Events

Upcoming

• UXmas Party 2024!

  17 December, 2024

• UX Brighton 2024: UX and AI

  01 November, 2024

Past

• Show & Tell 29

  09 January, 2024

  The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Please bring drinks and snacks to share 🍪🍺 Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The highlight of my month! —Fiona MacNeill I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Email Annie-Marie Page, [email protected]

• UXmas Party 2023!

  12 December, 2023

  Let’s have a very merry and very UX-y Christmas knees-up extravaganza 🎄 ‘Tis the season to celebrate and connect with like-minded UX professionals in our vibrant community. The UX Brighton UXmas Party is your opportunity to come together with fellow UXers, share experiences, and spread the holiday cheer. Embrace the spirit of the season while networking, learning, and having a jolly good time. Don’t miss this chance to brighten up your holiday season with the best of UX in Brighton! Santa hats and Christmas jumpers are optional ;) 🎟️ Limited tickets available.

• 2023 Conference ★ UX & Innovation

  03 November, 2023

• Design decisions & discovery development

  10 October, 2023

  Do you want to… record and recall your design decisions more efficiently? improve your discovery process? Join us on Tuesday 10 October for an evening of insightful talks by industry experts. Learn about the significance of recording design choices and commemorating project milestones. Gain insights into effective methods and tools for decision recall. Delve into the realm of design discoveries and gain practical strategies for navigating challenges. And, leave with actionable insights to elevate your discovery process. Designing for Humanity: A UX Journey in Humanitarian Aid – Olena Bulygina This is a talk about applied design. We will venture to the land of humanitarian aid and follow a story of applying a design skill set to a set of challenges, such as lack of equipment, lack of medical supplies, in times of war. We will look together at processes, challenges and the successes and failures that one might experience when the only option is to apply all skills to a very complex subject matter. We will witness bottom up changes in the healthcare system that start with individual impact: the impact of ideas. It is also a story about systems, and how we implement change in them, omitting the notion of centralised control. About Olena Olena Bulygina is a researcher, designer, and the сo-founder of Cosmic Velocity. She has a background in academic Human-Computer Interaction, consulting, visual arts, and electronic engineering. Olena is a serial founder having run her own tech startup and more recently by leading design for Zeilen Van Vrijheid, a non-profit that has shipped over 160 ambulances to her native country of Ukraine. Olena’s passion is unpicking complexity and she combines this with deep ethnographic research skills to help organisations solve systemic problems. Murder on the dancefloor: The death of disco – Jon Roobottom Discoveries are crucial to a designer’s toolkit, but why do they sometimes feel like a slog? Dive into the ins and outs of the discovery process, learn to navigate everyday challenges, and pick up practical strategies to guide your teams toward effective results. About Jon Jon is a Principal Designer at Made Tech, overseeing user-centred work for clients like GDS, GCHQ, Home Office and DLUHC. Before his life as a service designer in the public sector, Jon built and ran product design teams for SaaS startups. Jon lives in Sunny Littlehampton—home to Britain’s longest bench—with his wife and two kids. Time team: Documenting decisions and marking milestones – Paul Robert Lloyd Exercise regularly; eat plenty of vegetables; floss your teeth. Tasks that feel like chores are often the most beneficial in the long run. The same is true of writing documentation. Documenting decisions, recording design iterations and explaining commonly used terminology means everyone on a team can have a shared understanding of a product’s design and evolution. Making this information public can increase accountability and build trust. Deliberately building institutional memory can prevent mistakes being repeated and lessons needing to be learnt over and over again. In this talk, we’ll look at how to record and recall design decisions and consider the role designers play in cultivating a fun yet inclusive culture within a team, and the potential pitfalls to avoid when doing so. About Paul Paul is an interaction designer and web developer with 20 years of experience gleaned from working at fledgling start-ups, boutique design agencies and large in-house design teams. Today he works with public sector organisations, combining his dedication to detail with a pragmatic approach to delivery to help teams build brilliant digital services for citizens and civil servants. Away from all that, and when not whiling away his time on various side projects, Paul enjoys long train journeys to destinations with enough interesting architecture to blog about. Drinks and pizza provided. 🍕🥤 🎟️ Student discount tickets available. Support With thanks to Projects for sponsoring the venue.

• Show & Tell 28

  12 September, 2023

  The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Drinks and snacks provided. 🥤🍕 Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The highlight of my month! —Fiona MacNeill I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Email Annie-Marie Page, [email protected]

• Mentorship Speed Matching

  08 August, 2023

  Want to be part of UX Brighton’s next Mentorship Programme? Join us for an evening of Mentorship Speed Matching. Whether you’re a UXer of many years standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the community. You can choose to be a mentor or mentee or you can sign up to be both!  How does mentorship speed matching work? Get your ticket Attend the Speed Matching evening with a goal in mind that you would like to achieve from working with a mentor or mentee.  You’ll chat with other ambitious uxer’s looking to pair up, in true speed-matching style. It’s useful to have a specific question in mind related to your goal but also think about what you can offer as a mentor. Rate your connections on your speed-matching scorecard and hand it in. After the event, our matching team will study your scorecards and endeavour to pair everyone up.* We’ll be in touch with what we hope will be your perfect mentorship match. What happends after I’ve been paired up? Commit to meeting with your mentor and/or mentee for at least one hour per month (virtually or face-to-face) until April 2024. You could use this time to work towards your goal.  Tickets include drinks and pizza. 🍕🥤 *We will do our best to ensure everyone gets a match but we can’t make any promises.

• Summer Social & Author Meet-and-Greet

  11 July, 2023

  Join us at our Summer Social with Ben Sauer, author of Death by Screens, Dave Harley, author of Mindfulness in a Digital World and Marianna Orbist, author of Multisensory Experiences. Take the opportunity to meet Ben, Dave and Marianna and learn more about their new books. If you’re lucky, you may even win a signed copy. During the meet and greet, you’ll have the opportunity to learn more about their process, ask questions and gain invaluable insights that can help take your own UX skills to the next level. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, we’ll have a table inside where we can still enjoy drinks and catch up with one another. Come ready to meet new people, share ideas and enjoy a relaxing evening in good company. 🌞 Ben Sauer – Death by Screens: how to present high-stakes digital design work and live to tell the tale Ben Sauer is a product and design leader, formerly of Babylon Health and Clearleft. He’s worked with organisations like the BBC, Pearson, Tesco, and TCS to raise their product game. He’s been speaking and training people all around the world, with a focus on voice UI for several years; particularly in how to rapidly design conversational experiences. Teams at Amazon and the BBC use his methods, and through O’Reilly, he’s trained folks at NASA. He’s also spent many hours at home removing the ridiculous things that his kids have added to Alexa’s shopping list. Presenting your design work? Stop boring stakeholders with screen after screen after screen… tell them a story instead! The hardest thing to explain about a design, is the elusive ‘why?’ Why is it like that? It’s tough to communicate your design decisions, especially when everyone has an opinion about design. The remedy to this problem isn’t what you say about the design, it’s the story you tell about it. It’s more important than the design itself. Death by Screens makes it simple to craft a story about your design with an easy-to-follow process and a template presentation structure. You don’t need to be a rockstar presenter, you just need to get your story straight. You already know how to design a great looking presentation - Death by Screens covers the not-so-obvious topics: what to say, what to show, in what order, and how to talk about it with confidence. Dave Harley – Mindfulness in a Digital World Dave Harley is an enthusiastic scholar specialising in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Cyberpsychology, keenly dissecting the complexities of digital life within the context of aging. His research spans across various digital platforms - online communities, social media, video games, and mobile phones, mainly focusing on the technological adoption by older adults. He’s currently exploring their vulnerability to online scams. Intriguingly he investigates our psychological relationship with technology, evaluating how daily digital interactions shape our worldview. Currently, he’s researching smartphone dependency and the concept of ‘digital mindfulness’. With a rich background in HCI and user experience, he emphasizes the role of personal subjectivity and social context in technology usage. He’s a proud PhD holder from the University of Sussex, nurturing interests in supervising projects encompassing digital technology’s impact on everyday life, older people’s interaction with technology, intergenerational digital contact, digital wellbeing, and digital mindfulness. “Digital Dependencies: A Mindful Perspective” delves into how digital dependencies can disrupt attention and deteriorate attentional control, resulting in stressful and mindless engagements with digital technology. Through qualitative interviews with mindfulness program teachers and students, the book dissects the challenges and opportunities in harmonizing digital interactions with mindful practice. A phenomenological analysis of participants’ digital experiences reveals three different imperatives—digital capabilities, hyper-reality, and algorithms—that can spur unconscious forms of interaction and promote a deviation of attentional control away from the present moment. It concludes by dissecting the implications of these extra-conscious imperatives for understanding digital addiction. Additionally, the book offers guidelines for a digital approach to mindfulness practice that can foster beneficial relationships with digital technology in the future. Marianna Orbist – Multisensory Experiences: Where the senses meet technology Marianna Obrist is Professor of Multisensory Interfaces at UCL (University College London), Department of Computer Science and Deputy Director (Digital Health) for the UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering. Her research ambition is to establish touch, taste, and smell as interaction modalities in human-computer interaction (HCI), spanning a range of application scenarios, from immersive VR experiences to automotive, and health/wellbeing uses. Before joining UCL, Marianna was Professor of Multisensory Experiences at the School of Engineering and Informatics at the University of Sussex, and Marie Curie Fellow at Newcastle University. Marianna is co-founder of OWidgets LTD, a University spin-out that is developing novel digital smell technology. The company’s smell delivery device has been exhibited twice at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, 2019 and 2020. She is a Visiting Professor at the Material Science Research Centre at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London and was a Visiting Professor at the HCI Engineering Group at MIT CSAIL in summer 2019. Her ongoing research projects include an ERC PoC on digital smell training, EU FET on touchless interfaces for social interaction, and a UKRI centre on textiles circularity. She published over 100 articles, including high impact journals like Nature Scientific Report, and leading HCI journals like ToCHI, IJHCS, and the premier HCI conferences ACM CHI, UIST. An overview of her work was recently published in the popular science book ‘Multisensory Experiences: where the senses meet technology’ by Oxford University Press. Most of our everyday life experiences are multisensory in nature, i.e. they consist of what we see, hear, feel, taste, smell, and much more. Almost any experience, such as eating a meal or going to the cinema, involves a magnificent sensory world. In recent years, many of these experiences have been increasingly transformed through technological advancements such as multisensory devices and intelligent systems. This book takes the reader on a journey that begins with the fundamentals of multisensory experiences, moves through the relationship between the senses and technology, and finishes by considering what the future of those experiences may look like, and our responsibility in it. The book seeks to empower the reader to shape his or her own and other people’s experiences by considering the multisensory worlds in which we live. This book is a powerful and personal story about the authors’ passion for, and viewpoint on, multisensory experiences.

• Impact mapping: the Service Designer’s secret weapon

  13 June, 2023

  ‘Impact’ has become a ubiquitous term that is hard to define and hard to measure. Join cxpartners in this workshop where we’ll be working through the steps of developing an impact map, as both a process and a tool for setting clear intent around the impact we want to achieve in our projects, and mapping the journey for getting there. Impact maps are extremely effective for gathering consensus on our longer term objectives, and challenging our assumptions around how we think positive change happens as a result of the services we deliver. In the session itself, participants will be developing their own personal impact maps, and will leave equipped with the tools to apply the same process in their work contexts. Drinks and snacks provided. ☕🍕 Photos for Impact mapping: the Service Designer’s secret weapon (Flickr) by Christian Dela Cruz Workshop Leaders Nicola Pritchard, Principal Service Designer at cxpartners Nicola is a Principal Service Designer with 12 years of experience in a range of roles. She brings experience in systems thinking and qualitative research practices that centre on achieving positive social and environmental impact. She has led research projects for a range of non-profit and public sector organisations including the NHS, UK Export Finance, Bucks Council, Women’s Aid, Nationwide Foundation, the British Red Cross, Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP), STEM Learning, MS Society Canada and the National Lottery Community Fund. Nicola is passionate about making things that work for people, that are sustainable, and doing the critical groundwork through meaningful and proportionate research. Hannah Whiteley, Principal UX Consultant at cxpartners Hannah has over 15 years of experience in user experience and service design, working for companies like lastminute.com, Premier Inn and Royal Mail, as well as Google, SSE, NHS, NatWest and Hertz as a consultant. She helps clients deeply understand users and their needs, in order to deliver amazing products and services. For the last 2 years Hannah has been specialising in employee experience, looking at the services employers provide to their employees that enable them to be productive and happy in their workplace. Although she has a wide range of experience across sectors, she is always striving to learn more. Every company has its own unique challenges, and as user needs and the tech around us evolve, she ensures that solutions are driven by real insights.

• Show & Tell 27

  09 May, 2023

  The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Drinks and snacks provided. 🍺🍕 Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The highlight of my month! —Fiona MacNeill I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Email Annie-Marie Page, [email protected]

• Mentorship Closing Party

  11 April, 2023

  Photos from the Mentorship Closing Party We’re delighted to celebrate the end of UX Brighton’s first Mentorship Programme. Over the past 9 months, we’ve seen tremendous growth and development among our mentorship pairs. We’re proud to have played a role in facilitating these meaningful connections and learning experiences. Join us in raising a glass to our very first mentees and mentors. Whether you’re a mentee, mentor, or considering joining our next mentorship programme 🥂 Agenda Networking Micro talks Social Micro talks Carl and Kate’s Story – Mentoring can be strangely serendipitous! Carl & Kate will talk about how they met at a pivotal point and how mentoring takes its own path. Carl Smith, Digital Project Manager, Rittman Mead Carl Smith is a Digital Project Manager and Agile practitioner. Carl has worked as a Graphic Designer, Tech support, Quality assurance, Business development, Product owner and Scrum master. He has worked almost exclusively for Fujifilm over last 20 years and produced globally recognisable products for likes of Fujifilm, Canon and Xerox and even won an IF design award for his collaboration with Canon on the Labelstream 4000 printing press. His experience has led to consultancy in digital printing across the world including USA, Europe, Asia and south America. COVID 19 became a pivotal point for Carl when redundancies forced a career rethink forcing the transfer of skills from server and IoT based Software to Web. An opportunity with Ricardo Energy & Environment to leading 25 person dev team on Agile transformation from Prince II to Agile. Resulting in 3 Agile teams, UX and DevOps team.  Whilst at Ricardo and discovering that UX tied together many previous skills over the previous 25 years Design & Systems thinking, Business Analysis, Data Analysis, Ethics, sustainability and Agile. In 2022 Carl took a leap of faith moving with family from Oxford to Brighton to undergo a lifestyle Change. This move supported by his successful Airbnb business in Hove. Carl became aware of UX Brighton and Silicon Brighton to conduct research and gain focus of on business requirements of many Brighton based agencies who have strong UX focus, where he took up the Mentee scheme. Carl recently gained a new position as Senior technical project manager at Agency Rittman Mead based in Central Brighton. Kate Grant, Senior UX and Content Consultant, cxpartners Kate Grant, creative content design consultant has 20 years of experience. In content design and editorial management. Kate held senior roles at the Disability Rights, Equalities and Human Rights Commission. They have extensive experience of writing, designing and producing accessible and inclusive information. Across a range of formats and channels. Specialising in converting information for people with different lived experiences, including disabled and neurodiverse audiences. Kate has discovered that adapting their skills into a UX environment as both strategic content designer and UX researcher is an ideal pairing. Relevant experience NHS - designing an inclusive form-based mental health care and choices document Women’s Aid - developing chat scripts for women who experience domestic abuse PHE Talk to Frank - content design for new website including key content around harm reduction and drug information for young people in line with the new government drug strategy. My experience being a mentee – Heidi Swigon, Content Director & Co-Founder, Purmön In her talk, Heidi shares her experiences of being mentored by Kate Grant. Although working in content (UX-adjacent) roles for over a decade, Heidi often found herself as the sole practitioner with her skillset in a team. The UX Brighton Mentorship Programme offered her a chance to connect with another content practitioner. Kate has helped Heidi understand her skills in relation to the wiser industry, showing that mentoring can be beneficial at any stage in your career. Heidi Swigon is Content Director and Co-Founder of Purmön, a marketing agency specialising in branding and creative strategy. As a practitioner, Heid creates, organises and manages user-centric content, as well as supporting clients with the more operational side of marketing. Over the course of her career, she has written copy for national and global brands, worked on large site migration projects, and defined content strategies for a broad range of businesses. Are you ready to mentor? – Sharon Webster, Senior UX Consultant, cxpartners  Slides for Are you ready to mentor? (SlideShare) Sharon Webster is a Senior UX Consultant at cxpartners, where she enjoys the breadth of projects. She particularly loves getting to grips with problems through research. Sharon also has a thing for sorting out content mess, and finds a great information architecture very satisfying. Her first taste of working with UX came when a colleague asked her to take notes during a rather simplistic usability study. Since then she’s developed her research skills, with accessibility and inclusivity at the forefront to make things better for more people.  Sharon will debunk some common myths about what you need, to be a mentor. She’ll draw on her experiences mentoring to talk about how she’s found it, and what she’s gained by being a mentor.  Support Thank you cxpartners for sponsoring UX Brighton’s first mentorship programme. We’d also like to thank Silicon Brighton, the community-led initiative supporting digital growth in the South East.

