Tags: uxlondon

Piccia Neri’s post on LinkedIn

What a slap in the face of every tech conference that claims it is simply not possible to have a truly representative line-up: multiple perspectives, multiple faces, multiple experiences, rather than the same default one we’ve all been staring at for decades (that’s a white middle aged man in case you’re wondering. I do love you, white middle aged man, but we’ve heard from you, and keep hearing from you. Time to hear from others, too).

Yes, my friend. It is possible. UX London has done it. The Clearleft team has done it. Go look for yourself.

When I told you about the schedule for UX London 2026, I said:

After your afternoon workshop there’ll be one final closing talk at the end of each day before we head to the bar.

These closing talks are a way of bringing everyone back into the same space after spending the afternoon in different workshops. It feels right to start the day and end the day with a shared experience.

On day one, discovery day, the closing talk will be delivered by Michael Kibedi. It’s called Whose English gets to be default?

Ben Sauer will be giving the closing talk on day two, design day. His talk is called Story before screens.

Finally, on day three, delivery day, the closing talk will be from Lou Downe. It’s called Bad services, which also happens to be the title of their brand new book!

As you can see, each day at UX London is crafted to be a distinct one-day event, but all three days also flow together nicely.

If you haven’t got a ticket yet, grab one now before the standard pricing ends at midnight. And don’t forget that you can use the discount code JOIN_JEREMY to get a tasty 20% off.

There’s just under a month to go until UX London 2026—exciting!

You can peruse the full schedule if you need to decide wether you’re coming for just one day or for all three. The event is designed to flow together, from discovery day to design day to delivery day, but each individual day is also designed to be a standalone experience by itself.

Day one on Tuesday, June 2nd has a focus on research:

1. Maria Isachenko will talk about how You don’t need more research time: You need a system that keeps research in product decisions.
2. Melin Edomwonyi covers Validation as a UX superpower.
3. Marley Dizney Swanson will present From insight to impact: A hypothesis-driven framework for product teams.
4. Luisa Berta will be talking about Turning failure into opportunity.

Day two on Wednesday, June 3rd is all about the nitty-gritty details of design:

1. Julia Petretta kicks things off with From onboarding to “a-ha!”: Designing the moments that really matter.
2. Andrea Grigsby has a case study called Why must things be this way? Designing with intention.
3. Piccia Neri puts a positive spin on accessibility with her talk, The best creative brief.
4. Hidde de Vries will explain why The future of UX is green: On the Web Sustainability Guidelines.

Day three on Thursday, June 4th will cover collaboration and design systems:

1. Ben Callahan will impart Wisdom from the trees.
2. Lucy Blackwell and Alex Edwards will give a case study on Putting the user at the centre of your design system.
3. Rachel Ilan Simpson will take us From 0 to scale: Building and transforming design at startups & scale-ups.
4. Matt LeMay will cover why The communication of the thing IS the thing

And those are just the morning talks!

On each day you’ll have your choice of workshop for the afternoon.

1. Feyikemi Akinwolemiwa will cover Future friction: Horizon scanning for UX.
2. Natasha den Dekker will help you answer the question How well do you know your users? Exploring assumptions through play
3. Chris How’s workshop is Yippee IA: Information architecture for digital designers
4. Oore Babatunde will help you put together UX practitioner’s code of ethics.
5. Lucrezia Ponzano will take you From chaos to clarity: A tactical workshop for real alignment.
6. Ben Callahan will guide you through Assessing organisational culture.

After your afternoon workshop there’ll be one final closing talk at the end of each day before we head to the bar. I haven’t announced those speakers yet, but believe me when I say they’re going to be quite special!

UX London 2026 is shaping up to be an excellent three days of design. Get your ticket now if you haven’t already got one.

(And just between you and me, you can use the discount code JOIN_JEREMY to get a whopping 20% off any ticket price!)

You should come to UX London in the first week of June. Why? Because it’s going to be awesome, that’s why!

You probably knew that already. You probably already decided to get a ticket because you’re smart like that.

But don’t dilly-dally! Early-bird tickets are available now but in just over one week, they won’t be.

So get your ticket by Friday, March 27th. If you get your ticket now, it’s a win for everyone. You get a cheaper ticket. We know for sure that you’re coming.

Every time someone buys a conference ticket in plenty of time, the conference organiser sleeps a little better at night.

If you need to convince your boss, you can give them these reasons to attend. I even made an email template you can use a starting point for making the case.

