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A giant list of 52 upcoming conferences and events for UX research, ReOps, and design offered online, in-person, or hybrid in 2023.
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The 2023 UX research event schedule has been popping off. It’s been an eventful year filled with exciting UX research conferences and events like YouX2023, the UX360 Research Summit, and The Women in Product Conference.
Missed any of these events? There’s still time to plan your event schedule for the rest of 2023.
Whether you’re going through FOMO from the ones you missed or hungry for more UX research conferences, there’s still a huge lineup of events to attend the rest of the year. You can’t go to them all, so how do you make informed decisions about which to attend and which to skip?
We did the research for you. Below you'll find the top 11 best UX research conferences and networking events we recommend you attend over the last half of the year, with details and reviews from previous attendees, including:
Plus, we’ve included a complete, filterable database of 52 upcoming relevant UX events happening throughout the year.
This list of events includes dates as soon as the next few weeks and all the way into the end of 2023 (give yourself time to prepare that keynote). Some of these events are specific to user research, while others address research alongside other topics in UX, Research Ops, product, and service design.
This is an update to last year’s events roundup post, The Best UX Research Conferences and Events in 2022.
P.S. User Interviews is sponsoring a select few of these events (with more to come!) Keep an eye out for these exciting events and sign up to connect with us in real life.
✉️ Want to stay in the loop with upcoming UX research events from User Interviews in 2023 to your inbox? Subscribe to the Fresh Views newsletter to be the first to know about UI events.
When: Aug 12-15; Sept 9-15; Sept 30-Oct 6
Where: Online
Key Speakers: Christian Rohrer of TD Bank, Kate Moran of NN/g, Garrett Goldfield of NN/g
Good for: Intensive UX training courses with an optional UX certification
Register here: https://www.nngroup.com/training/virtual/
You’re probably already familiar with NN/g, the world-leading organization for user experience research. Their Virtual UX Conference offers live training courses with industry experts, hands-on practice with collaborative exercises, and networking opportunities in the NN/g UX Slack community.
Each UX Conference offers a variety of courses for UX design, research, and management, and these courses are eligible for credits toward the UX Certification.
When: Aug 23-25
Where: New York, NY and online
Key Speakers: Meghan Preiss of Delta, Byungsoo Kim of Kansas State University, Laura Silva of Bank of America
Good for: Designers
Register here: https://www.internationaldesignconference.com/
IDC is one of the biggest industrial design events of 2023. This 3-day design conference will be full of workshops, “Lunch and Learns," interactive discussions, award ceremonies, and more.
This year’s theme for their Education Symposium is "The Watering Hole": a gathering place for the community to reflect on the current state of design and to engage in collective dialog to shape the future of design.
When: Sept 6-7
Where: Online
Key Speakers: Tory Hargro of Meta, Jordan Cooke of PepsiCo, Karolina Boremalm of IKEA
Good for: UX and product designers
Register here: https://www.uxdgsummit.com/
UXDG Virtual 2023 is Merlien’s flagship event born out of our QUAL360 and UX360 research conference series. This event is basically a platform that provides space for the world’s best designers to showcase their latest design innovations and successful UX design strategies.
UXDG will showcase the latest UX and Product Design—from innovative design thinking processes, product design strategies, to user research and testing. This 2-day virtual conference will feature speakers from top-level UX and Product Designers from the world’s largest brands in panel discussions and interactive workshops.
When: Sept 11-13, 2023
Where: Boulder, CO
Key Speakers: Dr. Mike Oren of Klaviyo, Calvin Robertson of Best Buy, Brandon Harwood of IBM
Good for: UX researchers, designers, and product professionals
Register here: https://uxstrat.com/usa/
UX STRAT brings together experienced design and product professionals from around the world to discuss trends and best practices in product design strategy. Because UX STRAT is offered online and in-person in the United States, Europe, and Asia, attendees have control over their experience and can participate no matter their location or comfort level with in-person events.
Previous UX STRAT sessions have covered topics like the current state of strategic design, frameworks for mixed methods product design research, designing for human-centered AI, and more. You can view highlight reels from past presentations here or view presentation slides here.
✨ This year, User Interviews is proud to sponsor UXStrat 2023! We're excited to connect with other UXers at one of the biggest UX conferences this year. Sign up to reserve your spot (and drop by our table to say hi IRL).
When: Sept 26, 2023
Where: Hybrid—online and in-person
Key Speakers: TBD
Good for: Interaction designers and researchers
Register here: https://www.interactiondesignday.org/
World Interaction Design Day is an annual interactive design conference presented in partnership with Adobe XD and the Interaction Design Association (IxDA). Taking place in September every year, the conference offers presentations, workshops, and design showcases focused on celebrating and elevating the work of interaction designers.