• Show & Tell 26

  14 March, 2023

  The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The highlight of my month! —Fiona MacNeill I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Email Annie-Marie Page, [email protected]

• Mentorship Check-in

  10 January, 2023

  This January UX Brighton’s mentors and mentees are meeting to reflect on the mentorship programme so far. Learn from others to see what you can implement into your mentorship experience. Drinks and snacks provided. 🍺🍕 Agenda Networking Talk Facilitated group session Pub Talk: Making the most of Mentoring – Luke Hay Slides for Making the Most of Mentoring (SlideShare) Luke Hay is a senior UX researcher at Clearleft, who’s worked with clients of all shapes and sizes over his 20 year career. Luke has facilitated various forms of user research with people from different backgrounds – from teenagers to pensioners, dress-makers to body builders over the course of a few hundred user research sessions. As well as getting stuck into research Luke also runs training in UX and analytics. He has spoken at conferences and events on a variety of UX related topics and in 2018 he wrote a book about UX and Analytics, which is actually more exciting than it sounds, apparently. Luke’s going to be sharing his experiences of mentoring over the years. He has mentored, and managed, several people and was also heavily involved in running the Brighton Internship Programme during his time at Wired Sussex. He’ll be focusing on his experience of the UX Brighton mentoring programme so far, which will include tips for mentors and mentees to help them get the most from their time together. Facilitated group session Learn from the speakers We’ll hear from a few mentors and mentees who will be speaking about their mentorship experience and how you can make the most of your time with your mentor and/or mentee. Learn from each other After the talks, we’ll be holding a facilitated group session where you can share your experiences and hear from your peers about how their mentorship relationship is going. This is an opportunity to tell us what you’ve achieved and what challenges have arisen. Or maybe you have a burning question to ask that is mentorship or UX related. This is the place to ask the community and get answers. Give UX Brighton feedback Take part in the facilitated group session to give us feedback so we can make the next mentorship program even better. Support Thank you cxpartners for sponsoring UX Brighton’s first mentorship programme. We’d also like to thank Silicon Brighton, the community-led initiative supporting digital growth in the South East.

• Christmas party 2022

  13 December, 2022

  Join us for a drink and a mince pie on the second Tuesday of December to celebrate this festive period. 🎄 See you at 7pm at the The Earth & Stars, Brighton.

• UX Brighton Social

  11 October, 2022

  We’ll be meeting with the community on the second Tuesday of October to network and chat about UX over a drink. This is the perfect time to ask your peers questions, make meaningful connections and share your experience. See you at 7 pm at the North Laine Brewhouse Brighton.

• Mentorship Meetup

  13 September, 2022

  Whether you’re a mentor, mentee or just want to chat with the UX community about mentorship, join us at the Lord Nelson Inn on Tuesday 13th September at 7 pm. Use this time to network, have a drink, meet new people, learn more about mentorship and find out about our closing party at the end of the program! Find us on the top deck at the Lord Nelson Inn! 🏴‍☠️

• UX Mentor/ee Speed Matching

  09 August, 2022

  Join us for an evening of mentor/ee speed matching. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the community. You can choose to be a mentor or mentee or you can sign up to be both! How does Mentorship Speed Matching work? Get your ticket Attend the Speed Matching evening with a goal in mind that you would like to achieve from working with a mentor/ee by April 2023. You’ll have 5-minute chats, in true speed matching style, with other ambitious UXers wanting to pair up. You could have a specific question in mind related to your goal but also think about what you can offer as a mentor! Rate your connections on your speed matching score card and hand it in. After the event, our matching team will study your score cards and endeavor to pair everyone up.* We’ll be in touch with what we hope will be your perfect mentor/ee match. What happens after I’ve been paired up? Commit to meeting with your mentor/ee for at least one hour per month (virtually or face to face) until April 2023. You could use this time to work towards your goal! Get support and advice at mentor and mentee drop-ins. Join the community in April at the end of program celebration. 🎉 Tickets are £10 and include pizza & beer. 🍕🍺 *We will do our best to ensure everyone gets a match but we can’t make any promises.

• Mentorship Launch

  12 July, 2022

  Are you an ambitious UXer who wants to improve your confidence, skills and career?  The UX Brighton mentorship program has been created to support and inspire you on your journey. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the community. What the event is for The Mentorship Launch is the first in a series of events as part of the UX Brighton mentorship program. Use this event to get inspired and gain clarity on what you want to achieve from your mentor/ee relationship. Hear from a group of speakers with mentorship hints and tips to prepare you to get the most out of the program. Attend the launch to meet other UXers broadening their horizons. This is where you can get ready for pairing up with your new mentor/ee at the next UX Brighton mentorship evening in August at the speed-matching event. Starting your journey, common ground and self-care – Jessica Squires, Lead User Experience Architect Slides: Starting your journey, common ground and self-care Jessica is a Lead UX Architect for a large media organisation. Day to day she oversees projects, gets hands-on with wireframes (and more), collaborates with her talented UX team, and mentors people inside and outside of her work. She truly enjoys mentoring, not only does she get to meet lots of wonderful people, she helps them to expand on their current knowledge, or maybe set them on a path to switch careers but she’s improved her UX practice and skillset along the way. She will talk about how you can get into mentoring, empowerment, setting boundaries and more… Holy Shift! Learnings in UX Research over the years – Shrut Kirti Saksena, Senior Experience Researcher at Adobe Slides: Holy Shift! Learnings in UX Research over the years Shrut is a Cognitive Scientist and a UX Researcher with 6 years of combined experience in academic & product research. Currently, she is a Sr. Experience Researcher for Adobe’s Creative Cloud & Emerging Products team, shaping and driving the next evolution of the Creative Cloud(CC) suite of products. In the past, she has founded & led the UX Research operations @Lollypop Design Studio(Bangalore), where she set up the UX Research function from scratch & mentored a team of UX Researchers on 30+ exploratory, evaluative UX research projects across diverse domains. Her research expertise lies at the intersection of emerging technologies, global UX Research & operations, and cognition and behavioral sciences. She has been awarded numerous design awards such as A’design Award, Interface Red Dot Award to name a few. She is an inclusion & accessibility enthusiast, and mentors aspiring UX professionals, and emerging UX research teams @ADPList.org. In a recent survey looking at 100 Experience Researcher job postings in the US in 2021, it was found that collaboration (84%) and business acumen(scoping, translating business requirements, & influencing product strategy) were the most sought-after requirements, other than the expected requirements of designing and conducting research studies (84%) for a UX Researcher. Also, it is no secret that there is now more demand for user insights than there are UX researchers in the industry. Shrut’s talk highlights the emerging demands of the industry from a UX Research role, elucidates why a change in perspective of mentorship & learning is required to meet these demands & how one could benefit from this perspective shift to grow into an experienced researcher: amplifying the impact of UX research and leveraging research soft-skills of collaboration, communication, connection, and influence to empower product teams & stakeholders. Building effective mentoring relationships – Lewis Nyman, UX, Design & Research Freelancer Slides: Building effective mentoring relationships Lewis Nyman is a UK senior public sector contractor in UX, Research, and Service Design. He’s worked with the NHS, The Cabinet Office, GDS, hackney Council, and The Crown Prosecution Service.  He’s also the founder of electric campervan hire company Wild Drives. He’s been a UX mentor at Springboard for 2 years. A mentoring relationship is beneficial for both sides, Lewis is going to be presenting research that outlines how to create an effective mentoring relationship. Growing your career with (or without) a mentor – Peter Winchester, Head of Design at Madgex Slides: Growing your career with (or without) a mentor Peter is a designer and design leader with over 12 years of experience. He’s worked for a SaaS startup, a large marketing agency, and for corporates in travel and finance. During that time he’s designed products for MoreThan, Nationwide, Argos, Durex, Philips and Adidas. He’s now head of Design at Madgex, a career technology company in Brighton. Working with a mentor is a great way to help move your career forward. But not everyone will find the right person, at the right time. Peter’s going to talk about some potential alternative ways you can continue to progress your career. Support This event is supported by Silicon Brighton Any questions? Send Annie-Marie Page a message on the UX Brighton Slack, or email [email protected]

• Show & Tell 25

  14 June, 2022

  Video call: meet.google.com/rpt-gybq-xxn The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The highlight of my month! —Fiona MacNeill I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Organiser Organised by Jo Dimbleby

• Show & Tell 24

  10 May, 2022

  The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The highlight of my month! —Fiona MacNeill I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Organiser Organised by Jo Dimbleby

• Show & Tell 23

  12 April, 2022

  Tuesday 12 April 2022, 7-9pm Video call: meet.google.com/rpt-gybq-xxn The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The highlight of my month! —Fiona MacNeill I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Send Jo Dimbleby a message on the UX Brighton Slack, on Twitter @boldscript or get in touch on 07903361392.

• Show & Tell 22

  08 March, 2022

  The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The highlight of my month! —Fiona MacNeill I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Organiser Organised by Jo Dimbleby

• Show & Tell 21

  08 February, 2022

  Tuesday 8th February 2022, 7-9pm Video call: meet.google.com/rpt-gybq-xxn The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The highlight of my month! —Fiona MacNeill I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Send Jo Dimbleby a message on the UX Brighton Slack, on Twitter @boldscript or get in touch on 07903361392.

• UXmas Party 2021!

  02 December, 2021

  UXmas Party 2021! Thursday 2 December 🎄 We’ve teamed up with the fabulous folks at UXup and UXcamp Brighton to bring you a very merry and very UX-y Christmas knees-up extravaganza. It’s a simple concept: a sociable bunch of UX pros turn up at a Brighton pub to catch up, make merry, toast the festive season and look forward to a busy 2022. There are no tickets - just turn up and enjoy yourselves. Wear what you like. If you’re hungry, the Nelson does decent food. Lord Nelson Inn (the back room AKA conservatory) 36 Trafalgar St, Brighton, BN1 4ED Thursday 2 December 6:30 pm – pop in, or stay for the whole evening No ticket required Santa hats and Christmas jumpers are optional ;)

• Show & Tell 20

  09 November, 2021

  The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The highlight of my month! —Fiona MacNeill I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Organiser Organised by Jo Dimbleby

• Show & Tell 19

  14 September, 2021

  The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The highlight of my month! —Fiona MacNeill The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Organiser Organised by Jo Dimbleby

• Show & Tell 18

  10 August, 2021

  Tuesday 10th August 2021, 7-9pm Google Meet video call: https://meet.google.com/rpt-gybq-xxn The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker Super chilled evening. Everyone was from different walks of UX-related life – from research to design to copywriting to data visualisation, which meant the discussions and feedback came from loads of different angles. —Ben Wood A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Send Jo Dimbleby a message on the UX Brighton Slack, on Twitter @boldscript or get in touch on 07903361392.

• Show & Tell 17

  13 July, 2021

  Tuesday 13th July 2021, 7-9pm Google Meet video call: https://meet.google.com/rpt-gybq-xxn The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker Super chilled evening. Everyone was from different walks of UX-related life – from research to design to copywriting to data visualisation, which meant the discussions and feedback came from loads of different angles. —Ben Wood A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Send Jo Dimbleby a message on the UX Brighton Slack, on Twitter @boldscript or get in touch on 07903361392.

• Show & Tell 16

  11 May, 2021

  Tuesday 11th May 2021, 7-9pm Google Meet video call: https://meet.google.com/rpt-gybq-xxn The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker Super chilled evening. Everyone was from different walks of UX-related life – from research to design to copywriting to data visualisation, which meant the discussions and feedback came from loads of different angles. —Ben Wood A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Send Jo Dimbleby a message on the UX Brighton Slack, on Twitter @boldscript or get in touch on 07903361392.

• UX Watch Party

  13 April, 2021

  UX Brighton Show & Tell: a Watch Party takeover! Tuesday 13th April 2021, 7-9pm Guest MC Fiona MacNeill will present a series of short films on themes relevant to our UX interests, using the BETA web application backyard.co. Between each video we’ll have breaks for discussion, challenges and more. Like Show and Tell, places are limited to 12. And it’s still free. Unlike Show and Tell you do not need to bring anything to present or discuss. All you need is an open mind - and a laptop or tablet capable of running the web app. Sign up and find out more at this shared Google Doc. Any questions? Send Fiona MacNeill a message on the UX Brighton Slack or on Twitter @fmacneill.

• Show & Tell 15

  09 March, 2021

  Tuesday 9th March 2021, 7-9pm Google Meet video call: https://meet.google.com/rpt-gybq-xxn The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker Super chilled evening. Everyone was from different walks of UX-related life – from research to design to copywriting to data visualisation, which meant the discussions and feedback came from loads of different angles. —Ben Wood A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Send Jo Dimbleby a message on the UX Brighton Slack, on Twitter @boldscript or get in touch on 07903361392.

• Show & Tell 14

  09 February, 2021

  Tuesday 9th February 2021, 7-9pm Google Meet video call: https://meet.google.com/rpt-gybq-xxn The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker Super chilled evening. Everyone was from different walks of UX-related life – from research to design to copywriting to data visualisation, which meant the discussions and feedback came from loads of different angles. —Ben Wood A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Send Jo Dimbleby a message on the UX Brighton Slack, on Twitter @boldscript or get in touch on 07903361392.

• Show & Tell 13

  12 January, 2021

  Tuesday 12th January 2021, 7-9pm Google Meet video call: https://meet.google.com/rpt-gybq-xxn The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker Super chilled evening. Everyone was from different walks of UX-related life – from research to design to copywriting to data visualisation, which meant the discussions and feedback came from loads of different angles. —Ben Wood A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Send Jo Dimbleby a message on the UX Brighton Slack, on Twitter @boldscript or get in touch on 07903361392.

• Show & Tell 12

  10 November, 2020

  Tuesday 10th November 2020, 7-9pm Google Meet video call: https://meet.google.com/rpt-gybq-xxn The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker Super chilled evening. Everyone was from different walks of UX-related life – from research to design to copywriting to data visualisation, which meant the discussions and feedback came from loads of different angles. —Ben Wood A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Send Jo Dimbleby a message on the UX Brighton Slack, on Twitter @boldscript or get in touch on 07903361392.