You could come for all three days of UX London, or you can pick just one day.

Tuesday, June 2nd is discovery day with a focus on user research. You’ll hear from great speakers like Melin Edomwonyi and Maria Isachenko as well as getting workshops from Natasha den Dekker and Feyikemi Akinwolemiwa.

Wednesday, June 3rd is design day where it’s all about the nitty-gritty details. Not only will there be great talks from Andrea Grigsby, Julia Petretta, and Hidde de Vries, there’s going to be the best-named workshop ever from my colleague Chris How: Yippee IA!

Thursday, June 4th is delivery with a focus on design systems and collaboration. Alex Edwards, Lucy Blackwell, Rachel Ilan Simpson and Ben Callahan will all be giving talks (and Ben’s doing a workshop too).

That’s not even close to the final line-up. I’m confirming more speakers right now and getting very, very excited about how it’s all shaping up.

You know you don’t want to miss this one. So get your early-bird ticket now while you still can.

Jeremy Keith – beyond tellerrand Podcast

I really enjoyed this chat with Marc:

I recently sat down with Jeremy Keith for a spontaneous conversation that quickly turned into a deep dive into something we both care a lot about: events, community, and why we keep putting ourselves through the joy and pain of running conferences.

UX London will be back in 2026. It’s on June 2nd, 3rd, and 4th:

Each day features a morning packed with inspiring talks followed by an afternoon of practical hands-on workshops. It’s the perfect blend!

As with last year, each day will be themed:

• 2 June 2026: discovery day
• 3 June 2026: design day
• 4 June 2026: delivery day

You can come for a single day, but for best value, you should come for all three days.

I’m starting to put the line-up together now—hoping to match the excellence of last year’s event—and I’ll start announcing speakers early in the new year.

But if you trust me, then I highly recommend getting a super-early bird ticket now. They’ll only be available for another couple of weeks. You get a significant discount if you buy now.

Oh, and while I’m in the process of putting the line-up together, you should know that you can submit a talk or workshop proposal:

We always pay ALL our speakers for their time as well as covering the cost of accommodation and economy travel.

Don’t be shy! Pitch early, pitch often.

(That said, I wouldn’t recommend pitching a talk that focuses on “AI”. It’s not just that the bubble will probably have burst by the time UX London rolls around, it’s also that UX London doesn’t tend to focus on tools, whether they’re graphic design tools like Figma or generative tools like whatever people are using to turbo-charge their output of slop. If you’ve got a case study you want to talk about that happened to use some “AI” tool, great! But don’t make that the focus of the talk. Tell me about the problem and the solution.)

A bunch of the UX London speakers have been saying very nice things about the event over on LinkedIn. I’m going to quote a few of them for my future self to look at when I’m freaking out about curating the next event…

Valentina D’Efilippo:

Still buzzing … UX London smashed all expectations!

Huge shoutout to Jeremy Keith and the entire Clearleft team for their tireless efforts in making this event truly special. Three days packed with inspiration, insights, and true gems – I left feeling inspired, grateful, and already looking forward to next year’s event!

Eleni Beveratou:

Huge thanks to my fellow speakers for the inspiring talks, and to the team at Clearleft (Jeremy Keith, Louise Ash, and so many more!) for putting together such a brilliant event.

Videha Sharma:

I’ve loved learning and sharing this week! Feeling super inspired and looking forward to building new friendships!

Carolina Greno:

Last week in UX London I got to witness event planning mastery, I was in awe. Things ran smoothly and people were united under a premise: to share knowledge and build community.

This doesn’t happen by chance, it’s the mastery that pros like Jeremy and Louise bring to the table.

Sayani Mitra

Bold, thought-provoking talks. Hands-on workshops that challenged and stretched thinking. And a real sense of community that reminded me why spaces like this matter so much.

Nina Mathilde Dyrberg:

The conference was packed with inspiration, thoughtful conversations, and a strong focus on accessibility and inclusivity. Thank you Luke Hay, Jeremy Keith, Louise Ash, and the whole Clearleft team for creating such a welcoming and inspiring space!

Craig Abbott:

Jeremy Keith, Richard Rutter, Louise Ash, Chris How, Sophie Count, Luke Hay and the rest of Clearleft, take a bow! Hands down one of the best conference experiences I’ve had!

The curation was excellent, the talks complimented each other so well, it was almost like we’d all met up and rehearsed it beforehand!

