Thursday August 27
How Do We Design Vibrant Communities?
As designers, We have never had more tools, more methods, more frameworks, And yet the feeling of collective life, of shared prosperity, of genuine community, has been slowly slipping. The feeling of collective…
Design Shapes Context, Context Shapes Design
Over five years of working together across multiple projects, we've accumulated real, practical learnings about what it means to bring genuine context awareness into your design process, and this talk is the…
The architecture of human mental health support: re-designing ReachOut PeerChat for on-demand support
Young people’s expectations of the services they engage with are shaped by their experiences of the broader digital world. In an era defined by hyper-personalised and near-instant online experiences, mental health…
Brunch
What is the role of design in a product-led world
Over the past three months, I’ve gone deep into AI—not as a theorist, but as a design leader trying to make sense of how this technology is reshaping our practice in real time.
In this talk, I share that journey.…
Why most Mobile UX increases risk — and how to reduce it
Mobile UX is obsessed with speed.
Fewer steps. One-tap actions. Flows so smooth you barely notice them.
The problem is that mobile design inherited desktop assumptions and disguised them as mobile-first.
We…
Enjoyment as a Design Principle and Metric
For years digital design has focused on efficiency. Faster systems. Leaner services. Tighter workflows. Organisations measure success through reduced clicks, task completion rates, and time saved. These measures are…
Beyond Designers: Building a Culture of UX Through a Playbook
Our proposed talk will discuss our journey developing a central UX and design resource to support library staff in developing user-centered experiences. Our resource, the Library Design Playbook, offers a scaffolded…
Afternoon Tea
Designing for disappointment
Most digital journeys are designed with an end destination in mind. Search, discover, decide, convert - done. The experience is considered complete the moment someone gets what they came for.
At PetRescue, that…
The Masking Tax: How Workplace Products Charge an Invisible Cost on Disabled Employees
Invisible disabilities affect 1 in 5 people, yet most UX research processes, workplace tools, and design systems are built as if they don't exist. As a product designer at Movember living with an invisible disability,…
In conversation
Sam Alderton-Johnson joins Steve Baty for a fireside chat talking about his work reframing co-design as a decolonising practice–one that recognises sovereignty, redistributes decision-making authority, and centres…
Close
How Do We Design Vibrant Communities?
As designers, We have never had more tools, more methods, more frameworks, And yet the feeling of collective life, of shared prosperity, of genuine community, has been slowly slipping. The feeling of collective…
Design Shapes Context, Context Shapes Design
Over five years of working together across multiple projects, we've accumulated real, practical learnings about what it means to bring genuine context awareness into your design process, and this talk is the…
The architecture of human mental health support: re-designing ReachOut PeerChat for on-demand support
Young people’s expectations of the services they engage with are shaped by their experiences of the broader digital world. In an era defined by hyper-personalised and near-instant online experiences, mental health…
Brunch
What is the role of design in a product-led world
Over the past three months, I’ve gone deep into AI—not as a theorist, but as a design leader trying to make sense of how this technology is reshaping our practice in real time.
In this talk, I share that journey.…
Why most Mobile UX increases risk — and how to reduce it
Mobile UX is obsessed with speed.
Fewer steps. One-tap actions. Flows so smooth you barely notice them.
The problem is that mobile design inherited desktop assumptions and disguised them as mobile-first.
We…
Enjoyment as a Design Principle and Metric
For years digital design has focused on efficiency. Faster systems. Leaner services. Tighter workflows. Organisations measure success through reduced clicks, task completion rates, and time saved. These measures are…
Beyond Designers: Building a Culture of UX Through a Playbook
Our proposed talk will discuss our journey developing a central UX and design resource to support library staff in developing user-centered experiences. Our resource, the Library Design Playbook, offers a scaffolded…
Afternoon Tea
Designing for disappointment
Most digital journeys are designed with an end destination in mind. Search, discover, decide, convert - done. The experience is considered complete the moment someone gets what they came for.
