First I had to admit that it was the first time I heard of Zaragoza, when it was announced where the UXMC 2023 will be held. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it is the 4th largest city in Spain and it is a super safe city as I roam the streets, sometimes even late into the evening. My love for tapas and cava were welcoming cherries atop the ice cream as I boarded the plane; the ‘ice cream’ of course being meeting with the friends of UX Alliance members.

I was particularly excited and nervous at the same time since I also spoke at the event. It helps to really remind myself that the sharing is in the hope that it will inspire others to explore what we did at Somia in one of our latest and longest (2 years!) projects, commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Digital Financial for All for the unbanked and underbanked.

I’d like to take this opportunity again to thank Daniel Torres Buriel (Founder), Alfonso Romay (COO/Strategy) and the entire crew of Torresburiel Estudio for their hard work and dedication in making the event a phenomenal success! 👏👏👏

I was very honoured to present alongside other esteemed speakers and would love to share some key takeaways for each of the talk, and hope that these serve to give you a summary of what was shared (and what you missed). So do join UXMC 24 next year! 😝

1. The Future of AI in UX

by Lindsey DeWitt Prat and Bob Schumacher from Bold Insight

Key takeaways:

1. Prediction: Adoption of generative AI will automate >30% of hours worked today by 2030.
2. Reimagining work by embracing AI involves: embrace it, adapt and reimagine roles, reskill, accept unpredictability, find out what works and doesn’t and, build a competitive advantage.
3. To embracing AI in UX research tasks need to consider: AI fit, complexity, stakes, quality and if it meets needs of UCD.

2. How leaders can better grasp future generations

by Ayumu Takeuchi and Honoka Sumida from Mitsue-Links

Key takeaways:

1. Understanding the new generations is important to change this complex world.
2. When understanding them, leaders tend to engage in ‘mold-cutting’; replacing unknown values to the similar concepts they have. It could occur disregard of the differences between these two concepts.
3. Observing new generations as they are through UX research is effective to prevent this ‘mold-cutting’.

3. From Complexity to Clarity: Navigating the Journey around Inclusive Digital Finance

by Chin Chin Burkolter (Ya, that’s me!) from Somia Customer Experience

Key takeaways:

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.

4. Designing Change: Unlocking the Potential of Automotive UIs through Qualitative-Quantitative UX Benchmarking

by Jan Panhoff from Uintent

Key takeaways:

1. In partnership with a top automotive OEM, uintent has pioneered a groundbreaking benchmarking 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.

5. From UCD to Design Justice: New Approaches to Adapt Design to Contemporary Challenges

by Judith Membrives i Lorens from Lafede.cat

Key takeaways:

1. UCD shows some limitations to understand social and contemporary challenges.
2. 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.
3. Design Justice is an approach that try to emphasize equitable and more inclusive design practices.

6. Celebrating Differences, Igniting Change: The Power of Cultural Design in Solving our Biggest Challenges

by Helga Stegmann from Mantaray

Key takeaways:

1. Understanding the cultural context of use is key to designing products that are easily be adopted.
2. Delves into the next workforce (African youth) and how they would workaround algorithms and technology to outsmart the system. African population is set to double in the next 25 years to 2.6 billion making the continent the largest consumer market of the future.
3. How to design for the youth market with the knowledge that the African youth market is set to increase the GDP of the continent by 10%-13% next 5 years?

Thanks for reading up to the almost finishing line! I do hope to see you in our UXMC 2024 and don’t be a stranger, would love to chat more on design, life, food, culture… and cats 🐱 of course.

The above digital live illustrations were magically created by Javier Alonso Gomez, it was a visual treat to watch him perform his art on the screen.

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Chin is a director and principal consultant at Somia CX. To read more articles from me, click here.

As a final note, I simply could not resist sharing this cutest tapas with you as part of my trip to Zaragoza!

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