Past workshops have covered topics like ethical and inclusive design, measuring and communicating the value of UX, culture and sustainable product development, and more.
Here’s what one UX researcher had to say about the 2019 World Interaction Design Day Event:
"Thoroughly enjoyed World Interaction Day in Bos thanks to the Ladies That UX Bos, Women Talk Design, and Car Gurus team. The speaker selection was impeccable - I learned so much from each lightning talk and the panel on how I can build trust and protect the users I build products for."
When: Oct 5-6
Where: Raleigh, North Carolina
Key Speakers: TBD
Good for: User researchers, designers, and all UX professionals
Register here: https://www.uxyall.org/
UX Y’all is the annual conference hosted by the Triangle UXPA, a North Carolina chapter of the User Experience Professionals Association. The conference is fully planned and operated by a team of volunteers. It was started in 2018 to further support and highlight the Triangle’s community of UXers.
This year’s theme centers around the idea of “The Breaks.” We want to hear about your lucky breaks, what caused you to put on the brakes, and what things you have broken (either by accident or design). What lessons can we impart from breaking apart systems, designs, culture, and our environments?
When: Oct 7-10
Where: Chicago, IL
Key Speakers: Marta Cuciurean-Zapan of IDEO and Evan Hanover of Conifer Research
Good for: Ethnographers and researchers
Register here: https://www.epicpeople.org/epic2023-big-reveal/
EPIC People is a nonprofit membership organization, global community, and annual conference that supports the professional development, learning, and leadership of people who practice and promote ethnography. Their annual conference offers tools, skills, and expertise to advance the value of ethnography in business and help ethnographers grow their careers.
This year, EPIC2023’s theme is “friction.” As EPIC2023 co-chairs Marta Cuciurean-Zapan and Evan Hanover say in their announcement:
“We experience friction everyday as researchers, designers, teachers, students, UXers and more...as people. To do good work and to function in our organizations, and to advance specific insights and innovations to the larger context of organizational strategy. This also happens in the specifics, in how ethnographic and other research knowledge surfaces the tensions and the tradeoffs of specific decisions about which products, services, and features to develop and why. For those of us working in systems and strategy, it emerges in the choices that are made in what to invest in, whether it is a research initiative, a portfolio choice, or standing up a new team.”
✨ Psst...User Interviews might be there IRL. We're bookmarking this one to attend so we can connect with the most epic people. Sign up to reserve your spot and come say hi!
When: Oct 10-12
Where: Los Angeles, CA
Key Speakers: Adam J. Kurtz of ADAMJK, Chris Do of The Futur, Dana Tanamachi of Tanamachi Studio
Good for: Designers and all creatives
Register here: https://max.adobe.com/
Adobe MAX 2023, the world-leading annual creativity conference, will take place this October in Los Angeles, United States. Apart from attending the event in person, designers, developers and creative managers may also choose to join in the free virtual segment from October 10-11 to access a series of keynotes and on-demand sessions.
When: Nov 16, 2023
Where: San Francisco, CA and online
Key Speakers: TBD
Good for: Product managers and product teams
Register here: https://productschool.com/productcon/san-francisco-2023
ProductCon is the world’s largest product management conference hosted four times a year by the Product School, a global leader in Product Management training with a community of 1,000,000+ product professionals.
The conference features a mix of keynotes, breakout sessions, and panel discussions providing actionable insights into all aspects of developing products that users love.
Here’s what Maryam Shittu, Senior Product Manager at TD Bank, had to say about a previous ProductCon event:
“I attended #ProductCon in NYC to hear top industry veterans speak about the future of Product. The incredible speakers covered several topics including advancement in machine learning, the future of product personalization, building habit-forming products, purpose-driven products, product research techniques, and so much more.“
When: Nov 1-2
Where: Singapore
Key Speakers: Farheen Romani of Colgate-Palmolive, Imran Khan of Kellogg’s, Varun Arora of Bias
Good for: User researchers focused on qualitative research
Register here: https://apac.qual360.com/
Qual360 is the only global conference series dedicated to qualitative market research. It’s also the only qualitative market research conference in Asia! With its 15 year history, Qual360 is a unique event catering to a strong global community of dedicated “Quallies.”
Qual360 is all about networking, learning and creating new opportunities. Industry leaders join to discuss innovative research approaches, learn about the latest methodologies and how to leverage new types of insight. Each conference agenda is steered by an independent advisory board that reviews all speaking proposals, ensuring the highest possible quality.