At PetRescue, that…
The Masking Tax: How Workplace Products Charge an Invisible Cost on Disabled Employees
Invisible disabilities affect 1 in 5 people, yet most UX research processes, workplace tools, and design systems are built as if they don't exist. As a product designer at Movember living with an invisible disability,…
In conversation
Sam Alderton-Johnson joins Steve Baty for a fireside chat talking about his work reframing co-design as a decolonising practice–one that recognises sovereignty, redistributes decision-making authority, and centres…
Close
Friday August 28
The city as interface: What neurodivergent experiences can teach us about designing for every mind
What does a cluttered footpath have in common with a confusing navigation menu? Drawing on in-depth walking interviews with neurodivergent adults navigating Sydney's public spaces, this keynote reframes neuroinclusion…
You're Not Designing the Experience. You're Inheriting It
Most of what shapes a healthcare experience was decided before you were in the room – by legislation, conformance requirements, and the data models beneath the interface. If you don't understand what sits there, you're…
Building your inclusive design toolkit
Designing inclusively is more crucial now than ever before. Given the current state of tech -- especially rapid advances in artificial intelligence and ever-higher stakes in data, privacy, and identity handling -- UX…
Brunch
The Human Margin
Designing for the Human Margin is a talk about the precise, mappable territory AI cannot take from design — and why our discipline has been quietly giving it away for twenty years.
From reactive systems to proactive intelligence
For decades, we've designed technology to help people react.
An alert appears. A dashboard turns red. Teams scramble to investigate, triage, and resolve problems after they've already happened.
But what if…
Designing for the Mind: Using Cognitive Load to Measure UX Effectiveness
User experience design often focuses on usability, accessibility, and task success. But even when users complete a task successfully, an interface may still be demanding unnecessary mental effort.
Every extra…
Unplanned Disruption: Mind the Gaps
Unplanned disruption is where complex systems are most exposed. In transport, it brings together multiple modes, fragmented systems, and teams making decisions quickly with incomplete information. The result is not just…
Afternoon Tea
Getting comfortable with the unknown
Every UX-er knows the feeling: You've landed in a new project, a new role, or a new organisation, and the brief is vague, the stakeholders have assumptions baked in, and nobody seems to agree on what the actual problem…
Leadership that lasts
Attributes and conversations about UX and Product Design leadership often centre on scale and efficiency: growing headcount, enabling company growth, introducing streamlined practices and systems, refining operating…
Your Strategic Future
All of the most important decisions about a project or company's customers, value, requirements, performance, intent, and impact are made before it's ever given to designers and engineers. That puts developers at a…
Close
The city as interface: What neurodivergent experiences can teach us about designing for every mind
What does a cluttered footpath have in common with a confusing navigation menu? Drawing on in-depth walking interviews with neurodivergent adults navigating Sydney's public spaces, this keynote reframes neuroinclusion…
You're Not Designing the Experience. You're Inheriting It
Most of what shapes a healthcare experience was decided before you were in the room – by legislation, conformance requirements, and the data models beneath the interface. If you don't understand what sits there, you're…
Building your inclusive design toolkit
Designing inclusively is more crucial now than ever before. Given the current state of tech -- especially rapid advances in artificial intelligence and ever-higher stakes in data, privacy, and identity handling -- UX…
Brunch
The Human Margin
Designing for the Human Margin is a talk about the precise, mappable territory AI cannot take from design — and why our discipline has been quietly giving it away for twenty years.
From reactive systems to proactive intelligence
For decades, we've designed technology to help people react.
An alert appears. A dashboard turns red. Teams scramble to investigate, triage, and resolve problems after they've already happened.
But what if…
Designing for the Mind: Using Cognitive Load to Measure UX Effectiveness
User experience design often focuses on usability, accessibility, and task success. But even when users complete a task successfully, an interface may still be demanding unnecessary mental effort.
Every extra…
Unplanned Disruption: Mind the Gaps
Unplanned disruption is where complex systems are most exposed. In transport, it brings together multiple modes, fragmented systems, and teams making decisions quickly with incomplete information. The result is not just…
Afternoon Tea
Getting comfortable with the unknown
Every UX-er knows the feeling: You've landed in a new project, a new role, or a new organisation, and the brief is vague, the stakeholders have assumptions baked in, and nobody seems to agree on what the actual problem…
Leadership that lasts
Attributes and conversations about UX and Product Design leadership often centre on scale and efficiency: growing headcount, enabling company growth, introducing streamlined practices and systems, refining operating…
Your Strategic Future
All of the most important decisions about a project or company's customers, value, requirements, performance, intent, and impact are made before it's ever given to designers and engineers. That puts developers at a…