ÌníOlúwa Abíódún:

A huge thank you to Jeremy Keith, Louise Ash and the Clearleft team for the opportunity and the brilliant conference you’ve put together.

It’s been inspiring to experience every moment of it.

Laura Dantonio:

Shoutout to the organisers for curating such a rich experience—3 themed days focused on Discovery, Design, and Delivery.

We remember through stories. And this event was full of them. Already looking forward to next year.

And I’m just going to quote Rachel Rosenson’s post in its entirety:

Spoke at UXLondon last week—and while the talks were great, it was something off-stage that really stuck with me.

After the Day 1 talks wrapped, a bunch of us speakers grabbed a drink, and someone pointed out: Every single speaker that day—every one—was a woman. 5 talks. 4 workshops. All women.

And it wasn’t a “Women in Tech” day. It was just… the conference.

No one made a fuss. No banners. No “look at us go!”

Just incredible women, giving incredible talks, like it was the most normal thing in the world. (Spoiler: it should be.)

Jeremy Keith mentioned how frustrating it is that all-male line-ups are still so common—and how important it is to actively design for inclusion. Major props to Jeremy and the Clearleft team for curating a line-up that was intentional without performativity.

It was refreshing. No tokenism. No checkbox energy. Just great voices on great stages. And a big honor to be one of them.

UX London happened last week.

Working on an event is a weird kind of project. You spend all your time and effort on something that is then over in the blink of an eye.

I’d been preparing for this all year. 95% of my work happened before the event—curating the line-up, planning each day. There wasn’t all that much for me to do at the event itself other than introduce the speakers and chat with the attendees.

Maybe it was because there was very little left in my control, but the night before the event I found myself feeling really anxious and nervous. I was pretty sure the line-up was excellent, but anything could happen. I really wanted everyone to have a great time, but at that point, there wasn’t much more I could do.

Then the first day started. Every talk was superb. Everyone got really stuck into their workshops. By the end of the day, people were buzzing about what a great time they’d had.

My nervousness was easing. But that was only one day of three.

The second day was just as good. Again, every talk was superb. I began to suspect that the first day wasn’t just a fluke.

The third day confirmed it. Three days of top-notch talks—nary a dud in the whole line-up!

It was, dare I say it, the best UX London yet. Not just because of the talks and workshops. The attendees were absolutely lovely! There was a really good buzz throughout.

By the end of the event I felt a huge sense of relief.

For this year’s UX London, I put a lot of time and effort into curating the line-up. There were some safe bets. There were some risky bets. They all paid off.

I’m incredibly grateful to all of the fantastic speakers and workshop hosts who really gave it their all. And I’m so, so grateful to everyone who came. It’s a tough time for events right now, and I really appreciate every single person who made it to this year’s UX London. Thank you!

The only downside to pouring my heart and soul into this year’s line-up is that I left nothing in the tank for next year. I’m already starting to worry—how am I going to top UX London 2025?

Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day:

The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than One Billion people with disabilities/impairments.

Awareness is good. It’s necessary. But it’s not sufficient.

Accessibility, like sustainability and equality, is the kind of thing that most businesses will put at the end of sentences that begin “We are committed to…”

It’s what happens next that matters. How does that declared commitment—that awareness—turn into action?

In the worst-case scenario, an organisation might reach for an accessibility overlay. Who can blame them? They care about accessibility. They want to do something. This is something.

Good intentions alone can result in an inaccessible website. That’s why I think there’s another level of awareness that’s equally important. Designers and developers need to be aware of what they can actually do in service of accessibility.

Fortunately that’s not an onerous expectation. It doesn’t take long to grasp the importance of having good colour contrast or using the right HTML elements.

An awareness of HTML is like a superpower when it comes to accessibility. Like I wrote in the foreword to the Web Accessibility Cookbook by O’Reilly:

It’s supposed to be an accessibility cookbook but it’s also one of the best HTML tutorials you’ll ever find. Come for the accessibility recipe; stay for the deep understanding of markup.

The challenge is that HTML is hidden. Like Cassie said in the accessibility episode of The Clearleft Podcast:

You get JavaScript errors if you do that wrong and you can see if your CSS is broken, but you don’t really have that with accessibility. It’s not as obvious when you’ve got something wrong.

We are biased towards what we can see—hierarchy, layout, imagery, widgets. Those are the outputs. When it comes to accessibility, what matters is how those outputs are generated. Is that button actually a button element or is it a div? Is that heading actually an h1 or is it another div?

