UX Career Pivots: Returning after a gap and not stopping again Helpful for : Very powerful and empowering for moms, career changers, or anyone breaking into UX later in life. Talking Points: My journey from HR to UX after a 7-year break Imposter syndrome and building confidence through projects How to build credibility and momentum without a traditional path Learning by Doing: How Startups Shaped My UX Mindset Helpful for : Self-taught designers and those working in resource-limited settings will relate. Talking Points: - The power of constraints - learning without design teams or design systems - How startups forced me to become a better problem-solver Lessons learned from working cross-functionally (business, engineering, founders)

Learn to instantly analyze reviews/feedback for insights, create data-driven personas from real conversations, map user journeys (yours + competitors), and extract customer intelligence from Reddit/search data using free AI tools. Walk away with practical techniques to gather comprehensive customer understanding in hours, not weeks. Perfect for UXers wanting to do more research faster without big budgets or technical skills. Get actionable insights that drive real UX decisions. You'll Learn: - Voice of customer distillation using AI - Persona creation from actual user data - Journey analysis techniques - Reddit/search intelligence gathering - Quick research methods for immediate impact - Strategic thinking meets practical execution - amplify your research capabilities today.

Unlock the secrets to creating exceptional user experiences with my talk, "The Importance of UX Management." Whether you're a designer, manager, or stakeholder, discover how effective UX management drives innovation, improves team collaboration, and ensures user satisfaction.

How does burnout manifest in UX roles? Root causes in UX roles. Trends and upcoming challenges. Coping mechanisms and prevention, cross-disciplinary insights

Localization impacts user experience in more ways than we realize. While translation is an important first step, simply copying a user experience and applying it to another culture often fails. Successful localization goes beyond words—it must embrace cultural norms, values, and nuances to truly resonate with users. This webinar explores localization through the lens of the Arabic world, highlighting the unique challenges and opportunities in designing user experiences for Arabic-speaking audiences. Drawing on real-world case studies from projects across the region, we will uncover insights on: Why cultural context is critical in UX localization Common pitfalls when adapting experiences for Arabic users Best practices and lessons learned from Arabic UX projects Join us for a thought-provoking session that blends theory and practice to reimagine UX for diverse cultural landscapes.

In a world obsessed with speed, AI and automation, we risk losing the small moments that make technology feel safe, kind and human. This talk explores Soft UX, the quiet craft of designing for trust, dignity and emotion, especially in emerging markets like South Africa. From navigating stakeholder pressure to designing without a formal UX team, we unpack practical ways anyone can soften the edges of digital experiences and why, in an automated future, feeling may be UX’s greatest frontier.

Graffiti is seen as a vile, anti-social art form that operates on the fringe of society. The graffiti experience seems to leave a bitter aftertaste in the general populace mouths. I plan to demonstrate how I changed this experience with the help of graphic design, real life events and mural production. Turning something that is usually upsets people into something that uplifts communities, from the graffiti community to the regular civilian. Utilising its attention grabbing nature and channeling into vehicle for good.

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more integrated into daily life, African youth increasingly leverage AI tools to enhance their education, work, and personal development. This presentation explores how AI is shaping the lives of African youth, analysing both the benefits and risks associated with AI tools.

We designed 4 surveys typically sent to pregnant moms in MomConnect via WhatsApp and enhanced these with an LLM. In July of this year we did one-on-one in-person qualitative usability testing of these surveys as well as their statically designed counterparts with 17 pregnant moms in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Each mom sat with a single facilitator and was asked to complete a survey twice: first the static version, and then the LLM-enhanced version, while facilitators observed and made notes. Right after completion, the moms were asked which one they preferred and why they preferred that one. We accounted for ordering effects by asking half of our moms to begin with the static version, and the other half to begin with the LLM-enhanced version. The surveys we tested were: - a demographic information survey - a 5-question decision-making ability assessment - a knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour assessment regarding pregnancy - a short survey typically sent after an antenatal clinic appointment We also tested a feature where moms could ask any pregnancy health-related questions, as freeform text, and get an answer from the LLM, where the LLM was limited to approved healthcare information provided by our content team. Our findings were fascinating and point to: (1) the risks of using LLM-enhancement and how this might affect the credibility of data gathered (2) the need to keep humans in the loop on both the design side and the data moderation side of these kinds of studies (3) the immense potential of LLM-enhancement in the provision of digital healthcare information and services

My talk is about how to work with legacy systems as a UX Designer. Often times we want to work on new software, or we want to redesign the existing products but we rarely ever think about the legacy systems. The old websites, the old government software, the old enterprise, corporate software that is outdated and is aging badly. We like the look and feel of new products but we cannot hope to improve existing systems if we don't sit with the tediousness of them. If we don't sit and face the uncomfortable software. As designers, we can improve existing systems if we strategically approach it from a caring point of view. With that being said, it's not an easy task. It's a difficult job with it's own nuances and somehow somewhere somebody has got to do it. My talk will be about understanding the context with which you find yourself working in as a designer, why legacy systems matter, the importance of knowledge transfer, how to approach redesigning outdated software, your relationship with developers when it comes to working on legacy products. How big your team size is. Why more capacity = more work being covered. Wins for your team, how to fight for your designs and best practices to employ. I will also be talking Usability and why taking shortcuts in the moment may seem good but it will cost your organisation the big wins in the long run. My talk is inspired by my current role as a designer working in the Tertiary Education space.

Let’s be honest - the world seems pretty awful right now. Design has been swallowed up by the corporate machine, we’re regurgitating patterns and libraries so everything looks the same, and AI has finally arrived (disguised as bunnies on a trampoline) to take our jobs. Meanwhile we're all burned out, questioning our impact, seriously considering homesteading, and wondering how the hell we ended up designing for profit instead of people. This talk is a reality check and a pep talk rolled into one. We'll dig into how design has lost its way, why it's not entirely our fault, and most importantly, what we can actually do about it in our day-to-day work, in order to stay sane. No LinkedIn memes, no corporate jargon - just an honest conversation about getting back to designing things that don't suck for the humans who have to use them.

In SA, UX is too often a tickbox. Learn how to reframe it as a curiosity-led, context-aware strategic superpower. Discover fast, affordable testing and frameworks to create impactful, inclusive products that deliver real business value.

"So, when can we have this done by?" The classic ask which almost always can never accurately be answered in the moment. It's like asking a 4-year-old when they will be done with their bowl of spag bol. And almost always the response creates an expectation that speed is more important than quality and everyone gets stressed. Fast forward a few sprints and the UX designer is proudly showing off their designs to execs, like a mother showing pictures of her baby to friends and telling them how beautiful it is, and how they managed to cram a full end to end experience Figma design in just two weeks. Then the question comes... have you tested this with customers or do you have any research to back up your thinking? Silence falls in the room... you gave me two weeks, aint nodody got time to research. Well this is where my topic aims to give insight, Ill share the different levels of UX Research maturity and how tools like AI can help in building a strong solution evaluation phase during your design process, so that next time you present to the big dawgs, you drop the mic instead of the ball.