• Show & Tell 11

  13 October, 2020

  Tuesday 13th October 2020, 7-9pm Google Meet video call: https://meet.google.com/rpt-gybq-xxn The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker Super chilled evening. Everyone was from different walks of UX-related life – from research to design to copywriting to data visualisation, which meant the discussions and feedback came from loads of different angles. —Ben Wood A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Send Jo Dimbleby a message on the UX Brighton Slack, on Twitter @boldscript or get in touch on 07903361392.

• Show & Tell 10

  08 September, 2020

  Tuesday 8th September 2020, 7-9pm Google Meet video call: https://meet.google.com/rpt-gybq-xxn The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker Super chilled evening. Everyone was from different walks of UX-related life – from research to design to copywriting to data visualisation, which meant the discussions and feedback came from loads of different angles. —Ben Wood A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Send Jo Dimbleby a message on the UX Brighton Slack, on Twitter @boldscript or get in touch on 07903361392.

• Show & Tell 9

  14 July, 2020

  Tuesday 14th July 2020, 7-9pm Google Meet video call: https://meet.google.com/rpt-gybq-xxn The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker Super chilled evening. Everyone was from different walks of UX-related life – from research to design to copywriting to data visualisation, which meant the discussions and feedback came from loads of different angles. —Ben Wood A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Send Jo Dimbleby a message on the UX Brighton Slack, on Twitter @boldscript or get in touch on 07903361392.

• Show & Tell 8

  09 June, 2020

  Tuesday 9th June 2020, 7-9pm Google Meet video call: https://meet.google.com/rpt-gybq-xxn The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker Super chilled evening. Everyone was from different walks of UX-related life – from research to design to copywriting to data visualisation, which meant the discussions and feedback came from loads of different angles. —Ben Wood A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Send Jo Dimbleby a message on the UX Brighton Slack, on Twitter @boldscript or get in touch on 07903361392.

• Show & Tell 7

  10 March, 2020

  Tuesday 10th March 2020, 7-9pm PLATF9RM, Floors 5 & 6, 44 North Road, Brighton, BN1 1YR The UX Brighton Show & Tell is a low-key event. A supportive environment for sharing, advice and discussion. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone in the room to learn each other’s names. How Show & Tell works Everyone arrives with something to talk about and some snacks to share Names and topics go into a hat, to be chosen at random 15-minute timebox for each discussion Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) Deciding on a topic for Show & Tell If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. What people say about Show & Tell A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker Super chilled evening. Everyone was from different walks of UX-related life – from research to design to copywriting to data visualisation, which meant the discussions and feedback came from loads of different angles. —Ben Wood A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu Any questions? Send Jo Dimbleby a message on the UX Brighton Slack, on Twitter @boldscript or get in touch on 07903361392.

• Show & Tell 6

  14 January, 2020

  This is a low-key event for people of all levels of UX experience. A supportive environment for talking about unfinished ideas and work-in-progress. Whether you’re a UXer of many years’ standing, new to UX or UX is only part of what you do, so much the better. A mix of skills and backgrounds enriches the conversation. It’s free. Sign up at this shared Google Doc with your Show & Tell topic. Show & Tell places are limited to 12, as we keep the group small enough for everyone in the room to learn each other’s names. Deciding what to share If you’re not sure what to share at the Show & Tell, here are some prompts: Talk us through what you’re working on Show how you’re using a tool or method Get advice on an approach to a project Share a past project Tell us about a new process Discuss working practices Get feedback on a talk, workshop or article idea Show a short demo or video Still stuck? It’s more than fine to bring a question or introduce a topic for discussion. Principles Everyone is welcome Everyone brings something to talk about and some snacks to share Everything is off the record - Chatham House Rule. (If you’re under NDA, it’s OK to be non-specific about your client. We won’t interrogate you!) 15-minute timebox for each discussion No polished presentations What people say about our Show & Tell events A very welcoming, thoughtful, knowledgeable and inclusive community. —Peter Cook The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along. —Mat Walker Super chilled evening. Everyone was from different walks of UX-related life – from research to design to copywriting to data visualisation, which meant the discussions and feedback came from loads of different angles. —Ben Wood A diverse group of friendly, smart people! —Luis Abreu I personally have found it to be life-changing —Jo Dimbleby

• UXmas Party!

  13 December, 2019

  UXmas Party 2019! Friday 13th December from 6pm Upstairs at the Earth & Stars Pop in, or stay for the whole evening. No ticket required. They do decent food. Santa hats and Christmas jumpers are optional ;)

• 2019 Conference ★ A Focus on Design

  01 November, 2019

• Workshop: Make Your First Voice Interface

  31 October, 2019

  Designing for voice Voice UI is growing fast. Although we’re all competent in person-to-person conversation, designing a good conversation is a new challenge for most organisations. Modern voice interfaces are an opportunity to create better products in new contexts. Smart adoption of VUIs in the right environment makes interaction simple, pleasurable, accessible and lowers cognitive load. In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn all about the challenges in designing for voice, how it differs from screen, how to make it great, and then put their learnings into practice. Teams will choose from suggested scenarios to explore voice’s potential and create their own prototype. Each workshop team will test the effectiveness and enjoyability of their prototyped voice interfaces using the Wizard of Oz methods practised by teams at Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. And each participant will take home resources useful for future VUI work. Side note: Prototyping in voice is both faster, and more fun than prototyping for screen! Join us to expand your design skills with a new interaction tool that’s as old as humanity: voice. Who should attend This workshop is for anyone curious about working in voice, including designers, decision-makers, and engineers who are interested in ubiquitous computing, calm technology, bots, NO-UI, and thinking outside of the screen. What you’ll learn How to design a voice interface How designing ‘conversation’ differs from screen interactions Key principles and methods for voice design Understanding of how to prototype voice with Wizard of Oz methods About Ben Ben Sauer is Director of Conversation Design at Babylon Health, formerly of Clearleft. He’s worked with organisations like the BBC, Pearson, Tesco, and TCS to raise their design game. He’s been speaking about and training people on the topic of voice UI for several years; particularly in how to rapidly design conversational experiences. Teams at Amazon and the BBC use his methods, and through O’Reilly, he’s trained folks at NASA. He’s also spent many hours at home removing the ridiculous things that his kids have added to Alexa’s shopping list. https://bensauer.net/ Photo credit: PC Poland What people have said about UX Brighton workshops “Great workshop - it exceeded all my expectations!” -Caroline Owen “The trainer was lovely, inspiring and very professional. The way she both shared us her insights and got us working together served the purpose perfectly.” -Heikki “Helped me understand and share experiences with other UXers.” -Paul Swain “Sound, focussed and practical advice about preparing for, facilitating and then following-up on workshops. Alison was a fun, enthusiastic and knowledgeable tutor. Recommended :-)” -Patrick Sansom “Really insightful workshop. It was useful to have practical examples rather than just an overview” -Tracy Godding Ticket price includes lunch, refreshments and materials.

• Show & Tell 5

  08 October, 2019

  Tuesday, October 8th, 7-9 PM · The Skiff 30 Cheapside Brighton BN1 4GD The idea is that this is a low-key event – small enough that everybody in the room can know each other’s names. A safe environment for talking about unfinished ideas etc. If you’re new to UX, so much the better – a mix of skill/experience levels will enrich the conversation. If you’re stuck for what to show, bring a question. Join us - stick your name on the list with your conversation or question topic Show and tell events are limited to ~12 places. Session ideas If you’re not sure what type of thing we’ve got in mind, here are some ideas: Ask a question to get thoughts from the group Introduce a topic that you’re interested in Demo a product you’ve found useful Summarise a method you’ve used Discuss project you’ve worked on/are working on Get feedback on a talk or article idea Show a short video you think is interesting (there’s a screen + HDMI/AppleTV) Principles No polished presentations Chatham house rule Everyone should bring something to show and tell but there’s only enough time for 6 Timebox topics to 15 minutes Bring food/drink to share “I really enjoyed the first Show and Tell event. There was a great mix of people from different backgrounds all with interesting things to show and say. The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along and learn something new.” —Mat Walker Organisers Organised by Danny Hope

• September Double Bill

  10 September, 2019

  Event cancelled We’re sorry to say that due to unforseen circumstances, this event is cancelled. We hope to reschedule the event to early in 2020. —Danny and the UX Brighton team We are lucky to have two extremely knowledgable and engaging speakers. They’ll be discussing content from two very different angles: a scientific approach to quantifying how people read and a structure for identifying brand values in order to encourage bold creative decision-making. By the way, neither of these speakers can be neatly summed up by any existing job title. This is something I’m seeing more and more among people I look up to. Make of that what you will. Anyway, I hope to see you there. —Danny (founder of UX Brighton) Usable, grammatical & readable code – Daniel van Berzon How can software developers learn from UX and linguistics, to help make their code more readable? Readable code is critical, but the available advice on how to write it is full of contradictory and arbitrary rules. Grammar is also full of rules; “Prescriptive” ones that are hard to follow, and “Descriptive” ones that are intuitive. With the help of Shakespeare, Chomsky and some little green men, we will learn the dangers of prescriptive rules, and see how the online experiment at howreadable.com applies UX research principles to uncover rules for readable code. About Daniel Daniel is a software developer based in Brighton, via London and Barcelona. He has worked with the web since late last century, when EJBs were a thing. After a little Physics and a lot of Ruby on Rails, he is currently taming the front end at Ocasta Studios, and researching code readability. Reading list Readable code, without prescription glasses - Daniel’s blog post about the genesis of the project The “How” of howreadable - Daniel’s blog post about the methodology of the experiment Lexicon valley podcast - Goes into some of the grammar mentioned in the talk Grammar Puss - Steven Pinker on Prescriptive vs Descriptive grammar What makes a brand voice brilliant? – Lauren Pope If your voice guidelines are just six adjectives in the brand book you’re not alone, but you’re missing a big opportunity. Voice has a huge role to play in conveying what you stand for and communicating with your audience. It isn’t just about brand, marketing, or the emotional side of things. It’s also about usability: if you’re trying to create a great product or service, voice has an impact on your user experience too. It’s time to give your voice more consideration and your writers better guidance. This talk will cover what makes a good voice, and how to create guidelines your colleagues will actually use. You’ll also hear a case study from Samaritans on how they created and rolled out a refreshed brand voice. About Lauren Lauren is a freelance content strategy and digital transformation consultant, working with organisations that make the world a better, fairer, more beautiful place. Lauren has been working in content and digital since way back in 2007 and since then has worked with some of the world’s biggest brands, including adidas, American Express, Microsoft and Tetra Pak. She lives in Brighton, and loves the Downs, the sea, dystopian fiction and bold lipstick. Reading list Four facets of a brilliant brand voice Readability vs creativity: a false choice Readbility guidelines Mailchimp Voice and Tone The Four Dimensions of Tone of Voice

• Show & Tell 4

  13 August, 2019

  The idea is that this is a low-key event – small enough that everybody in the room can know each other’s names. A safe environment for talking about unfinished ideas etc. If you’re new to UX, so much the better – a mix of skill/experience levels will enrich the conversation. If you’re stuck for what to show, bring a question. Join us - stick your name on the list with your conversation or question topic Show and tell events are limited to ~12 places. Topic ideas If you’re not sure what type of thing we’ve got in mind, here are some ideas: Ask a question to get thoughts from the group Introduce a topic that you’re interested in A product you’ve found useful - Framer - Notion - Dreamweaver 2004 - Prototyping voice UI with Adobe XD - Principle A method you’ve used A project you’ve worked on/are working on A challenge you’re facing A talk idea An article idea A short video you think is interesting (there’s a screen + HDMI/AppleTV) Principles No polished presentations Chatham house rule Everyone should bring something to show and tell but there’s only enough time for 6 Timebox topics to 15 minutes Bring food/drink to share I really enjoyed the first Show and Tell event. There was a great mix of people from different backgrounds all with interesting things to show and say. The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along and learn something new. — Mat Walker Organisers Organised by Danny Hope

• Show & Tell 3

  11 June, 2019

  UX Brighton show & tell 3 Tuesday, June 11, 7-9 PM · The Skiff 30 Cheapside Brighton BN1 4GD The idea is that this is a low-key event – small enough that everybody in the room can know each other’s names. A safe environment for talking about unfinished ideas etc. If you’re new to UX, so much the better – a mix of skill/experience levels will enrich the conversation. If you’re stuck for what to show, bring a question. Join us - stick your name on the list with your conversation or question topic Show and tell events are limited to ~12 places. Topic ideas If you’re not sure what type of thing we’ve got in mind, here are some ideas: Ask a question to get thoughts from the group Introduce a topic that you’re interested in A product you’ve found useful Framer Notion Dreamweaver 2004 Prototyping voice UI with Adobe XD Principle A method you’ve used A project you’ve worked on/are working on A challenge you’re facing A talk idea An article idea A short video you think is interesting (there’s a screen + HDMI/AppleTV) Principles No polished presentations Chatham house rule Everyone should bring something to show and tell but there’s only enough time for 6 Timebox topics to 15 minutes Bring food/drink to share - “I really enjoyed the first Show and Tell event. There was a great mix of people from different backgrounds all with interesting things to show and say. The informal format allowed everyone to contribute and ask questions without judgement. I’d encourage everyone from old UX hands to newbies to go along and learn something new.” —Mat Walker

• February Triple Bill

  12 February, 2019

  How to take your content from zero to hero – Rachel McConnell Content is the foundation of web design - from site strategy to interaction design. Yet many companies still underestimate the value of content and there are huge skill gaps in this area. I’m going to talk about what content design is, how it overlaps with design roles, why it’s important, and how you can start to think more about your content, including tips for creating better conversations with users. Slides for How to take your content from zero to hero About Rachel Rachel is the author of ‘Why you need a content team and how to build one’. She is currently senior content designer at Deliveroo but has previously produced content for brand such as M&S, John Lewis, Tesco, Nationwide and Flora. Rachel is on a mission to educate design teams on the the importance of content and help businesses increase their content maturity. A UX perspective on ‘bring your own data’ in healthcare – Fiona MacNeill We will consider the journey of a patient having elective surgery: from time spent on the waiting list, then the operation, followed by recovery at home. The patient, let’s call them Val, has their own personal health data and information gathered from their smartwatch and smartphone which they are willing to share for a limited time. There are some in the national context who believe this personal health data is valuable and would like to make it available to healthcare professionals, but where might provisioning access to patient data and information add value to service delivery? This talk portrays a generative approach to answering this question with a few UX research titbits along the way. The talk is based on an MSc dissertation at the University of Brighton; supported by fieldwork in a healthcare setting. Slides for A UX perspective on 'bring your own data' in healthcare About Fiona Fiona MacNeill is an eLearning professional who has occupied themselves with research into UX and IoT over the past few years; culminating in the recent completion of an MSc in user experience design. Their prior background, working as a visual artist and curator stoked interests in visual representation, wayfinding and audience experience which organically led them to user experience. MacNeill is a habitual problem solver, oft troublemaker and resolute defender of accessibility, but most of all wants to make human/computer interaction just a little bit better for everybody. The Selfish Giant – the converted – Nabeeha Ahmed Working with and as a user researcher often means different things to different people, especially as organisations take up the call to put users at the hearts of their services. As the drive for reformation and transformation continues, the user researcher’s role inevitably must change. I will tell a story about getting caught by surprise by changes in my own backyard, share my ‘sense-making’ journey and pose some ideas for discussion on the role of the user researcher. Slides for The Selfish Giant - the converted About Nabeeha Nabeeha wholeheartedly jumped on the bandwagon for putting users at the heart of government services. She heads up the Ministry of Justice Digital & Technology research team. Nabeeha has observed and analysed as concepts have emerged and taken flight in the UX arena. She has had the good fortune to work on some of these concepts with talented UX professionals in the private and public sector and looks forward to sharing and starting conversations. Deposits/tickets We run our evening events as not-for-profit. The ticket price helps to cover some of our costs and to discourage non-attendance, however we will refund the cost of your ticket (so long as you attend). Please send an email request within 3 days of the event date. Unclaimed deposits help us fund future events.