This isn’t about the semantics of HTML. This is about the UX of HTML:

Instead of explaining the meaning of a certain element, I show them what it does.

That’s the kind of awareness I’m talking about.

One way of gaining this awareness is to get a feel for using a screen reader.

The name is a bit of a misnomer. Reading the text on screen is the least important thing that the software does. The really important thing that a screen reader does is convey the structure of what’s on screen.

Friend of Clearleft, Jamie Knight very generously spent an hour of his time this week showing everyone the basics of using VoiceOver on a Mac (there’s a great short video by Ethan that also covers this).

Using the rotor, everyone was able to explore what’s under the hood of a web page; all the headings, the text of all the links, the different regions of the page.

That’s not going to turn anyone into an accessibility expert overnight, but it gave everyone an awareness of how much the HTML matters.

Mind you, accessibility is a much bigger field than just screen readers.

Fred recently hosted a terrific panel called Is neurodiversity the next frontier of accessibility in UX design?—well worth a watch!

One of those panelists—Craig Abbott—is speaking on day two of UX London next month. His talk has the magnificent title, Accessibility is a design problem:

I spend a bit of time covering some misconceptions about accessibility, who is responsible for it, and why it’s important that we design for it up front. It also includes real-world examples where design has impacted accessibility, before moving onto lots of practical guidance on what to be aware of and how to design for many different accessibility issues.

Get yourself a ticket and get ready for some practical accessibility awareness.

It’s just over one month until UX London. You should grab a ticket if you haven’t already!

The format of UX London is quite special. While the focus of each day is different—discovery, design, and delivery—each day unfolds like this…

There are four talks in the morning. You get your brain filled with ideas and learn from fantastic speakers. It’s a single track—everyone’s getting the same shared experience.

Then after a lunch, you choose from one of four workshops. Whatever you choose, it’s going to be hands-on. You can leave your laptop at home.

A day of listening to talks could get exhausting. A workshop that lasts all day could be even more exhausting. But somehow by splitting the day between both activities, the energy level is just right!

That said, we don’t want the day to end with everyone spread across four different workshop rooms. That’s why there’s one final talk at the end of each day.

These closing talks are a bit different to the morning talks. Whereas the focus of the morning talks is on practical skills that you can apply straight away, the closing talks are an opportunity to sit back and have your mind expanded. They’ll be fun and thought-provoking.

Paula Zuccotti is closing out day one with a talk about two of her projects: Every Thing We Touch and Future Archeology:

This talk invites audiences to reconsider the meaning of the objects they encounter every day and reflect on what their possessions might reveal about who we are and what we value, both now and in the years to come.

Sarah Hyndman will wrap up day two with a fun interactive talk about your senses:

Join a live expedition into our inner world to explore why we see, feel and remember.

Finally, Rachel Coldicutt is going to finish UX London with a rallying cry:

Introducing the Society of Hopeful Technologists and discussing how, in modern technology development, your practice is probably more political than you realise.

I can’t wait! Get yourself a ticket for a day or for all three days.

And as a little thank you for tolerating my excitement, use the discount code JOINJEREMY to get 20% off your ticket.

In exactly six weeks time, UX London is happening!

I am ridiculously excited about this year’s line-up—I can’t wait to see the talks and get hands-on in the workshops.

If you haven’t yet got your ticket, now is the time. There’s a flash sale this week: use the discount code FLASH20 to get a whopping 20% of any ticket. Do it before the end of Friday!

Whether you’re coming for all three days or choosing one focused day, you’re in for a treat.

• Day one on Tuesday, 10 June is discovery day.
• Day two on Wednesday, 11 June is design day.
• Day three on Thursday, 12 June is deliver day.

Head on over to the website to get all the details and then get your discounted ticket.

See you there!

I’ve had my head down for the past six months putting the line-up for UX London together. Following the classic design cliché, the process was first divergent, then convergent.

I spent months casting the net wide, gathering as many possible candidates as I could, as well as accepting talk proposals (of which there were lots). It was fun—this is when the possibility space is wide open.

Then it was crunch time and I had to start zeroing in on the final line-up. It wasn’t easy. There were so many times I agonised over who’d be the right person to deliver the right talk.

But as the line-up came together, I started getting very excited. And now when I step back and look at the line-up, I’m positively vibrating with excitement—roll on June!

I think it was really useful to have a mix of speakers that I reached out to, as well as talk proposals. If I was only relying on my own knowledge and networks, I’m sure I’d miss a lot. But equally, if I was only relying on talk proposals, it would be like searching for my keys under the streetlight.

