions in different hubs across the UK.
Hubs are available at: Birkbeck, University of London, University of Edinburgh, University of Oxford, University of Nottingham and Leeds Trinity University. In Edinburgh, the hub will take place in Argyle House in the meeting rooms on floor E.
Where do I sign up to attend?
You can sign up to attend through the UCISA events portal:
If you would like to attend online, you don’t need to do anything else, the link to join the Microsoft Teams event will be emailed to you once you have signed up, to be accessed on the day.
If you would like to attend in-person, at one of the hubs, then there is a separate form to fill in, to specify which hub you would like to attend. Spaces at each hub are limited, so please be sure to secure your spot early to avoid disappointment.
Fill in this form to attend in-person at one of the local hubs