• 2018 Conference ★ Advancing Research

  02 November, 2018

• 2017 Conference ★ Designing for Colmplexity

  03 November, 2017

• Rapport & Manipulation

  11 July, 2017

  We’re excited to announce our next evening event with two great talks on Building Rapport & Machiavellian Manipulation. Building Rapport - Rob Pearson Rob’s talk will give us a UX take on the FBI’s head of behavioural analysis Robin Dreeke’s book ‘It’s not all about me’. What we all do on a day to day basis is talk to other human beings and ultimately what we’re trying to do is develop trust. This session will provide ten great tips for doing just that. Rob is User Experience Director at Amido. If a project has users and an interface, Rob is your man. As Head of User Experience, he is responsible for making products simple and intuitive to use. Rob spends a lot of time researching which he happily admits is his favourite part of the job. Machiavellian Manipulation - Chris How Chris is going to give us a Machiavellian masterclass in manipulation. Are you fed up persuading clients to act on research findings? Frustrated your best design ideas get pushed into the mythical phase two? Chris will share some tried and tested tips on how to manipulate your clients and managers to get them to take the design decisions you want. Warning: The dark arts of UX are not recommended for the faint-hearted. Chris is Principal UX Consultant at Clearleft. He helps clients create meaningful audience centered digital products and services through design leadership, strategic thinking and robust research. Organisers Luke Patrick Danny

• Psychology for Design workshop

  09 May, 2017

  How to use psychology to improve your website, app or product This event has sold out but you can still add yourself to the waiting list. We’ve partnered with UX Consultant and author Joe Leech to bring you a workshop on using psychology for better UX. In this one-day event we’ll look at how people build mental models of the world around them and how we can use that knowledge to create great user experiences. About the workshop The workshop will provide a practical, hands on way to understand how the human brain works and apply that knowledge to User Experience and product design. In the workshop, you’ll learn the psychological principles behind how our brain makes sense of the world, and apply that to product and user interface design. This is a hands-on workshop so expect to be sketching, designing and applying the psychology from the very start. After the workshop you’ll be able to: Design products, apps and websites that match how people think and behave Find, understand, evaluate and apply psychology theory to digital product design Make informed design decisions and advocate to the wider team using psychology theory After this workshop and you’ll be able to put psychology into practice as soon as you get back to the office. What you’ll learn We’ll go right back to the fundamental psychology theories underpinning planning, decision making and perception. We’ll build from there on how users decide what to do in certain situations. We’ll also cover why many websites fail because they don’t match the model and thus the expectation the user has for how they will work. Through a series of practical exercises you’ll learn: Why you should match design to behaviour and what goes wrong when you don’t The psychological theory behind how people model a task How to match your design to the map/model and make it a success Mapping and designing the details using a psychological approach Loads of little psychology tidbits that will improve a design and make you a better designer Who should attend this workshop UX people who want to understand how to use psychology to influence their design decisions. No previous psychology experience is needed and this workshop is particularly suitable for: Product owners Entrepreneurs Copywriters Content strategists UX designers Interface designers Visual designers App designers Researchers About Joe Joe Leech has spent the last 13 years working in UX with organisations like eBay, MoMA, Marriott and Disney. A former UX Director at cxpartners he has a degree in Neuroscience an MSc in Human Computer Interaction and wrote the book Psychology for Designers. What people have said about Joe’s workshops It was an excellent workshop that was well paced, engaging and allowed us to put our learnings into practice. It was one of the best workshops I’ve attended. Everything was really good! I learnt a lot new things from your experience / research. True eye opener! Comprehensive, engaging, and tons of fun. The workshop gave me a lot to think about in terms of my workflow and design process. What people have said about UX Brighton workshops Great workshop - it exceeded all my expectations! —Caroline Owen The trainer was lovely, inspiring and very professional. The way she both shared us her insights and got us working together served the purpose perfectly. —Heikki Helped me understand and share experiences with other UXers. —Paul Swain Sound, focussed and practical advice about preparing for, facilitating and then following-up on workshops. Alison was a fun, enthusiastic and knowledgeable tutor. Recommended :-) —Patrick Sansom Really insightful workshop. It was useful to have practical examples rather than just an overview —Tracy Godding Organisers Luke Danny

• UX Camp Redux

  09 May, 2017

  Back in March 2017, our friends UX Camp Brighton held their most popular barcamp yet. In keeping with tradition, here at UX Brighton we’re extremely happy to host the follow-up Redux event featuring some of the most popular sessions from the day. UX Camp Brigton is an ‘unconference’ for anyone involved or interested in user experience design, user research, interaction design, information architecture, usability, accessibility and other associated fields. Attendees either ran or participated in 20 minute sessions, such as talks, demos or discussions. No headliners, no product pitches, just a friendly (if intense) event focused on sharing, socialising and learning new stuff. This redux brings together four diverse and informative sessions from the day to give a flavour of what made the day a huge success. The London Underground. Your 100 year old guide to website navigation – Peter Winchester The London Underground have been perfecting signage and wayfinding for the best part of 100 years. What could we learn from them to help users find their way through our new MoreThan website? Purposeful Page Architecture – Rebecca Hugo In a saturated market, it’s becoming more important to ensure that pages have meaning and communicate something real. I introduce a framework to ensure that webpages and the architecture within them are purposeful and not superfluous. How to give your Workshop Intent – John Flitcroft The “Workshop” has become a throwaway tool, used to placate stakeholders as often as it is to create valuable insight and action. Here are ten tips to make sure your workshops stand out and have, above all, intent. The Researchers’ Responsibilities? – Kathy Neuss As researchers, do we have a responsibility to the peripheral side effects and ramifications of the recommendations that we are making? I explore how when we introspect problems and pain points, we influence the direction of opportunities. Tickets Tickets are available now. Sponsors This is event is sponsored by Optimal Workshop - who are also kindly providing prizes for the evening. Organisers Luke Tim Patrick Tom Chris Danny

• Design Research - 2 new approaches

  14 February, 2017

  An evening featuring two Brighton-based speakers discussing how behavioural research can be used for design. Enjoy the talks, beers and networking in great co-working space The Skiff. To Bot or Not to Bot: Using dramaturgy to connect Research with Development – Mark McElhaw Slides Ever been told you have 1 day to consolidate all existing research at the start of a new project? Ever questioned the way research was pulled together to form the basis for a design decision? Ever tried to marry qualitative research with big data? A framework is proposed that draws on dramatic theory to tackles issues like personas, combine experience research with big data and esign more customised value propositions. dramaturgy noun The theory and practice of dramatic composition. Mark is a Brighton based freelance Experience Consultant working across strategy, design and research. Recent worked includes; a supermarket, a Premier League club and an HR startup. @markmcelhaw linkedin.com/in/mark-mcelhaw-805a92 Too Dry; Didn’t Apply: Redesigning Behavioural Research for Practical Use – Jerome Ribot Slides In principle, Behavioural Research is an immensely powerful tool for creating better products, providing deep insights that help us design around the many factors that influence our choices, habits and loyalties. In practice, it’s a nightmare, riddled with complexity that prevents it being found, read and applied. This isn’t good enough. Might there be a better way to facilitate its use in practical, non-academic contexts? Jerome will discuss a possible solution that could further the reach of behavioural research and help create much better products as a result. Jerome is Founder of Coglode, which aims to communicate behavioural research to a wider business and design audience. Prior to this, he spent ten years as Co-Founder and Chief Design Officer at ribot, an multi-award-winning agency which works with Google, Channel Four, Tesco and Intel on ground-breaking digital products. @coglode http://coglode.com/ linkedin.com/in/jerome-ribot-6520976/ Organisers Danny Hope

• 2016 Conference ★ UX is dead, long live UX!

  04 November, 2016

  UX Brighton 2016 UX Brighton, 4th November. A one-day conference for UX people “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” – Marshal McLuhan Has UX lost its way? It’s become a very popular term, but unfortunately it’s more often used to refer to a thing designers do, not a thing users have. During this one day conference, we aim to eschew traditional thinking and examine better ways to model and think about the world: How we can learn from many disciplines and professions, not just design or UX; Ways of thinking and working that remove current limits to innovation; Looking at tools and techniques to help us move forward; Demonstrating how the best design needs a foundation of empirical evidence and critical thinking. The web is always changing, moving forward, re-inventing itself, however the user’s experience remains the same. What can we do to get better, to help us improve the UX industry and ultimately the user’s experience? We should be thinking differently, designing new tools, approaching problems in different ways. We should be re-inventing our approaches, looking to other industries for inspiration, techniques, tools, methodologies and ways to evaluate. Please read our attendees guide. Speakers Inventing with jobs to be done – Jillian Wells In the last 5 years, the popularity of personas as a research methodology has declined, whereas a new methodology, jobs-to-be-done, is gaining a lot of traction, and for good reason. Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) is an efficient, flexible research methodology that can help hardware and software teams alike create innovative product and features. This talk will detail what JTBD is, the power of using JTBD, how your software team can put the methodology to practice, and what you can do to troubleshoot when using the methodology goes awry. Jillian is speaking at 12:25 About Jillian Jillian is a Senior Product Researcher at Intercom with over 5 years of experience in user research, industrial design, and technology. Jillian is a human-centred design enthusiast that believes a human-centred approach is the only one to take when creating a new product or service. Having worked in both the US and Europe, she has had the opportunity to apply this thinking in industrial design, UX design, and technology based projects, as well as teaching this mindset to industrial design students at California College of the Arts. Git for Humans – Alice Bartlett This talk will explore a tool that most developers couldn't live without. We'll look at the way it helps developers tell the story of their project, and how non-technical people can get in on the action too. Alice is speaking at 2:20pm About Alice Alice is the platform lead for the Origami team at the Financial Times. She is based in London. Origami is a collection of ui elements and web services to help developers at the FT create performant, accessible and consistent websites. Origami is used in over 50 products at the FT, from the FT's new site next.ft.com to its HTML5 web app, to its B2B and B2C marketing campaigns. The Origami team maintains about 40 front-end modules and 5 web services. The monthly traffic for Origami's services is over 1.5 billion hits, mostly handled by Akamai. Previously Alice has worked at the Government Digital Service, BERG, Assanka and IBM. Alice is also the founder of lady bung empowerment franchise, tampon.club. Alice's photo is by Timo Arnall and used with permission. Complexity, abstraction & abduction – Professor Dave Snowden Prof. Snowden is the creator of the Cynefin Framework, used to apply complex adaptive systems theory to social systems. His initial work in counter terrorism for DARPA focused on weak signal detection and human terrain mapping. Over the last decade that work has been developed and applied to radical new approaches to understanding unarticulated user needs and understanding of how to manage inherently uncertain systems. His work applies natural science to social systems, challenging the dominant case based approach. In this presentation he will look at the limitations and opportunities for system design that arise from the complexity theory, cognitive science and anthropology. Building on a mixture of theory and practice he will identify new methods and ways of thinking in system design and related innovative practices. Managing for serendipity, mass decision support and distributed ethnography will all be covered in the presentation. Dave is speaking at 4:30pm About Dave Professor Snowden divides his time between two roles: founder Chief Scientific Officer of Cognitive Edge and the founder and Director of the Centre for Applied Complexity at Bangor University in Wales. His work is international in nature and covers government and industry looking at complex issues relating to strategy, organisational decision making and decision making. He has pioneered a science based approach to organisations drawing on anthropology, neuroscience and complex adaptive systems theory. He is a popular and passionate keynote speaker on a range of subjects, and is well known for his pragmatic cynicism and iconoclastic style. Evolving a modern agency – Richard Rutter As more large organisations realise the business value of user centred design, there’s never been a better time to be a user experience agency. But with so much work on offer helping other organisations improve their practice, it can be easy to lose sight of the room for improvement in our own companies. In this talk, Rich will focus on the kind of attitude that a user experience agency can adopt in order not to become stale. He will discuss general principles like positivity and a willingness to try new things and discuss some specific examples. Richard is speaking at 10am About Richard Richard is a cofounder of digital design studio Clearleft. He is a design consultant with a vast array of experience working for big and small clients including local councils, international fashion brands, global charities, and funky start-ups, all with a prime directive to make their customers’ lives that bit better. Within Clearleft, Richard’s role includes shaping the culture of the agency and ensuring it - and its people - are not just adhering to best practice, but redefining it. What to do if you hate your career – Jenni Lloyd A whistle-stop exploration of the point of work, the future for UX and how to find the work most likely to lead to fulfilment. Jenni is speaking at 10:45am About Jenni Jenni Lloyd specialises in participative change for connected and creative cultures. Via her company PurposeLab she works on client problems as a consultant, and also brings her own ideas to life through independent projects. Her belief is that business can and should be a force for positive change in the world - and that people connected together with a meaningful purpose can make anything happen. A digital veteran, her background is in design - from interfaces for digital products, to experience design and finally into organisational design. The linking thread is human behaviour - understanding what people want and need and how that can be provided in a mutually beneficial way. Previously, Jenni was a director of the consultancy NixonMcInnes, a pioneer of early social media marketing which went on to specialise in transforming how major corporations, charities and government departments behave in response to the social web. Jenni lives in and is a fierce advocate for Brighton, the city where crazy ideas can be made real. She's proud to be a trustee of Brighton's Royal Pavilion and Museums Foundation, seeing the Pavilion as a symbol of innovation and radical ideas. As well as supporting Brighton's creative and digital business community as a board member of Wired Sussex, Jenni also sits on the University of Brighton Industrial Advisory Board. Her purpose-led projects include co-founding the annual Meaning Conference which explores meaning in business in the 21st Century; hosting a social imagineering project called Connecting Brighton and co-organising Spring Forward, an annual festival of events that support and celebrate the women working in Brighton's digital cluster. Sketching out the future – Stef Lewandowski The phrase “like a startup” is at the point in the hype cycle where it's become a little passé. Agencies have been selling the idea to their clients for years. It now seems that every large company worth its salt has a startup programme of some kind, for solving their customers' problems by applying thinking from the world of tech startups and with good reason; competitors can appear out of nowhere and grow to a large scale in ever shorter time periods – so it's in a corporation's best interests to own that disruption rather than be subject to it. At the same time, getting the tech part of a new online business off the ground isn't so hard any more. But actually finding, validating and solving a real problem that people have, and turning that solution into a business... well that's just as hard as it ever was! But can you really apply startup methods if you're not a startup? Perhaps. New methods of looking for and solving problems have emerged, at an individual skill level, all the way up to the board room table. Stef will talk about the corporate-backed company builders that have been appearing recently, independent startup studios, agencies that spawn products, and the individuals sketching with code on profitable side-projects. What role might our UX skills play when put in these contexts? Stef is speaking at 3:05pm About Stef Stef is a cofounder of the online learning community Makelight. He is a designer and developer who's known for his work around the emerging "startup studio" approach to company-building. He talks about a "sketching with code" methodology to creating prototypes to rapidly validate or reject potential business ideas. Stef is a passionate advocate for people taking the bootstrapped path, and with Makelight he's on a mission to give a leg up to creative people who want to make a living from their passion. Stef's photo is by Paul Clarke and used with permission. Happiness Intelligence: understanding the X of UX – Nic Marks Can we design systems that facilitate profoundly better experiences for people? Systems shape us more than we realise yet we can also shape them. How can an intelligent understanding of human happiness help us design our interventions better? Nic will draw on his experiences over the last 15 years designing metrics about people’s experience of life - their happiness and wellbeing. Best known for his trailblazing work on the Happy Planet Index and Five Ways to Wellbeing, Nic will also share insights from his most recent work on work itself. This has now become a tech-based start-up called Happiness Works which creates measures of employees’ experience of work - MX if you like - through their product MoodMap. Nic is speaking at 12:00am About Nic Nic Marks helps organizations build happier, more productive workplaces. Described as a “Statistician with a Soul” because of his unusual combination of ‘hard’ statistical skills and ‘soft’ people skills, he draws on scientific evidence to show that everyone benefits when businesses take happiness seriously. Nic founded Happiness Works, an innovative tech-based business with offices in London and San Francisco, to be the catalyst in changing the world of work for the better. In 2010, Nic was invited to speak at the prestigious TED global conference. His TED talk has now been watched well over a million times, and he authored one of the original three TEDbooks, entitled ‘A Happiness Manifesto’. Twitter & Slack Follow us on Twitter to hear about our speakers’ talks. Join our Slack group and become part of the UX Brighton community. About our conferences They are designed to blend the worlds of the practical, the theoretical, the commercial and the academic to create new connections and highlight the foundations of designing for User Experience. We select speakers from outside the regular design conference circuit, choosing leading UX professionals alongside those from different industries and academia. “UX Brighton gets you out of old ways of thinking. The speakers are excellent and the networking superb” – Simon Johnson, UX Researcher “Loved UX Brighton the past 2 years. A place where some truly interesting issues about designing things are being discussed and an antidote to the ‘here are some things I did talks’ that are rarely as good.” – Ash Gibson, Creative Director Tickets We try our very best to keep our ticket prices accessible for all, including a low cost student ticket (at just £50 +VAT). Because of this, tickets do sell quickly - don’t miss out by leaving it too late. We can arrange payment by invoice if required, email Emmeline for further information. Jobs UX Designer We're looking for an incredible UX designer to help us make our new PS4 project, Dreams. Server Developer at Media Molecule We're looking for an experienced Server Developer to help us develop the online platform for Dreams - our next generation vision of play, create, share. Partners Sponsors

