We'll open the doors a little early and let folks in. Sometimes, we have surprises, sometimes, we play music, sometimes it's a little quiet. Get there a little early to be ready for kick-off!

Starting the event!

Over-reliance and deskilling: 2 long-term AI problems (and what designers can do about it)

AI is full of promise for users, but it introduces risk as well. The two we’ll talk about in this session are over-reliance and deskilling. Over-reliance is when users trust an AI’s output too much. Deskilling is when users lose skills they previously had, but handed off to the AI; with implications not just for users but for labor relations as well. The good news is that you as a designer can do something about each of these. Come hear Christopher Noessel introduce the problems, share examples (including two from pop culture: beloved Australian show Bluey, and Carol Beers from Little Britain), and walk us through the patterns we can implement to help take some of the sting out of AI.

Christopher Noessel
Christopher is a veteran interaction designer whose career has been focused on design for AI for the past 8 years. He teaches, speaks about, and evangelizes design around the world. His spidey-sense goes off semi-randomly, leading him to investigate and speak about a range of things from interactive narrative to ethnographic user research, interaction design to generative randomness, and designing for the future. He is co-author of Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction (Rosenfeld Media, 2012), co-author of About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design, 4th Edition (Wiley, 2015), keeper of the blog scifiinterfaces.com, and author of Designing Agentive Technology: AI That Works for People (Rosenfeld Media, 2017). He is currently writing a book about assistants that make users smarter for having used them, due fall 2025.

15 minute break.

Swimming in Data (as the AI wave approaches)

The materials we design with are changing. In the last two decades, I’ve expanded my focus from designing with pixels, to using data, to now using AI. Every new material opens new opportunities for how we design (Process), and what we design (Product). My talk will focus on the latter.

First, I’ll reflect on a decade of building data-heavy products & experiences, and show how I’ve designed with data as a material for exhibiting, explaining, exploring, expressing & enabling. Next, I’ll highlight how similar directions are emerging for designing AI-powered products & experiences, and how designers can go beyond exhibiting the output from AI models. I’ll conclude with areas of opportunities in AI x design that I’m excited for.

If you’re interested in becoming more data-literate, want to go beyond merely adding a chat UI for AI, and want some practical tips to get started, this talk is for you. Prepare for the AI wave by getting comfortable swimming in data.

Rasagy Sharma
Rasagy Sharma is a Design Leader, Data Artist, Design Educator & Sketchnoter. He currently heads the design team for DataLabs at Capital One. Earlier, he’s led teams & designed data-heavy products at orgs such as Microsoft, Sundial, Gramener, Mapbox & Barclays.

In his free time, Rasagy teaches at design schools, exhibits art created through data & code, sketchnotes inspiring conversations & supports communities like DesignUp, VizChitra & Creative Coding Sante. He holds a M.Des. in Information Design & B.E. in Computer Science Engineering.

15 minute break.

Facing the UX and AI Boogeymen: Conquering Fears to Build Careers

When I first heard about UX design, I feared it was the beginning of the end for my career in advertising. The industry was shifting, and UX felt like a threat—something that would replace the creative work I loved. But curiosity won out over fear, and I leaned in to learn what UX was really about. That decision not only preserved my career—it transformed it.

Today, I find myself at the same crossroads with AI. Once again, it feels like a looming force that could disrupt everything I’ve built in UX. But I’ve chosen to face it with the same mindset: to explore, to understand, and to use it as a tool to elevate my work rather than fear it. This talk is about how embracing change—even when it’s scary—can lead to growth, reinvention, and unexpected opportunity.

Clifton Simmons
Clifton Simmons is an award-winning writer, creative leader, and UX content strategist with over 20 years of experience spanning advertising and user-centered design. He currently serves as Associate Content Design Director at Allstate, where he merges storytelling, UX writing, and voice strategy to craft intuitive digital experiences. Clifton began his career at leading advertising agencies—including Campbell-Ewald, DDBO, and The Marketing Store—where he led creative campaigns for major global brands and sharpened his expertise in brand-driven communication.

In addition to his industry work, Clifton is deeply committed to mentorship and education. He is an instructor at Columbia College Chicago and Southern New Hampshire University, where he teaches courses in advertising, content design, and digital strategy. Through mentoring and speaking, he guides the next generation of creatives, encouraging them to embrace emerging technologies like AI as opportunities for growth and reinvention—just as he has throughout his own ever-evolving career.