“You don’t walk away from every conference hearing something new. The speakers at Qual360 spoke about truly relevant topics and started me to think about how I could apply these hearings in my role”
—Director, Consumer & Market Insights, Beiersdorf
When: Nov 23-24
Where: Málaga, Spain
Key Speakers: Anna Cook of Microsoft, Josephine Scholtes of Microsoft, Sara Vieira of Axo
Good for: UX and front-end developers
Register here: https://www.weyweyweb.com/
The “Wey Wey Web” conference is a “yay-yay” conference for UI/UX lovers. Basically, it’s a conference all about the latest trends in web technology.
Some of the main topics that will be covered in this UX research event include:
Having FOMO for the UX conferences or events that already passed in 2023? No worries, most UX research conferences offer a video recap or a sneak peek for the next event if they occur annually.
Here’s a recap of past events and conferences in 2023 to keep an eye out for in 2024:
YouX 2023 was User Interviews’s first ever virtual conference that passed this January. YouX attracted more than 3.500 registrants with speakers from User Interviews, Google, User Research Academy, and more.
📕📹 Missed out on YouX? Read our recap blog post or watch the recordings from each session.
2024 details:
✉️ Want to stay in the loop of more virtual events from User Interviews? Sign up for the Fresh Views newsletter to keep a pulse on upcoming events.
The virtual UX360 Research Summit is for UX researchers with presentations from top UX researchers, interactive panel discussions, and 1–1 networking meetings to showcase the latest in UX research.
UX360 sessions included topics like creating a culture of constant learning, inclusivity in UX design, upskilling your way to a successful UX research career, and more.
2024 details:
This conference was “a call to rethink decision-making processes that drive the design of technology.” Interaction Week 23 brought together over 90 speakers who were design leaders from diverse backgrounds to host an exciting range of workshops to amplify takeaways from the conference.
2024 details:
Rosenfeld Media is a highly trusted resource for those interested in user experience research and design. Their annual Advancing Research Conference offers diverse, high-quality presentations and workshops designed by experts in user research, as well as fun networking events and a conference Slack workspace.
2024 details:
Like the UX360 Research Summit, the QUAL360 global in-person conference is organized for UX researchers by the Merlien Institute. With presentations from top UX researchers, interactive panel discussions, and 1–1 networking meetings, each event showcases the latest in UX research and design.
2024 details:
UXInsight is an international organization dedicated to UX research and Europe’s first and largest UX community. Their annual UXInsight Festival attracts UX researchers from all over the world to discuss trends in UX research, case studies, emerging methods and technologies, research maturity, and more.
2024 details:
Women in Product is a global community with the goal of inspiring, educating, and connecting women in the product field while advocating for a more diverse workplace. Their annual conference offers interactive sessions, 1–1 networking, access to post-event recordings, and more.
2024 details:
User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) is an international organization that supports people who research, design, and evaluate the user experience of products and services. Their annual conference brings together UX professionals from all over the world to host short talks, panel discussions, Q&A sessions, and more.
2024 details:
UXRConf 2023 was built by Learners with the goal of celebrating and advancing UX research. The 3-day event attracts thousands of researchers from over 60 countries.
2024 details:
ReOpsConf is the first-ever conference hosted by the ResearchOps Community, providing a full day of learning and growth dedicated to the field of Research Operations. This year was its second year, with User Interviews as the proud presenting sponsor for 2023. The ReOpsConf is held online and in-person to support the global ReOps community.
2024 details:
The HCI International Conference is the 25th international conference on human-computer interaction. At the time of this post, the event is currently in progress, but if you’re a lucky early reader, try and grab a last-minute spot for their virtual tutorials, parallel sessions, and workshops!
While the event is taking place in Denmark this year, they also offer hybrid options to let more people join.
2024 details:
Don’t have time to spare for any of the big UX research conferences? You can still keep up with your UX learning with smaller, online events or webinars.
Here are some upcoming virtual UX events or webinars you can attend for a lunch break:
Hopefully, you’ve spotted a handful of events on this list that you’re excited about for the coming year.
Use this updated list of the best events and conferences in 2023 for UX research, ReOps, Design to:
✉️ Want to stay in the loop with upcoming UX research events from User Interviews in 2023 to your inbox? Subscribe to the Fresh Views newsletter to be the first to know about UI events.
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Content Marketing Manager
Rachell is a (former) Content Marketing Manager at User Interviews. Content writer. Marketing enthusiast. INFJ. Inspired by humans and their stories. She spends ridiculous amounts of time on Duolingo and cooking new recipes.