• UX Career Clinic. Supercharge your UX career

  13 September, 2016

  Writeup from a mentor’s point of view (blog post by Rachel McConnell of RSA) Following the success of our last UX Career Clinic, we’re back again as part of the Brighton Digital Festival. The UX Career Clinic will give advice to those looking to get into the UX industry, or move within it. Job seekers will receive unique insights from the best UX industry professionals in Brighton, who will be able to give feedback on portfolios and give career advice to help you get a foot on the UX ladder. Approximately 20 company representatives and UX freelancers will be on-hand to give one-to-one advice to those looking to get into the industry or move within it. Our confirmed mentors are: Here’s what one attendee from our previous career clinic had to say: “It really helped me get a good overview of the types of companies out there and the sorts of work they do, as well as what they look for in an applicant. The careers clinic also helped me widen my idea of the types of job I should search for. Initially I’d only been on the lookout for UX researcher roles, since that was my main academic background, but after talking to people at the clinic I realised that I could also search for junior roles that incorporated design and research.” If you are coming, be sure to read our tips for attendees. Here’s what mentors from The Unit had to say about our last career clinic. And here’s a writeup from digital agency No Pork Pies.

• UX Camp Brighton 2016 Redux

  14 June, 2016

  Back in March 2016, our friends UX Camp Brighton held their largest, most successful barcamp yet. In keeping with tradition, here at UX Brighton we’re extremely happy to host the follow-up Redux event featuring sessions from the day. With over 80 speakers, selecting four has been hard work! We hope you agree we’ve chosen a selection of popular talks, which include fascinating subjects from many new voices. Making The Source for Macmillan Cancer Support – Rob Pearson Rob will be explaining how his team at Amido used lean, collaborative UX to make The Source, a new digital product for Macmillan Cancer Support. Rob hopes you will gain a sense of empowerment from his talk and learn that UX isn’t an expert discipline from which you’re excluded if you don’t have UX in your job title. In fact it’s really an approach to gathering evidence around design decisions. Rob is currently Head of UX at Amido, a technical consultancy based in London and Brighton, specialising in customer identity, search and cloud services. Before this, he freelanced for a string of agencies and consultancies, being lucky enough to work with lots of charities and NGOs like Great Ormond St, Medecins Sans Frontieres and Stonewall. He’s currently working on projects for the Wellcome Trust and the Marine Stewardship Council. @robotperson Factors of Trust in IoT App Interfaces – Fiona MacNeill Does your app rely on OAuth to offer connection to other apps and services? Based on her research studying app-to-device relationships in Internet of Things systems (e.g. Fitbit, Jawbone UP, Nest, SmartThings, Glooko), Fiona has uncovered some valuable best practice recommendations for inspiring trust within your interface. Fiona has been working in the Educational Technology field within Higher Education for seven years. A big part of her job is finding new and innovative ways of integrating technology into current teaching and learning methodology. She enjoys being able to help her clients achieve small and meaningful efficiencies; sometimes that makes all the difference. If that weren’t enough, Fiona has been a practising performance and new media artist for ten years. Her work is often site specific in nature and has a strong basis in public art rhetoric. @fmacneill ProdPad - proud to sponsor UX Brighton. We’re hiring! ProdPad is the SaaS tool for product managers and their companies. We’re proud to support UX Brighton, and look forward to meeting you on the 14th. We’re hiring a full-time UX Designer! Effective wireframes: pitfalls to avoid and tips for success – Al Power <iframe src="" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen></iframe> In this session Al will look at some of the pitfalls of communicating design well through wireframes – examining some possible solutions and provide some tips for success. Al is a web designer who likes good UI design and web standards. He can often be found behind a camera and loves landscape photography and the occasional portrait shoot. Al is based in Seaford, East Sussex, on the beautiful south coast of the UK. @alpower How to get better answers from asking better questions – Chris How Want to become a question-asking Ninja? Asking questions is at the heart of uncovering ideas and opportunities that can then be translated into digital products and services, software and interfaces. In Chris’s session he will be giving practical tips to answer: What makes a good question? How can I get better answers from my questions? How can I get better at asking questions? And as a bonus Chris will be running ‘Shit question bingo’ as part of his session. Chris is Lead UX consultant at Webcredible. His job allows him to indulge his insatiable curiosity for people, design and technology. Chris is often found talking about user experience, digital design and culture. When no-one is looking he is often found tinkering online. Recent dabbling includes the website for Sussex Peggers Riding Club where he competes at mounted skill-at-arms and 101 days of food - a project where he kept a photo diary of meals eaten to track his food habits. @chrishow Organisers Tim Minor Patrick Sansom Luke Hay Tom Prior Danny Hope

• Designing for Games & VR

  10 May, 2016

  This evening event will investigate how UX and user research is implemented in the development of video games. Speakers will be covering a wide range of games UX and user research topics, discussing how the best games really focus on the player experience. The current state of UX in the games industry will be discussed, as well as how it will change moving forward with new technologies like VR. Running user tests for Virtual Reality games - Steve Bromley 2016 is a big year for virtual reality, with the launch of new VR headsets from Sony PlayStation, Oculus Rift and Valve. For user researchers, virtual reality offers new challenges due to new technology, interaction methods and types of experiences. In this talk, Steve will talk about lessons learned from designing and moderating user tests for virtual reality games, and give some best practises on how to get reliable and useful data from user research sessions. Steve is a Games User Researcher currently working for Sony PlayStation on their hardware, games and system software. Steve has run many user tests for PlayStation over the last 5 years, including for the PlayStation VR headset, their virtual reality launch line-up, and for popular PlayStation franchises such as LittleBigPlanet, SingStar and WonderBook. He has extensive experience of designing, running and reporting usability and user experience tests, with adults and children, both in lab tests and at participants homes. @Steve_Bromley Differences between mainstream UX and games UX – Deborah Amar Coming from Psychology and Human Computer Interaction, Games User Research is a growing field facing its own challenges, sometimes different from traditional User Research. In this talk we will explore the similarities and differences between Games User Research and Mainstream User Experience. Deborah is a User Researcher currently working at Player Research, a video game UX consultancy. Before that she was responsible for the development of User Research methods for Ubisoft User Research Lab in Paris and also did several UX contracts for web companies. Over the last 3 years she has worked on over 30 games, running Usability and User Experience studies, from large franchises such as Assassin’s Creed to indie mobile games. Applying UX Lessons to Game Design - Henry Ryder Coming from a background of motion graphics and interactive design, Henry is a User Interface Designer currently working at Natural Motion’s Brighton studio BossAlien. Creators of several highly successful games on iOS and Android. Before that he was an interactive designer working to promote video games and movies through the web & social media, for The Picture Production Company in London. In this talk, Henry will talk about applying the lessons learnt from user testing to the development of a game. @henryryder Cool extra stuff The lovely folks at Make Real will be bringing along some VR experiences for people to try out at the event. The team at Make Real are pioneers, explorers and innovators. Our purpose is to inspire, immerse and enable people to grow – at work, at home and on the move. We believe that immersive digital products are transforming the way we work, play and learn. We make virtual reality experiences, augmented reality devices, collaborative ‘serious games’ and other tools that support new types of work, play and learning. Smart learners, collaborative innovators and self-directed humans are the work-force of the future. We’re here to help organisations serve them, here, now and into the future. Our leadership team has strong established relationships with a range of specialist partners in hardware and software development including Oculus, HTC, Sony and Unity as well as partner studios specialising in film and 3D modelling. Slacker Games will also be there, showing their game Private Eye. Private Eye is a cinematic, neo-noir psychological thriller, crafted exclusively for virtual reality, fully immersing players in the gripping, fragmented narrative of a mysterious detective. Following an accident that has left you paralysed from the waist down and in a dissociative state, you must investigate a series of murders whilst uncovering your own past and identity. Evolving the point-and-click genre for VR, we place visual exploration and environmental storytelling at the forefront. Private Eye aims to be offer a thought-provoking and complex experience to VR gaming. Also…Games! There will be a couple of multiplayer games that people can enjoy after the talks. The games themselves are TBC, but they will be fun and multiplayer, so start challenging people now! Organisers Curated by Harvey Owen

• Personalising the Experience

  08 March, 2016

  This evening event covered the subject of personalisation. Our speakers covered various aspects of personalising websites and apps for improved user experience. They discussed different approaches and how new technology has enabled true one to one personalisation leading to truely personalised experiences. Full details of the talks can be see below. Ramp Up – Harry Brignull Most products have a ladder of engagement - a series of actions or stages that a user will progress through in their journey from novice to expert. If your product has a reasonable amount of depth to it, it’s very hard to know when to talk to your users about the more complex end of your feature set, to help them move up the ladder of engagement and get more value. Too soon and you’ll overwhelm them; too late and they’ve already gone somewhere else. Email marketing systems can do a lot of clever stuff involving automated segmentation and targeting, but the problem with email is that it’s email - it doesn’t happen inside your app where you’ve got the user’s undivided attention. Surely there’s some way of taking these principles and applying them inside your app’s UI? This talk investigates this premise and looks at the design challenges involved in helping users “ramp up” and climb the ladder of engagement. Harry is an Independent User Experience Consultant. Recent clients include HMRC, Lloyds Pharmacy, Crunch.co.uk and The Telegraph. Harry’s personal websites include Brignull.com and 90percentofeverything.com Why Personalisation is like Detective Work – Joe Doveton UX is planning the perfect murder. An abandoned basket is a crime scene. Ryanair checkouts were built by the Krays. Yes, the more you look at it, the more site optimisation is like detective work. In this session, DCI Joe “Dovers” Doveton takes you on a journey of deduction and discovery into the specific discipline of personalisation. From the initial forensic examination of analytics, to the creation of a suspect list to draw up segments, to the interpretation of user motivations and prediction of behaviour, this session is a step by step guide to building a personalisation protocol and the tools you can use to give your users the experience they want, when they want it. Guv. Joe Doveton is a highly experienced digital marketer with 18 years on the clock working for major PLCs and start ups. He is a respected commentator on cultural approaches to conversion and contributor to media like The Drum, Smart Insights and eConsultancy. Personalisation as a Platform – Steve Cathcart Steve has recently joined The Student Room Group to define and lead a new data and personalisation strategy and he will be talking about about his approach to tackling a personalisation strategy, how to get started, what to expect and more. The Student Room Group have invested in some exciting new data and personalisation technologies, and it is up to Steve to ensure these are used effectively to give their students the best possible experience. Steve’s end goal is to build a single view of the customer to deliver true one to one personalisation across all touchpoints including web, email and mobile apps. He drew on his own real world examples, including his time with TUI UK&I, where he was responsible for growing eCRM revenue from £100m to well over half a billion. During his time working for the Thomson and First Choice holidays head office, Steve was responsible for cutting edge behavioural targeting programs that were rolled out across Europe, and looks to continue his success at TSR. This presentation focussed on personalisation as a platform to drive a joined up customer experience across platforms such as website, CRM etc. to drive customer engagement and satisfaction. Steve is the Winner of multiple data marketing awards, including the Grand Prix at the Marketing Week Data Strategy awards. He is currently Data Marketing Manager at The Student Room Group. Organisers Luke

• UXmas Party!

  17 December, 2015

  The next UX Brighton event is our Xmas party. We’ll order takeaway curry and BYO booze, then around 9pm go off to a nearby pub. This is an unticketed event, please just tweet on the day to let us know that you’re coming. A festive co-production with UX Curry Brighton. Organisers Patrick Luke

• Lightning Edition

  11 November, 2015

  Inspired by the great work from 300 Seconds, we’re hosting a special lightning event and we would like you to join us and take part! The Brighton UX Community is full of talented individuals. We’ve always encouraged sharing your experiences and learning and always want to hear from the community, whether you’ve started your career, or consider yourself a seasoned pro. At this event, we’ll be sharing with each other with a series of rapid 5 minute talks - and anybody can speak. UX Brighton events are not just for UX practitioners: designers, content writers, anyone working on digital projects are all welcome. The Format Whether you’ve spoken before in public or not, we’d like you to give it a go. The night will have no more than 9 people speaking with breaks in between for refreshments and snacks in good supply. There are no subjects too big or too small, we are a wonderfully diverse community of people with varying levels of experience. If you’ve only just started your career, or you’re long in the tooth - this is a great time to give it a go, whether you want to share how to manage a backlog, run a user test or highlight the many, many flaws in video game UI - everything is welcome. The anatomy of an international payment page – Ben Scammels The do’s and don’ts for creating a portfolio – Enor Anidi The Post-it pirates – Paul Swain How to write enything ever – Ellen de Vries Don’t let your job title get you down – Danielle Huntrods Make better surveys – Jeremy Rosenberg Organisers Andy Parker