15 minute break.

What the Data Can't Hear: Slowing Down to Root and Connect

In a time of rapid technological evolution, emotional intelligence is more critical than ever. And while the world rapidly moves toward “AI for Everything” and that can be overwhelming, it’s important to note that AI and human connection together can enhance—not replace—our value, resilience, and ability to create meaningful experiences.

Drawing from personal experience as a UX lead content designer and lessons learned from profound personal loss, I will share how machine learning has made me a better listener, a more empathetic designer, and a stronger leader. Through real-world examples and unexpected insights, I’ll show how emotional intelligence and technology can work hand-in-hand to foster deeper relationships—with our customers, our communities, and ourselves.

Jill Gordon
Jill Gordon is a UX lead content designer at Allstate, yoga and meditation teacher, and mom of three children currently between 18 and 22 years-old. Her lived experience in healing trauma informs and brings a powerful genuineness to her writing and an energy to learn how to connect with the world and it’s inhabitants in a more emotionally intelligent way. Jill lives in Highland Park, Illinois and is completing her first book, a memoir about the healing power of connectedness that depicts her mental health challenges honestly and with her signature dry humor woven throughout.

15 minuted break.

Curiosity Skilled the Cat: Reclaiming the Power Thinking Differently has on Creativity

Of late, the work that we do as qualitative researchers leaves us feeling that organizations aren’t really inspired to think “big”. With so many organizations hammering the “bottom line” and working hours sometimes having no definitive start or stop time – we aren’t given the chance to really think or explore beyond the tactical.

Being curious is a key contributor to sparking creativity in the field of user experience. We aren’t nurturing this skill as adults (or even as kids, let’s not go there!). We need to regain our ability to create space to be curious, and to make time for it in what feels like a permissible way. As researchers – we call out the act of conducting qualitative research as “learning from people”, “learning from customers” or “learning from constituents” – but what about “learning for ourselves” or “learning for joy”?

Join Meena in this discussion in which we unpack curiosity and how it relates to creativity – and look at ways in which organizations have truly benefited when encouraging people to follow the breadcrumbs on a path “just because”. Meena will share how to develop a curiosity habit – something that can keep the effort low, but the rewards high. For anyone involved in any product offering – this skill is pivotal to nurture.

Meena Kothandaraman
With 30 years of experience, Meena has consulted to emphasize the strategic value and positioning of qualitative research in the design of product, space and service. Meena is fascinated by the complexity of human behavior, and applies a credible, structured and transparent approach to integrating human stories and anecdotes into mainstream processes. This ensures that research activities provide the best service to the organization, and that learning objectives are addressed to maximize potential.

Meena is a founding member of twig+fish, a research and strategy practice based in Boston, MA, that espouses these research beliefs, while maintaining a utopic work-life balance. She is also a key Lecturer in the Bentley University Human Factors and Information Design (HFID) graduate program. Over her 20-year tenure, her capstone qualitative research course has guided now-leading practitioners to integrating meaningful and successful research practices.

She holds an M.S. in Information Resources Management from Syracuse University and a B.Com . in MIS from the University of Ottawa, Canada. Meena is always inspired in her work by her other passions, namely performing as a South-Indian Classical Violinist, pursuing culinary arts through a cooking show, and staying up to date with her two teenager interests!

For more, keep up with Meena on Twitter as @meena_ko.

15 minute break.

Lessons Learned from Designing for AI Systems
This presentation focuses on practical tools and frameworks for designing AI experiences that users find genuinely helpful rather than frustrating. Drawing insights from various sources, including my work on a product that helps doctors generate clinical notes from their patient conversations, I’ll provide actionable strategies for designers and teams. By the end, you’ll have a toolkit to help you and your teams create safe, user-centered applications while identifying valuable opportunities for AI to address real-world needs effectively. Highlights include:

- Team exercises to help identify and de-risk promising AI projects
- Design and Research tips for different types of AI experiences
- Why most AI experiences are actually Very Much About the Interface, Thank You
- Critical things to keep in mind while working on AI projects

Wrapping up the day.