Putting the line-up on the website wasn’t quite the end of the work. We got over 100 proposals for UX London this year. I made sure to send an email back to each and every one of them once the line-up was complete. And if anyone asked for more details as to why their proposal didn’t make it through, I was happy to provide that feedback.

After they went to the trouble of submitting a proposal, it was the least I could do.

Oh, and don’t forget: early-bird tickets for UX London are only available until Friday. Now’s the time to get yours!

Check it out—here’s the line-up for UX London 2025!

This is going to be so good! Grab a ticket if you haven’t got one yet.

UX London takes place over three days, from June 10th to 12th at a fantastic venue in the heart of the city. To get the full experience, you should come for all three days. But you can also get a ticket for individual days. Each day has a focus, and when you put them all together, the whole event mirrors the design process:

1. Day one: Discovery
2. Day two: Design
3. Day three: Delivery

Each day features a morning of talks, followed by an afternoon of workshops. The talks are on a single track; four consecutive half-hour presentations to get you inspired. Then after lunch, you choose from one of four workshops. All the workshops are two and half hours long and very hands-on. No laptop required.

On discovery day you’ll have talks in the morning about research, content design, strategy and evaluating technology, followed by workshops on discovery and definition and behavioural design.

On design day there’ll be talks on interface design, a healthcare case study, inclusive design, and typography, followed by workshops in the afternoon on data visualisation and ethics.

Finally on delivery day you’ll get talks on conversion design, cross-team collaboration, convincing stakeholders, and improving design critiques, followed by workshops on facilitating workshops and getting better at public speaking.

Every workshop is repeated on another day so you’ll definitely get the chance to attend the one you want.

Oh, and at the end of every day there’ll be a closing keynote. Those are yet to be revealed, but I can guarantee they’re going to be top-notch!

Right now you can get early-bird tickets for all three days, or individual days. That changes from March 15th, when the regular pricing kicks in—a three-day ticket will cost £200 more. So I’d advise you to get your ticket now.

If you need to convince your boss, show them this list of reasons to attend.

See you there!

When I was looking back at 2024, I mentioned that I didn’t give a single conference talk (though I did host three conferences—Patterns Day, CSS Day, and UX London).

I almost spoke at a conference though. I was all set to speak at an event in the Netherlands. But then the line-up was announced and I was kind of shocked at the lack of representation. The schedule was dominated by white dudes like me. There were just four women in a line-up of 30 speakers.

When I raised my concerns, I was told:

We did receive a lot of talks, but almost no women because there are almost no women in this kind of jobs.

Yikes! I withdrew my participation.

I wish I could say that it was one-off occurrence, but it just happened again.

I was looking forward to speaking at DevDays Europe. I’ve never been to Vilnius but I’ve heard it’s lovely.

Now, to be fair, I don’t think the line-up is finalised, but it’s not looking good.

Once again, I raised my concerns. I was told:

Unfortunately, we do not get a lot of applications from women and have to work with what we have.

Even though I knew I was just proving Brandolini’s law, I tried to point out the problems with that attitude (while also explaining that I’ve curated many confernce line-ups myself):

It’s not really conference curation if you rely purely on whoever happens to submit a proposal. Surely you must accept some responsibility for ensuring a good diverse line-up?

The response began with:

I agree that it’s important to address the lack of diversity.

…but then went on:

I just wanted to share that the developer field as a whole tends to be male-dominated, not just among speakers but also attendees.

At this point, I’m face-palming. I tried pointing out that there might just be a connection between the make-up of the attendees and the make-up of the speaker line-up. Heck, if I feel uncomfortable attending such a homogeneous conference, imagine what a woman developer would think!

Then they dropped the real clanger:

While we always aim for a diverse line-up, our main focus has been on ensuring high-quality presentations and providing the best experience for our audience.

Double-yikes! I tried to remain calm in my response. I asked them to stop and think about what they were implying. They’re literally setting up a dichotomy between having a diverse line-up and having a good line-up. Like it’s inconceivable you could have both. As though one must come at the expense of the other. Just think about the deeply embedded bias that would enable that kind of worldview.

Needless to say, I won’t be speaking at that event.

This is depressing. It feels like we’re backsliding to what conferences were like 15 years ago.

I can’t help but spot the commonalaties between the offending events. Both of them have multiple tracks. Both of them have a policy of not paying their speakers. Both of them seem to think that opening up a form for people to submit proposals counts as curation. It doesn’t.