• How to run Effective UX Workshops

  13 October, 2015

  Course led by Alison Coward Learn how to facilitate great workshops! About the workshop Workshops are a great way of getting working with clients, your own design team, or even your users. Workshops provide a way to come up with great ideas for a project whether running them at the ‘kick-off’ stage of a project or trying to solve a particular design challenge. The ability to run effective workshops is fast becoming one of the hallmarks of a good UXer. Learn tips and techniques from Alison Coward, founder of Bracket. Alison gave a talk on her top 10 tips for running great workshops for UX Brighton in February and we’ve invited her to to run a full-day session to share the same methods she uses to get great results with her clients such as Barclays, Etsy, Channel 4 and Trendwatching. Workshops are becoming the heart of design, innovation and strategy projects. You need to bring people together - your clients, your colleagues, users - to gather information, generate ideas and identify the best solutions. We generally have a finite time to glean information from clients, this workshop will help ensure you’re able to make the most of it. The people you invite have limited time (and patience) and it’s your job to make it a productive session for everyone, whilst at the same time getting the rich and useful content you need to move the project forward. Workshops are a way to get group harmony when there are diverse opinions within an organisation. Facilitating the discussion around the product, allowing stakeholders to have their say and come to consensus is a crucial part of the design process. If you’ve ever been part of a great workshop, you might think the facilitator worked some kind of magic. But it’s not a mystical talent that some people have and some don’t - it’s a skill that can be learned and developed like any other. This interactive and practical one-day training is perfect for beginners, or more experienced UXers who want to brush up their facilitation skills. You’ll build your confidence and come away with tips, tricks and techniques to run your next workshop with ease. We’re limiting the number of places to ensure that the course is intimate and you can get your questions answered. What’s covered We’ll cover things like: the best place to start if you’ve never facilitated a workshop before how to run a great workshop even if you’re nervous about presenting when you should use workshops in your design/UX process where you should focus your energy and time for the best sessions making sure you get contributions from all personality types - junior and senior staff, introverts and extroverts developing your own facilitation style the ‘hidden’ factors that can get in the way of your workshop facilitation efforts We’ll look at how to design workshops that get results and concrete outcomes, group dynamics to look out for, tips for better brainstorming, facilitation techniques, methods that support and encourage creativity and how to keep momentum going after the workshop. By the end of the session you’ll be able to: design and plan great workshops for different needs deal with the common challenges that come up during workshops lead great and effective brainstorming and ideation sessions make sure everyone stays motivated and engaged, and you get valuable contributions from everyone in the room run highly creative (and fun) sessions whilst still making sure things get done If you have questions please feel free to email [email protected]. If there are specific things you’d like to see covered in the workshop, we’d love to hear about those too. Who is this for? UX people who want to run brilliant workshops. The day is also suitable for people who don’t have ‘UX’ in their job title, but are involved in the design/research process in some way. The type of people who this course would be useful for include: UX designers Product owners Entrepreneurs Project managers Account managers Visual designers Interface designers Service designers Business owners App designers Researchers …and other related disciplines The workshop will be suitable for freelancers as well as agency and in-house employees. About Alison Alison Coward has been working in, leading and facilitating creative teams for 15 years. She founded Bracket, a consultancy to help creative teams with better collaboration, and has designed and facilitated workshops and events for a wide range of clients including: Barclaycard, Channel 4, Etsy, The British Library, D&AD and Trendwatching.com Testimonials “Alison’s facilitated brainstorms leave no stone uncovered and every thought discussed. She is able to understand the journey of the idea and is able to objectively paint a map. Every time I walk away with a comprehensive understanding of the day, confident in the ideas generated, and necessary actions”. Araceli Camargo, founder THECUBE “Alison has been a brilliant facilitator for several workshops we have held, and I recommend her to anyone who is looking for a bright, committed, dependable and charismatic facilitator to bring out the best ideas in any group”. Eugenie Teasley, Spark+Mettle “Alison’s professionalism was impeccable. Her facilitation skills sharp and presentation style engaging.” Cath Carver, LIVE Director, Trendwatching “I was very impressed by the way in which Alison managed the exchanges between group members, and I found her ability to distil (and reflect back) the most important ideas of the think-tank made for a remarkable and productive session. I would highly recommend Alison to anyone looking for a fantastic facilitator.” Nathalie Nahai, The Web Psychologist Organisers Luke

• UX Analytics Workshop

  14 April, 2015

  Early Bird ticket £149 + VAT until 13th March, then £300 + VAT Course lead by Luke Hay About the workshop UX Brighton are proud to announce our first workshop. We have partnered with UX Consultant and analytics specialist Luke Hay to bring you a workshop on using Analytics for better UX. As this is our pilot workshop we are able to offer a discounted rate making this course great value for money. We’re limiting the number of places to ensure that the course is intimate and focussed on helping you learn how to apply analytics to User Experience in just one day. The course will focus on Google Analytics but will also touch upon other analytics packages and techniques. We’ll look at analytics from a UX perspective highlighting practical uses and helping to demystify the data. Knowledge of analytics will help to make you a better UXer because you’ll be able to: Back-up your discussions with data Quickly getting a big picture of what’s going on with your products Help your team understand what’s actually going on Find out which areas of your product need work Decide where to focus qualitative research Guide your company to better decisions We’d like to keep this event intimate (15 spaces to be precise), so get your ticket quick, before they’re all gone. If you have questions please feel free to email Luke. If there are specific things you’d like to see covered in the workshop, we’d love to hear about those too. Specific activities & outcomes You’ll learn how to: Discover device specific issues See how people interact with elements on a page Find out where the problems are in your site Grouping content, by template for example, to see which sections or page genres need work Interaction Architecture, including search Analyse user journeys in order to quickly see how people navigate through your website Set up funnels to track how well your design is working for specific user goals/tasks Find ways to increase conversions Create persona based segments to see what your personas are up to. Choose what tool to use for measuring Customise Google Analytics to show the data that’s most relevant to your site both for yourself and your client using dashboards and custom reports Who is this for? UX people who feel they should have more of a handle on the data side of things. Anybody can practice UX but we’ve tailored the workshop to: Visual designers Product owners Entrepreneurs Copywriters Content strategists UX designers Interface designers Managers App designers Researchers About Luke Luke Hay is a UX Consultant who has done plenty of user testing, from teenagers to pensioners, dress-makers to body builders, but is also an expert in analytics. Google analytics can be a difficult beast to tame. There are over 500 different default reports, not to mention an almost limited amount of custom reporting options. It’s not a tool that’s easy to pick up without some guidance and that’s where this workshop will help. Luke has been using Google Analytics for 7+ years trained a wide-range of people on how to get the most from Google Analytics analysed over 100 different websites used analytics to inform major design changes Luke’s blog Testimonials "Luke’s training gave me a very solid and clear grounding in how to work with Google Analytics – his process is very methodical and helpful" —Ellen de Vries, The Copyhouse "Luke provided clear and structured training, taking the team from novices to competent Google Analytics users in a short space of time" —Laura Bevans, Wired Sussex "We found the Google Analytics training session really useful and wouldn’t hesitate in recommending Luke’s services to our clients" —Stuart Bellis, Code 7

• UX for Kids

  10 March, 2015

  This event will attempt to give a broad overview of the challenges and rewards when designing for children. It’s easy to lump “kids” under one banner, but developmentally and in cognitive terms they’re very different as toddlers than they are as a five year olds and again as eight year olds. Thinking of coming? If you’re a designer, UX-person, copy-writer, web or mobile app-developer, a product-owner or anyone who’s interested in creating digital products for children, then you should definitely come! We’ll look at involving children in the design process, how we can engage pre-school children, what techniques we should use when we need to address children of differing abilities and how we can build low-fidelity prototypes to quickly address design issues. Designing Playful Interfaces for Children – Leanne Dougan As lead designer across the popular CBeebies Playtime, CBeebies Storytime and CBBC Go apps, Leanne is going to talk about some of the processes she used, share tips and techniques on idea generation and how to involve young audiences to help create playful interfaces. The video Leanne shows at the beginning of her presentation is this one. Talk Slides Leanne Dougan - Senior User Experience Designer, BBC, Future Media - CBeebies and CBBC at BBC Leanne Dougan is acting Creative Director for BBC Content Discovery. Leanne has worked at the BBC almost 8 years and during that time has worked across products such as iPlayer, The Red Button and BBC Children’s where she was design lead across apps, sites and games across CBeebies and CBBC. View all photos from this event Design Sprint Methodology: A learning curve – Liz Leakey Looking at how the BBC have started to adopt the lean design sprint methodology as pioneered by Google ventures, to allow them to work fast and swarm around a design problem. The challenge is working collaboratively in a multi-discpinarly environment, to make decisions fast and even put code live. For an organisation that moves quite slowly, it’s a new way to work and a steep learning curve for all involved! Liz will talk about how the sprints gave us chance to explore how we could use the home pages for CBBC and CBeebies based around 4 emergent themes; Social, Content Discovery, Mobile First and Reflecting the Channels. Talk Slides Liz Leakey - Creative Director, User Experience & Design at BBC Future Media Liz Leakey is Creative Director for BBC Children’s and has worked at the BBC since Jan 2012. Before that she ran her own web design business in the Lake District, after 7 years at the BBC in London, also in BBC Children’s. During that time Liz designed sites for brands like Blue Peter and Live & Kicking (sat morning TV) as well as seeing the launch of the two digital channels (CBBC and CBeebies) in 2002. In 2012 she joined the iWonder team in MediaCityUK and worked on the new Guide format for iWonder, before joining BBC Children’s in 2014. The world of designing for children has changed in 15 years, although the fundamentals have stayed the same, the processes we use and devices the audience access content on have changed the way we work beyond recognition. View all photos from this event How to involve children in the design process – Monica Ferraro This talk will examine the different techniques used while working with children as design partners in the design of technology. Dressing up, mixing ideas, Playmobil and Lego are great tools for generating new design ideas. Colouring pens, stickers and cardboard mockups of devices are great tools to create low-fidelity prototypes. Talk Slides Monica Ferraro - User Experience Consultant, Webcredible and Playhows. UXPA Secretary. At Playhows, Monica is a user experience consultant specialising in children. Playhows help companies create better experiences for products and services through a children-centred design approach. Their work focuses on involving children directly in the design process, giving their needs and requirements extensive consideration at every stage of the process. View all photos from this event Little users: UX considerations for pre-school children – Filip Healy, Mansha Manohar & George Green UX specialists Filip Healy, Mansha Manohar and George Green from Aberlight plus Gemma Newell from the BBC, will discuss some of the challenges of conducting user research with children under 4 and some of the design opportunities and principles that are important for this audience. In particular touchscreens have really lowered the entry level language and motor control skills required to interact with computer programs. On the one hand this provides great opportunities in early education and for busy parents to keep their children engaged, but on the other it raises some very serious ethical questions about what is an acceptable age to start encouraging children to interact with devices. Talk Slides Filip Healy, Mansha Manohar, George Green - User Experience Consultants for Amberlight & Gemma Newell from the BBC Amberlight have been involved in numerous projects researching how children and families use technology. They have worked for companies such as BBC, Disney, Sony Playstation, Children’s Society, Orange and Microsoft across a range of technologies from websites to games consoles. They have worked closely with schools, parents and academics to train their consultants and tailor their methods for working with children of all ages. View all photos from this event Organisers Jay

• People Skills for UXers

  10 February, 2015

  We’ve developed an amazing set of skills for empathising with our end-users, but rarely if ever do we turn these techniques in the other direction: on our clients. Just the opposite in fact: we’re much more likely to talk of our clients as idiots who don’t ‘get it’ than as understandably stressed human beings pushed outside of their comfort zone. This lack of empathy seems strange given our trade, and the fact that they have by far the most influence over whether our not our projects will be successful. If we can learn to handle our stakeholders more empathetically then we can make better products for our users, and help our projects to run smoothly and successfully. And that’s what this event is all about. The 7 habits of highly frustrating stakeholders – Kevin O’Neill We’ll kick of the evening with a talk by Kevin, a digital strategist at London Agency Centigrade. Clients come in lots of different flavours, and understanding how to handle them differently will help us to bring about successful project outcomes for our users. In this session Kevin will talk us through his taxonomy of stakeholders, and teach us how we can avoid tearing our hair out when we encounter the worst. @coach4creatives View all photos from this event Top tips for running effective workshops – Alison Coward Alison will go through tips for designing and facilitating effective workshops that are productive and focused, covering techniques for better brainstorming to generate better ideas and ways to keep participants engaged. We’ll also look at the all important follow-up and how to keep momentum going whilst keeping creativity high. @alisoncoward View all photos from this event Improvisation – the secret ingredient to successful collaboration – Matt Matheson Matt is a creativity and collaboration consultant at NixonMcInnes, and he’s going to talk about how improv can teach us the key people skills of listening and collaboration, and, surprisingly, help organisations to innovate collaboratively. @DJmattmatheson View all photos from this event Organisers Rob

• UX Camp Brighton 2014 Redux

  13 January, 2015

  We kick the new year off with a terrific replay of five talks from UX Camp Brighton 2014. With so many great sessions, selecting just five has been tricky. What we’ve gone for represents a nice spread of the huge range of topics covered on the day. The Minimum Loveable Product – Carlos Saba In the precarious startup world the ability to solve a customer’s problem isn’t enough. Engaging users and building a passionate following counts just as much as (if not more than) building useful and usable software. For any startup speed is key and Carlos will talk about how to get digital ideas to market sooner while still delivering a product that users fall in love with. Carlos is co–founder of Brighton Agency Spook Studio & The Happy Startup School. @kungfucarlos Introversion Vs. Extroversion in UX – Sophie Mitchell Everyone has heard of introversion and extroversion. In this session Sophie will be looking at how they are perceived and what the characteristics of each really are. We’ll be doing a short quiz to find out where you sit on the extrovert / introvert spectrum. We’ll then be discussing whether it helps or hinders to be either an an extrovert or introvert in the field of UX. Sophie is a Front End Web Developer / UX Designer at McCormack & Morrison and she also recently set up and co-organises the London group of Ladies That UX. @smitchio 3 psychology studies that illustrate how we think and behave – Jeremy Rosenberg Jeremy will discuss the following studies: Limitations of attention Demand characteristics Priming Jeremy is a UX designer at Amido. @jeremy74 The Choreography of Space – Ellen de Vries The average person spends more time thinking about things, rather than the spaces between things. Fact. Space is content. This talk is about how artists morph, mould and manipulate space (and the spaces between things) to adjust the way we receive information. There will be flash cards and some hardcore choreographic theory. Ellen is a content strategist & experimental performance arts maker. @eldevri Yippee-IA – Chris How Information architecture (IA) is the art and science of organising and labelling websites to support task completion and intuitive access to content. In 5 minutes I’ll tell you all the secrets and skills you’ll ever need to know to be a successful Information Architect. In the rest of the session we’ll get hands-on with a tricky information space - my spice drawer. Chris is head of User Experience at Cogapp. @chrishow Organisers Patrick Sansom Luke Hay Danny Hope Alex Goluszko

• 2014 Conference ★ Practical Philosophy

  14 November, 2014

• UX, Human Factors & Ergonomics

  14 October, 2014

  Also known as “comfort design”, “functional design”, or “user-friendly systems”, HF&E is the practice of designing products, systems or processes to take proper account of the interaction between them and the people that use them. As you can imagine, there’s plenty to learn from this multidisciplinary field. Speakers for the evening are all Senior Lecturers from the University of Brighton’s School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics. Human Factors in Product Design: The secret to good design – Dr Eddy Elton Dr Elton will be talking about how Human Factors plays a key role in the development of successful products. Within his talk, Eddy will include a brief introduction to Ergonomics, it’s history, and it’s relation / relevance to UX. Vis-able: How studies in visual perception and the cognitive aspects of ergonomics contribute to usability – Catherine Grundy Catherine’s interests have led to involvement beyond product development to computer games, web design and app design and digital product design. Using a set of interaction principles as a basis, we consider how understanding our perception mechanisms can help to create beautiful and usable artefacts across two and three dimensions. From the aim to create clear and readable artefacts (achieving ‘Clarity’) to helping the user to be engaged ( in a state of ‘Flow’) when using an interface, interaction goals are similar for different media and brainstorming across disciplines can sometimes help. The problem with 3D printing & human factors issues in bicycle design – Dr Derek Covill As well as teaching, his research and consultancy covers many aspects of biomechanics and sports technology. Organisers Tim

• Career Clinic

  09 September, 2014

  Read a review of the event by Ben Scammels from The Unit Read a review of the event by Luke Hay from No Pork Pies Taking the format of a careers clinic this event was aimed at giving advice to UX students, graduates, junior practitioners, those new to UX and those wanting to develop their career. A team of career advisors, made up of the some of the best UX professionals in Brighton were on-hand to give one-to-one advice to those interested in starting, moving into or upwards in User Experience. Photos from the event Around 150 job seekers and career changers signed up to attend and we’d like to thank the advisors, who came from around 15 different companies, for giving their opinions and advice. Organisers Luke

