UX London is so close we can almost taste it. The event, organised by the accessibility and usability experts at Clearleft, kicks-off on 18th May and will run for three whole days. The agenda includes talks by experts like Louise Downe, head of design for the UK government, Nick Finck, product design manager at Facebook, and Leah Buley, analyst at Forrester Research. Just to name a few…
This being the eighth UX London, People for Research decided to get in touch with Clearleft and ask a few questions about the event and the evolution of the user experience industry in the UK. Luckily, Clearleft’s founder and managing director, Andy Budd, spared a few minutes to chat with us.
🎙 UX London started in 2009, but a lot has changed in eight years! How do you see the evolution of the UX industry?
Back in 2009, UX was a young, but growing discipline in the UK. Supply was starting to outstrip demand, causing early signs of a skills shortage. UX London emerged from this environment as a platform to help UX designers of all levels learn new skills and advance their careers.
Jump forward to today, and many of the people who attended the first UX London have grown into senior practitioners and design leaders; so much so that we’re starting a new design leadership conference this October.
However, demand has continued to outgrow supply, causing a lot of confusion in the market. Many designers added UX to their job titles without fully understanding what the discipline involved. Sensing market opportunities, many agencies followed suite.
As a result, we find ourselves in a very confused position, where many of those claiming to be UX practitioners are lacking the basic skills and experience. This is a problem for companies trying to recruit, where sometimes over 80 per cent of the CVs being submitted aren’t valid; it’s also a problem for clients hiring design partners who fail to deliver the services expected of them.
🎙 What are the consequences?
Many senior practitioners have started distancing themselves from the term, for fear that it’s become so watered down as to be meaningless. While other parts of the industry — most notably the professional membership bodies — have started calling for certification.
Neither of these approaches feels right, but I’m not sure what is. Ultimately, if you believe the meaning of words changes over time based on common usage, I’d say UX design means a very different thing to the new breed of product designers than it did when I started in the industry 15 years ago. So it’ll be interesting to see how it continues to change in the years ahead.
🎙 Your list of speakers is impressive. In your opinion, what are the highlights of this year’s schedule?
That’s difficult to say, as I know most of the speakers personally and invited them because I think they all have something unique to bring. Some are first time UX London speakers and may be new to our audience; folks like Louise Downe, Clara Gaggero Westaway and Molly Norris. Others like Leah Buley, Abbey Covert and Peter Merholz are back by popular demand. Some like Dan Klyn, Jonathan Colman and Nick Finck have been wanting to speak for many years, while others like Rebecca Ussai and Glen Keane required a bit more tempting.
It’s this combination that makes UX London so special, so the thing I’m most excited about is seeing how one talk builds on another to form a consistent narrative over the three days.
🎙 Are you introducing anything new to the event in 2016?
After eight years, I feel we’ve got a pretty good format working, so we won’t be changing too much about the structure. However, different attendees, different speakers, different evening entertainment, and a constantly revolving menu of amazing street food, should lead to a unique and enjoyable experience.
🎙 What are your expectations?
To spend three days in the company of some wonderful, smart people. To have some fun, challenging conversations, and learn a bunch of new things in the process. To come away as a better designer than I started, with notebooks of ideas I can put into practice when I return to the office the next day!
Maria Santos, Head of Digital Ops & Data Protection
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