Since 2010 our UXalliance partners have hosted 19 UX Masterclasses in countries around the world. Each year UXalliance members come together with local and international experts to share their knowledge and experience on topics they are passionate about, and to meet local user research communities.

This year the 20th UX Masterclass was hosted by our Spanish UXalliance partner TorresBurriel Estudio in Zaragoza, Spain, on the 28th of September under the theme “Changemakers: how leaders can design change in a complex world”.

The conference theme explores how a people centred approach can help transform your company and respond to the fast-changing market. These are some takeaways from the conference presentations at this year’s UX Masterclass.

The Future of AI in UX by Lindsey DeWitt Prat and Bob Schumacher from Bold Insight

1. Prediction: Adoption of generative AI will automate >30% of hours worked today by the year 2030.
2. Research involved 50+ IDIs across 20+ countries, then followed up 3 and 6 months later.
3. Reimagining work by embracing AI involves: embracing it, adapting and reimagining roles, reskill, accepting unpredictability, finding out what works and what doesn’t and building a competitive advantage.
4. To embrace AI in UX research tasks need to consider: AI fit, complexity, stakes, quality and if it meets the needs of UCD.
5. Olivia Lucas (From Mantaray) was included with a snippet of her findings on how African words can be misunderstood and the importance of local and cultural context when conducting UX research.

How leaders can better grasp future generations by Ayumu Takeuchi and Honoka Sumida from Mitsue-Links

1. Understanding new generations is important to change this complex world.
2. When understanding them, leaders tend to engage in something called ‘mould-cutting’; replacing unknown or new values with ones that are similar to their own. It could disregard the differences between these two concepts.
3. Observing new generations as they are through UX research is effective to prevent this ‘mould-cutting’

From Complexity to Clarity: Navigating the Journey around Inclusive Digital Finance by Chin Chin Burkolter from Somia Customer Experience

1. Complimenting the Design Thinking process with Systems Thinking approach to make sense of the complexities in the data.
2. Digging deeper into the data in order to understand the root cause can help us frame our challenges differently.
3. Consider the tensions that may surface when we start thinking deeper into the systems in play.

Designing Change: Unlocking the Potential of Automotive UIs through Qualitative-Quantitative UX Benchmarking by Jan Panhoff from Uintent

1. In partnership with a top automotive OEM, Uintent has pioneered a groundbreaking benchmark method for assessing automotive user experience (UX). 
2. This innovative approach evaluates UX across various contexts through real driving, simulated scenarios, and static conditions. 
3. With over 50 cars tested on three continents, this comprehensive method empowers transformative change in automotive design.

 From UCD to Design Justice: New Approaches to Adapt Design to Contemporary Challenges by Judith Membrives i Lorens from Lafede.cat

1. UCD shows some limitations to understand social and contemporary challenges.
2. UCD is an approach to design that prioritizes the needs, preferences, and experiences of the end-users throughout the design process. It revolves around empathy, putting the user at the centre of every decision.
3. We must understand the relationship between power and design and, from there, question whether the design methods we use are perpetuating social oppressions or even maximizing them exponentially.
4. Design Justice is an approach that tries to emphasize equitable and more inclusive design practices.

Celebrating Differences, Igniting Change: The Power of Cultural Design in Solving our Biggest Challenges by Helga Stegmann from Mantaray

1. Understanding the cultural context of use is key to designing products that are easily adopted.
2. Delving into the next workforce (African youth) and how they are doing things with technology.
3. The African population is set to double in the next 25 years to 2.6 billion making the continent the largest consumer market and workforce of the future.

Overall, it was an incredible conference and it’s always great to have UX thought leaders from across the world sharing their knowledge and insights with us all so we can remain at the forefront of UX. Thank you to Torresburriel Estudio for hosting us and for executing a successful event.