• The Accessible Web

  10 June, 2014

  Read a review of the event by Kristian Banniser of No Pork Pies The UX Brighton event for June looked at an issue that we should all be considering when building websites and apps: accessibility. Online accessibility/inclusive design is about making sure that everyone has equal access to information on websites regardless of their physical or developmental abilities or disabilities. With an ageing population and a wide range of new devices to consider accessibility is an issue that is set to become increasingly important. The business case for accessibility – Mark Walker While there are plenty of ethical reasons to take an ‘accessibility first’ design approach Mark will focus on the business reasons, which will help you to encourage even the most sceptical stakeholders of its value. With over 12 million disabled people in the UK alone, with a spending power of £120 billion, this is a large and lucrative market that cannot be ignored. scipmark - User testing with assistive technologies – Joshua Marshall Download Joshua’s slides Joshua will start of by talking about some of the assistive technologies used currently. His talk will cover how testing fits in with the Government Digital Service product cycle and will give practical tips on how to begin testing with assistive technologies, as well as some of the common problems that you may encounter. This talk will also help you in creating your own test strategy. Joshua Marshall, Government Development Service Organisers Luke

• UX Strategy

  13 May, 2014

  Our May event covered the emerging issue of how UX practitioners (and the ‘UX industry’ as a whole) move beyond just carrying out narrow-focused tactical work and get involved with the broader digital and business strategy decision-making, in order to create really meaningful change for our clients and customers. Digital teams need to be reorganised with the responsibility for a user’s experience dispersed. UX practitioners require a change in mindset and a broadening of their skillset. What is UX strategy? – Tim Loo Tim Loo Progressing UX from the tactical to the strategic – Jason Ryan Jason Ryan The strategy is delivery – Leisa Reichelt Leisa Reichelt Organisers Patrick

• Designing for Health and Wellbeing

  08 April, 2014

  The April edition of UX Brighton took on the big challenges of designing for health and wellbeing. Say hello to our three fantastic speakers. Emotional UX - Denise Hampson Denise will explore some of the subconscious rules-of-thumb that people use to help them make decisions, change their behaviour and navigate their way through everyday life, and how we can use this insight to improve customer experience in health and care. About Denise A former British Women’s Track Cycling Champion, Denise spent six years on the Great Britain Cycling Team, representing her country at European, Commonwealth and World level. Prior to her athletic career Denise was a Systems Engineer at BAE Systems, specialising in human-system interaction and cockpit development on military aircraft.This started a career-long obsession with human-centered design and creating systems and services which are best matched to real human behaviour.Denise’s company, Hampson Solutions Ltd, provides consultancy services and training on behaviour change psychology to UK health organisations, and for the last 18 months she has worked in digital behaviour change commissioning for NHS England. Denise Hampson Medication reminder apps: the Bad and the Ugly – Katarzyna Stawarz Katarzyna’s talk will explore how women remember their oral contraception pills and what technologies or memory aids they use. Katarzyna will compare these strategies with functionality of medication reminder apps available for iPhones and Android phones to highlight the fact that these apps aren’t very good. She’ll go on to cover recommendations for designing medication reminders that meet users’ needs. About Katarzyna Download Katarzyna’s slides Katarzyna is currently doing a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction at UCL Interaction Centre and is interested in technologies supporting behaviour change. Her research focuses on understanding how mobile apps could facilitate the creation of resilient medication-taking habits. usabilitypanda.com Katarzyna Stawarz Alex Tarling Alex is a usability and user experience consultant specialising in Healthcare and Pharma, currently managing the European Usability Centre for Lilly. Alex Tarling Organisers Alex

• UX Quiz

  12 February, 2014

  After the success of the quiz at UX Camp Brighton 2013, we’d decided to test your UX brains once again on the 11th of February. If you’ve ever been to a pub quiz before then you already know what to do. Just bring your brains along to The Victory pub at 6:30 for a 7pm start. Organisers Tim

• UXCB13 Redux

  14 January, 2014

  UX Brighton kicked off the new year in fine style with a redux from the fabulous event that was UX Camp Brighton 2013. We relived some of the best sessions, with six great talks selected from the day: Five things I know about UX from going to the toilet - Chris How Toilets can be places for thinking. A haven where thoughts like ‘what shall I talk about at UX Camp Brighton?’ come to be considered. In my talk I’ll be sharing photos of toilets I’ve collected over many years to illustrate among other things: Semiotics, designing for the user’s abilities, triggering behavioural change and the sheer good, bad and bizarre of toilet interface design. Chris How Resistance to change – strategies for presenting usability findings – Ben Sauer Ever presented results from usability testing and nothing changed? I’ll present some strategies I’ve used in the past to successfully win friends and influence people. Ben Sauer 10 football tips for successful workshop facilitation – Viviana Doctorovich One thing Viviana has learned on her 8 years as UX Designer is that close collaboration with colleagues, clients and users is paramount to the success of any digital project. In her quest to promote collaboration, she runs regular workshops of all shapes and sizes and considers them a core part of her design process. In her talk, Viviana will share some of the tips and tools she’s picked up through her many years as a facilitator and a few stories from the trenches. And why football tips? Just because she’s Argentinian and can’t miss an opportunity to talk about Messi. Viviana Doctorovich Beyond Emotion & Cognition – Luis Abreu Luis Abreu Why the page is killing innovation in magazine UX - Rob Boynes Rob Boynes How to win over clients and influence colleagues – Rob Pearson Rob Pearson Organisers Patrick Sansom Luke Hay Alex Goluszko Tim Minor Tom Prior

• 2013 Conference ★ The Psychological Foundations of Design

  01 November, 2013

• UX Oktoberfest

  08 October, 2013

  UX Brighton evenings returned with UX Oktoberfest - our last event before November’s big conference. Join us on 8th October at Fabrica Gallery for three talks from three fantastic speakers, none of whom - sadly - have consented to wearing their lederhosen. Cognitive biases & design – Jerome Ribot Jerome will be talking about embracing psychology to help make better product experiences. By designing around various cognitive biases, we can make users feel great, spend more, and come back again and again. About Jerome Jerome is the Chief Design Officer at Ribot, where he drives their creative, design, development and direction. Ribot strategise, design and develop digital products across mobile, television, in-store and beyond, with a clear focus on innovation. Their aim is to make future interfaces and experiences simpler, helpful and fulfilling. @jeromeribot - http://ribot.co.uk/ Come together – Better connections between physical products, digital services and the teams that deliver them – Jason Mesut Jason will talk around the divides and overlaps between Industrial Design and Digital Service Design and why we must start to work better with others to create a better future for products and services in the future. About Jason Jason is Head of User Experience at Plan Strategic, a Product Strategy consultancy that helps companies work out what to do next. Jason’s been a frustrated physical product designer ever since he completed his degree course in Industrial Design, but then jumped into the world of digital. @jasonmesut Using Design for Competitive Advantage – Andy Budd Why do so many digital companies favour technology over design? In his talk Andy will explain How startups (and any other business) can use design for more than making something pretty. Instead Andy believes that design is one of the few areas of competitive advantage left. About Andy User Experience Designer and CEO of Clearleft, Andy is the author of CSS Mastery, curates the dConstruct and UX London conferences and helped set-up The Brighton Digital Festival. Andy created Silverback, a low cost usability testing application for the Mac, and co-founded Fontdeck, a web typography start-up. Andy is a regular speaker at international conferences like The Web 2.0 Expo, An Event Apart and SXSW. In May 2010, Wired Magazine named Andy one of the top 100 most influential people in the UK digital sector, much to the pride of his mother and the surprise of everybody else. Organisers Alex Patrick

• Summer Special 2013

  13 August, 2013

  UX Brighton is back! Join us on the 13th of August at the beautiful Fabrica Gallery for an evening with some truly inspiring speakers. Hello Lamp Post - Sam Hill Sam will be speaking about Hello Lamp Post is a city-wide system for play – winner of Watershed’s Playable City Award and active in Bristol for 8 weeks this summer. Players are able to converse with street furniture via SMS by referencing their pre-existing maintenance codes. Sam will explain where the inspiration for the project came from, describe the development process, and show how people in Bristol have been responding to it. About Sam Sam is co-founder of PAN, a critical design studio established to create enriching and affecting experiences. Established in 2011, PAN creates interactive pieces and theatrical installations, as well as designing products, systems and services to enrich every day experiences. Launching probes and releasing trojan mice – Oli Shaw Oli’s talk, “Launching probes and releasing trojan mice”, will look at the similarity between launching a deep space probe and starting a new project, the methodology and techniques for uncovering all of the unknowns in a project. Including how to identify someone giving you a solution and how to translate it back into a requirement to work with. The talk will conclude by exploring the concept of ‘releasing trojan mice’ to provoke discussion, to create debate and most importantly as an experiment to learn from during a project. About Oli Oli Shaw is a strategic experience & brand consultant at Fluxx. Oli is experienced in creative direction and service design. While his past is in global digital advertising for brands such as: Panasonic and Adidas, during the last 4 years he has focused on product and service innovation for clients such as: Nokia, BSkyB, Orange, Tesco, UBS. olishaw The relationship between typography and information architecture – Boon Chew Boon’s talk will discuss the relationship between typography and information architecture. Typography has always had an interesting relationship with IA – it’s impossible to imagine information, content, and media without it. Strangely, it seems like the two disciplines have been separated from birth sometimes, and this talk is an attempt to bridge the two back together. In this talk, Boon will address why typography and information architecture are both sides of the same coin, how typography can be used more meaningfully to improve IA, to the point that doing one or the other becomes the same thing. About Boon Boon is an interaction designer, information architect, former developer and avid sketchnoter. He currently works at SapientNitro, where he “does UX” for large companies like banks and telecoms. He’s an active member of the UX community, where he currently organises regular events on interaction design as an IxDA local leader, and has organised UXCampLondon twice. boonych Organisers Alex

• UX Brighton goes for a spin

  11 June, 2013

  Whatever our relationship with the automobile, it has played an important role in our transport and distribution systems for centuries. As driver, passenger, or pedestrian, our interactions with the car present a host of challenges for engineers, researchers, and UX specialists. The evening introduced speakers from the automotive industry, as they shared their experiences designing for this enduring interface between human and machine. Phil Higgs - Design Manager, Experience Design Group at Jaguar Land Rover Phil joined Jaguar Land Rover as a User Interface & Experience Designer in 2008, and has been overseeing in-car cross brand UI & UX design activity at Jaguar Land Rover since Spring 2011. He is currently working on future in-car cluster, touchscreen and user experience designs for the Jaguar, Land Rover and Range Rover brands. Dr Nick Reed - Principal Human Factors Researcher at TRL Nick’s academic background is in cognitive psychology and perception and following a DPhil post-doctoral work at University of Oxford, joined the Human Factors and Simulation group at the Transport Research Laboratory. Having been there for nearly 10 years, Nick has published many papers and reports in the area of driver behaviour and training and has featured on news items for the BBC, Sky, ITV, Channel 4 and CNN. He is now leading TRL’s growth in research related to the introduction of automated vehicles. Organisers Tom

• The Physical Web

  09 November, 2012

  The web has spilled beyond the screen and into the physical world. The Internet of Things (IOT) brings net connectivity to household appliances, common everyday objects and novel devices. But what challenges does this brave new world present to UX designers? What heuristics, interaction metaphors and prototyping techniques can we rely on to create great user experiences for the web of things? Join us for an evening with three fantastic speakers who’ll share their stories of designing the next generation of smart objects. Introduction to the UX challenges in designing for connected homes - Claire Rowland Claire is the service design manager at AlertMe.com, a connected home platform provider. She has worked in UX design and research for 14 years for companies such as Razorfish, Flow Interactive and Fjord. Designing connected products for the home – Denise Wilton Denise will be talking about some of the UX challenges involved with designing a connected product for the home: Little Printer Denise Wilton has been working as a designer and illustrator for over 15 years. She’s currently a creative director at design and product invention studio BERG, and prior to that was the Creative Director for the award winning start up moo.com. Her freelance career has included projects for a diverse range of clients including Channel 4, BBC, Nokia, Warp Films, Dorling Kindersley and Greenpeace. She is also the co-founder of one of the largest and longest running online communities in the UK, b3ta.com. Designing the things in the internet of things – Daniel Soltis The internet of things offers a host of unfamiliar interactions – objects as interfaces, objects connected to apps, actions that create consequences at a distance. How do people learn and understand digital systems when there is no screen, or controls are gestural, or input and output are at a distance? And while we’re at it, how might UX design make a difference in this emerging field? Daniel Soltis is a user experience designer and creative technologist at Moving Brands. He’s interested in the physicality of interfaces and the rough edges where technology, design, and sociology meet. You can find him online at @ds1935 and danielsoltis.com. Organisers Alex

• 2012 Conference ★ Past & Future Interactions

  02 November, 2012

• Mobile User Testing

  10 July, 2012

  The July 2012 edition of UX Brighton focused on mobile user testing. We had two great talks and a hands-on demo of some of the best testing kit out there. Both talks are available to watch below: Usability testing for mobile – Raj Arjan Raj’s talk will explore current ways in which usability testing can be conducted for mobile devices. There will be some exploration of future technologies as well as practical examples of what has worked well in the Interaction Lab in the past and why. About Raj Raj is the interaction lab manager at City University London. The Interaction Lab is a commercial and academic research facility used by academia and industry to conduct user research in areas such as Mobile, Web, Gestural Interaction, Eye Tracking, Accessibility and more. Raj has been working in UX for 4 years and has considerable experience in planning, running and evaluating user research on a variety of different platforms. @RajArjan Handheld device usability testing techniques – Walt Buchan What are the objectives when we test handheld devices? What are the difficulties and what equipment should we use to best capture the sessions for ourselves and others who want to observe? Walt has pondered these questions while experimenting extensively with cameras, rigs and software. He’ll be sharing his stories, demoing his mobile testing setup and recommending ways to make your research simpler to accomplish and deliver better quality evidence. About Walt Walt has been designing interactions, documenting design and researching user experience for 11 years. Now Director of User Research at CX Partners in Bristol, his experience of qualitative research and analysis techniques provides essential rigor to the execution of research, both in the lab and the field. @silverfoxyboy Organisers Alex

• 2011 Conference ★ A day of User Experience indulgence

  04 November, 2011

• Agile UX

  08 March, 2011

  4 talks A UX persons survival guide to agile – Mat Walker UX benefits of using REST/Agile – Howard Sandford UX & Product Owners – Johanna Kollmann Mark Plant

• Mobile Design Triple Bill

  11 January, 2011

• Curry night

  14 December, 2010

• Listening

  09 November, 2010

  X-Ray Listening and Elephant Whispering – Judy Rees Could you get better value from your user research and testing? In this session we’ll be exploring the two “Lazy Jedi questions” – a way to get under the skin of interviewees and to persuade them to reveal the secrets of what they really think and feel about sites/apps/services. Judy Rees is known as The Elephant Whisperer because of her uncanny ability to probe beneath the surface, and encourage people to reveal their innermost thoughts and feelings. This information comes from the subconscious ‘elephant’ rather than the conscious ‘rider’ and drives at what people actually do (rather than what they say they intend to do). Her approach draws on almost 20 years experience of news journalism, with surprising insights from the world of psychotherapy and coaching. She is the co-author of Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds, and creator of a new home study course “Intelligent Influence”. Judy has been introducing these techniques to the UX community for the last year, speaking at UXCamp London and at two London UX agencies. UX Brighton community discussion – Judy Rees UX Brighton has been going for about two and a half years now and we’d like to hear your feedback on how it’s going, and especially to gather ideas for what we can do in future. Judy has offered to lead the session and use some of the listening techniques discussed in her talk. This is an opportunity to tell us what you need from UX Brighton, what issues you have with working as a UX practitioner and help us become more useful to you. Organisers Danny

• 2010 Conference ★ Designing for Behaviour

  04 November, 2010

• 3 authors, 2 books, 1 event

  12 October, 2010

  Writing a UX book – Cennydd Bowles, James Box Cennydd and James will discuss the experience of writing a UX book, from the proposal and the money to the workflow and personal sacrifice involved. They’ll talk about what publishers are looking for from potential authors, how to make a strong business case for your title, and how to come to terms with the alien practices of print publishing. About Cennydd Cennydd Bowles leapt into the world of user experience eight years ago and hasn’t shut up about it since. He now works for Clearleft in Brighton and moonlights as a UX blogger, mentor and community evangelist. Cennydd is a regular public speaker (SXSW, IA Summit), a widely published writer (A List Apart, Johnny Holland, .net magazine) and co-conspirator of the UX London conference. His first book “Undercover User Experience”, written with fellow Clearleftie James Box, has just been published by New Riders. About James James is a total mystery. Simple & Usable – Giles Colbourne Giles will talk about his views on simplicity, how he came to write the book, the books that inspired him and the design and writing choices that he made and how they influenced the final form of the book. Giles’ book Simple and usable : Web, mobile, and interaction design (archive.org) About Giles Giles Colborne has been designing interactive user experiences since the early 1990s and it’s about time he did something useful like writing a book. When he’s not doing that he he’s busy with cxpartners, a design consultancy based in Bristol and London that specialises in web and mobile user interface design for companies such as Marriott, Nokia and eBay. Giles and Richard Caddick founded cxpartners in 2004. Book: Forget all the rules you ever learned about graphic design, including the ones in this boo (archive.org) Book: Selling the invisible : a field guide to modern marketing (archive.org) Book: The laws of simplicity (archive.org) Organisers Danny

• Information Visualisation mini event

  10 August, 2010

  Organisers Danny

• SuperGoogleAnalyticsExpialidocious

  13 July, 2010

  Read a review of the event by Wired Sussex Many companies use analytics as a starting point for user research but get stumped when it comes to gaining genuine understanding about why users do what they do. For July’s event our speakers showed how applications like Google Analytics can be used to both formulate and answer questions. They also demonstrated how these quantitative techniques can be combined with qualitative methods such as traditional user testing. Combining Analytics and User Research – Alex Tarling Alex Tarling Under the Hood of Google Analytics – Phil Guilfoyle Phil Guilfoyle Organisers Danny

• Design Games

  11 May, 2010

  Design Games – Rob Phillips In yet another change of format, this month Rob Phillips has agreed to run a workshop covering a number of hands-on design games. These techniques help make design more accessible and fun for clients, and lead to greater creativity and a broader range of unexpected ideas. Organisers Danny

• Hands-on with eyetracking & biometrics

  10 April, 2010

  Last year’s talks from Bunnyfoot (the eye tracking & behavioural research specialists) and Vertical Slice (the video game user experience specialists) were so succesful that we’ve invited them back, and asked them to bring their hardware for some hands-on, interactive demos! The event will start at 6.30pm, but we’ll be running an eye tracking study for an hour beforehand (from 5.30pm onwards, to collect some data). If you’re keen to know what it’s like to be a participant, you can turn up early (we can’t test everyone, but you’ll at least be able to watch). After some drinks and nibbles (provided by Madgex, the event sponsors) we will kick off the event with a talk from Vertical Slice , followed by demo of their GSR hardware where we’ll pick one or two volunteers from the audience to try it out. After the demo, the Bunnyfoot guys will give us a live demo of what it’s like to use Tobii Studio to analyze the data we just collected. This should give us some nice insights about some of the strengths and weaknesses of Eye Tracking as a UX research tool. Please be gentle with us if we have technical problems. If the hardware fails, we’ll have to fall back to pre-recorded videos / slides. Organisers Harry

• Practical Tips & Templates

  09 March, 2010

  An easy but effective technique for note-taking and analysis in usability testing – Harry Brignull A simple template for social media planning – Danny Hope The iCrossing Connected Brand index: how to measure a brand’s effectiveness online – Ifraz Mughal Design considerations when porting point and click games to multitouch, and some thoughts on designing for the iPad – Ben Greenfield Practical analytics techniques – Phil Guilfoyle Organisers Harry

• Finding your way in wayfinding

  09 February, 2010

  Format We’ve been listening to your feedback, and in the spirit of iterative design, this event will consist of a series of short “bite sized” talks. Opening-up the UK’s public transport data – Peter Stoner Peter is UK Coordinator at Traveline @traveline Usability themes for map interfaces – Pete Gale Head of User Experience, Cogapp @petegale How usability testing wins contracts – Ben Sauer Ben is an independent user experience consultant and web strategist @bensauer iPhone Travel Apps UX Challenges – Malcolm Barclay Developer of London Tube Status, Deluxe and Bus for the iPhone @MalcolmBarclay

• A Brief Guide to Service Design

  12 January, 2010

  A Brief Guide to Service Design – Paul Thurston & Nick Marsh

• Remote User Research – a 360° view

  13 October, 2009

  Remote usability applied: a case study – Louise Klinker The Birth of an Idea: Remote Ethnography – David Tait & Ofer Deshe Testing the Prototype: Synchronous Remote Testing – Volker Gersabeck Testing the Product: Asynchronous Remote Testing – Sabrina Mach Photos by Ofer Deshe Organisers James Sabrina

• Gameplay research and design

  08 September, 2009

  Ellie Martin blogged about the event Gameplay Field Research & Designing for Kids – GiGi Demming GiGi_D User Research & the Future of Gameplay Experience Design – Gareth White GarethRWhite Organisers Harry

• Designing for Persuasion, International Research, and Eye Tracking!

  11 August, 2009

  How (not) to run successful international user research projects – Carsten Schmitt & Poppy James User research across several countries – be it surveys or user tests – has its own challenges. Some of them are well known (but nevertheless often forgotten) others are unexpected. Poppy and Carsten – a Briton and a German – do not aim to give you the ultimate 101 of international user research. A lot has been written about that already. What they do want to do instead is to talk about their own experiences to show you which problems you could encounter before you even start your testing abroad and what could happen if you don’t have that foreign language expertise in-house. Prepare to be surprised, shocked, and, hopefully, amused. And the end of this talk you should be able to add a few bullet points to your checklist for the next international project (bullet points will be provided). Some of the topics include “Foreign affairs – Managing multi-national clients” and “Parlez you Italiano? Language issues beyond ‘translations’” Carsten Schmitt & Poppy James are consultants at Bunnyfoot, a User Experience Consultancy that’s passionate about Eye Tracking. Bunnyfoot’s clients include the BBC, the COI, Virgin Holidays, and Yell.com to name only a few. Designing for Persuasion, Emotion and Trust On The Web – Rob Gillham Since the early ’60s, Social and Experimental Psychology Research that has taught us a great deal about the nature of persuasion in human psychology. In recent years, there’s been a flurry of books and articles on the subject – after all, persuasion is part of the elusive magic recipe for success in business. What’s been lacking, however, is a selection of case studies that give a solid understanding of what works and what doesn’t in the context of human-computer interaction. This is exactly where Rob Gillham’s talk picks up. Rob will give a talk covering the underpinning Psychological research and insights from HFI’s own research findings. Rob’s talk involves a 1 hour sneak peak into HFI’s ‘Psychology, Emotion & Trust’ training course, normally only available for paying customers. Rob Gillham is a Project Director at Human Factors International (HFI), the world’s largest UX consultancy with offices in UK, US, Germany, India, China and Singapore. Audience Participation Eye tracking demo – Rebecca Gill After the talks we’ll be cracking open the beers (and wine and snacks) for an eye tracking demo from the Bunnyfoot crew. To make it more fun, we/ll be accepting submissions from attendees. Feel free to email Harry Brignull with your site screengrabs, art, or naked photos (1024×768 PNGs are ideal). Submissions will be drawn at random from the pile and used in the demo. (PS no naked photos). Organisers Harry Danny

• Film Night – The Social life of Small Urban Spaces

  09 June, 2009

  The video From The Social Life Of Small Urban Spaces on the Internet Archive Organisers Harry Danny

• A Journey from Ethnography to Design

  12 May, 2009

  Tom Hume live blogged the event If you are interested in using ethnography to improve design, this event is definitely for you. Simon Johnson and Miles Rochford will provide two perspectives on ethnography, from client and agency points of view. Bridging the Ethnography/Design Gap – Simon Johnson @squaxor Designing for the rest of the world – Miles Rochford Slides for Designing for the rest of the world 21five Organisers Danny

• Mental Models, Service Design & Problems with Convergence

  14 April, 2009

  Mental Models, Service Design & Problems with Convergence – Filip Healy & GiGi Demming Filip and GiGi are both principals at Amberlight Partners. Amberlight is a London based User Experience Consultancy. Clients include Apple, Microsoft, Sony and O2. It’s becoming increasingly popular for large companies to bundle together a range of services such as broadband, mobile and TV. While this can result in lower prices for customers, how does it really impact the customer experience? Amberlight has engaged in a number of service design projects that have looked at this very problem – how can these bundled but disparate services be aligned in a manner that presents a coherent, ‘joined up’ feel for the customer? In this presentation, Amberlight will talk about their learnings, and will lay bare some of the key questions that you need to think about when dealing with this tricky service design problem. Following the presentation there will be an open discussion, and informal show-and-tells. Please feel free to bring along visual stimuli for discussion! And after that, we’ll probably head to The Greenhouse Effect for a drink. Organisers Harry Danny

• Measuring online engagement

  15 September, 2008

  Measuring online engagement – Jason Ryan @jasonryan

• Local & Remote Usability Testing

  19 August, 2008

  This sessions focuses on 2 new products for 2 types of usability testing: Guerrilla Usability Testing with Silverback – Andy Budd Usability tests are an excellent way of discovering problems with a product or service. However commissioning a dedicated usability lab can be costly and time consuming. Instead of a single academic evaluation, why not bring your usability testing in-house and run it alongside your design and development process? Usability testing needn’t cost the Earth. It’s entirely possible to run a test at your own office, a cafe or even your subject’s home. This is why we created Silverback, a low cost usability testing application that turns your Mac into a portable testing suite. We wanted to break the shackles of usability testing and put it back in the hands of designers and developers. In this session Andy will give you a quick demo of Silverback and show you how to plan, set-up and run your own guerrilla usability tests. Andy Budd is an author, blogger and user experience director at Clearleft. He most recently featured as Gwyneth Paltrow’s body double in the hit Movie, Iron Man. Webnographer: a web app for remote testing – James Page This will be the first public demo of Webnographer, which will be launched in late September. His short talk will show how Webnographer can offer fast insight into Usability issues. He will show how Webnographer enables the collection of user behavioural data. He will also demonstrate how to gain quick insight into the user data, through Webnographer’s visual representation. Finally James will give a brief overview of the academic research that Webnographer is based on, such as the link between the eye and the mouse movements. Webnographer: Is a new service for Asynchronous Remote User Testing. Webnographer enables faster and cheaper user testing outside of the labs. The services has been designed so that a team can get results back in hours using more than the normal number of participants. Webnographer has been developed by FeraLabs, a new start-up based in Berlin and Hastings, founded by Sabrina Mach and James Page. Organisers Danny

• Objects & Play

  15 July, 2008

  A serious talk about the importance of being playful – Thomas Forsyth Find out how being playful can help you develop creative products, companies and relationships whoever you are online, or offline. Come along and explore your inner child (sensibly) and go away with fresh creative ideas for building products, business and creative strategies. Google’s success is built around a sense of play… so yours could be too. As we develop into adulthood, the type of play in which we partake commonly becomes increasingly structured or rule-based. I am challenging preconceptions towards rules within play, and attempting to create the opportunity to indulge in the process of touch and exploration in a way that adults are rarely encouraged. Tom is essentially creating an excuse to interact with objects in the way that children do. Tom has explored a number of different approaches: Strategies that allow things / events to be discovered through interaction, rather than defining them in advance. Using the perception of a game as a temporary ‘low-risk’ environment, in which it is acceptable to interact with the aesthetic/tactile qualities of objects. Use of emergent properties, such as mark, structure or surprise, as a means of engaging people with the objects. Toms work explores the gap between spontaneous/creative and rule-bound forms of play. The concluding objects strive to make a personal adventure of ideas and concept accessible to all. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood” — Tom Robbins About Thomas Thomas Forsyth is a designer and artist based in Brighton. He is currently graduating from Brighton University where he studied a BA(Hons) in Wood, Metal, Ceramics and Plastics. Always having taken a great interest in the way people perceive and interact with objects, his recent work explores and challenges rules within play. Some of Thomas’ work Show & Tell Following the talk there will be an opportunity to show and tell something that you’ve been working on. You don’t have to have a polished presentation or anything just spend 5-10 minutes telling the group about something you’re working/have worked on. Organisers Danny

• Practical insights in designing Out of the Box Experiences

  13 May, 2008

  Practical insights in designing Out of the Box Experiences – Harry Brignull & Pete Gale When you tear into the packaging of your newest gadget, the last thing you want to do is stop and read a manual, or sit there scratching your head wondering how to get it working. First impressions count, and although this is commonly known by consumers everywhere, Out Of Box Experience (OOBE) Design has only recently become a hot topic, spurred on by leaders like Apple, Nintendo and Dyson. Harry and Pete have both had recent experience doing OOBE UX research & consultancy for different clients, so their varying points of view should create an interesting dynamic in this presentation. Topics will include: What things are normally done wrong in OOBE design? What’s an effective design process for achieving user-centred OOBE design? What design principles can be usefully applied? Show & tell Following the talk there will be an opportunity to show and tell your work. You don’t have to have a polished presentation or anything just spend 5-10 minutes telling the group about something you’re working/have worked on. Organisers Danny

• Double Bill Designing the UX Curve & Planning Discussion

  15 April, 2008

  Designing the User Experience Curve – Andy Budd These days people expect more from a website than a handy set of tools and a pretty interface — they want an experience. As soon as somebody starts using your site they’ll be judging you on everything, from the way the site looks to the tone of your error messages. And they won’t just be comparing you to other sites. They’ll be remembering every customer experience they have ever had, from the rude man at the train station, to the lovely hotel clerk that checked them in on honeymoon. In order to compete, we need to up our game and look at experiences both on and off-line. Andy Budd will look at the seven key factors that go into designing the perfect customer experience. Using examples from the world around us, Andy will discuss how we can turn utilitarian experiences into something wonderful. @andybudd Planning Discussion – led by Danny Hope & Jenni Lloyd At BarcampBrighton 2, Danny Hope gave an interesting talk about the methods he uses to design sites. He also talked about his interest in open-ness and showed pics of wireframes that he keeps on Flickr. During the discussion afterwards it became obvious that there’s a lot that the Brighton design community could learn from each other, in terms of what we do and the way that we do it. There are a multitude of digital media companies in Brighton, and many different networking groups. However, there are very few opportunities to talk in detail about design – both theory and practice. Let’s see how many people we can get together to form an informal group of user experience / interaction / web designers. The aim would be to meet on a semi-regular basis – maybe using the 20×20 Pecha Kucha presentation format, maybe just bringing in problems / concepts or whatever to discuss in an atmosphere of open collaboration. Since UX Brighton is a really new group, there will be an opportunity to discuss things like: Topics for future talks. How the group should be formed e.g. should it be a club. Do we need to bother with sponsorship? How to do stuff in conjunction with/alongside other organisations like use8 Anything else you want. @jennilloyd @yandle Organisers Danny Hope Jenni Lloyd