Don’t get me wrong. Having a call for proposals is great …as long as it’s part of an overall curation strategy that actually values diversity.

You can submit a proposal to speak at FFconf, for example. But Remy doesn’t limit his options to what people submit. He puts a lot of work into creating a superb line-up that is always diverse, and always excellent.

By the way, you can also submit a proposal for UX London. I’ve had lots of submissions so far, but again, I’m not going to limit my pool of potential speakers to just the people who know about that application form. That would be a classic example of the streetlight effect:

The streetlight effect, or the drunkard’s search principle, is a type of observational bias that occurs when people only search for something where it is easiest to look.

It’s quite depressing to see this kind of minimal-viable conference curation result in such heavily skewed line-ups. Withdrawing from speaking at those events is literally the least I can do.

I’m with Karolina:

What I’m looking for: at least 40% of speakers have to be women speaking on the subject of their expertise instead of being invited to present for the sake of adjusting the conference quotas. I want to see people of colour too. In an ideal scenario, I’d like to see as many gender identities, ethnical backgrounds, ages and races as possible.

Is it too early to start planning for 2025 already? Perhaps. But you might want to add some dates to your calender:

June 10th, 11th, and 12th, 2025.

That’s when UX London will return!

It’ll be be back in CodeNode. That’s the venue we tried for the first time this year and it worked out really well.

You can look forward to three days of UX talks and workshops:

1. Tuesday, June 10th is Discovery Day—user research, content strategy, and planning.
2. Wednesday, June 11th is Design Day—interaction design, accessibility, and interface design.
3. Thursday, June 12th is Delivery Day—iteration, design ops, and cross-team collaboration.

I realise that the alliteration of discovery, design, and delivery is a little forced but you get the idea. The flow of the event will follow the process of a typical design project.

The best way to experience UX London is to come for all three days, but each day also works as a standalone event.

I’m now starting the process of curating the line-up for each day: a mix of inspiring talks and hands-on workshops. If you trust me, you can get your ticket already at the super early-bird price.

If you reckon you’d be a good addition to the line-up, here’s a form you can fill out.

Now, I’ll be up-front here: if you’re a typical white dude like me, you’re not going to be top of the pile. My priority for UX London is creating a diverse line-up of speakers.

So if you’re not a typical white dude like me and you’ve ever thought about giving a conference talk, fill out that form!

If you don’t fancy speaking, but you want to see your company represented at UX London, check out our sponsorship options.

If you don’t want to speak and you don’t want to sponsor, but you want to be at the best design conference of 2025, get your ticket now.

I went along to this year’s State Of The Browser conference on Saturday. It was great!

Technically I wasn’t just an attendee. I was on the substitution bench. Dave asked if I’d be able to jump in and give my talk on declarative design should any of the speakers have to drop out. “No problem!”, I said. If everything went according to plan, I wouldn’t have to do anything. And if someone did have to pull out, I’d be the hero that sweeps in to save the day. Win-win.

As it turned out, everything went smoothly. All the speakers delivered their talks impeccably and the vibes were good.

Dave very kindly gave shout-outs to lots of other web conferences. Quite a few of the organisers were in the audience too. That offered me a nice opportunity to catch up with some of them, swap notes, and commiserate on how tough it is running an event these days.

Believe me, it’s tough.

Something that I confirmed that other conference organisers are also experiencing is last-minute ticket sales. This is something that happened with UX London this year. For most of the year, ticket sales were trickling along. Then in the last few weeks before the event we sold more tickets than we had sold in the six months previously.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m very happy we sold those tickets. But it was a very stressful few months before that. It felt like playing poker, holding on in the belief that those ticket sales would materialise.

Lots of other conferences are experiencing this. Front Conference had to cancel this year’s event because of the lack of ticket sales in advance. I know for a fact that some upcoming events are feeling the same squeeze.

When I was in Ireland I had a chat with a friend of mine who works at the Everyman Theatre in Cork. They’re experiencing something similar. So maybe it’s not related to the tech industry specifically.

Anyway, all that is to say that I echo Sophie’s entreaty: you should go to conferences. And buy your tickets early.

Soon I’ll be gearing up to start curating the line up for next year’s UX London (I’m very proud of this year’s event and it’s going to be tough to top it). I hope I won’t have to deal with the stress of late ticket sales, but I’m mentally preparing for it.

UX London 2024 is done …and it was magnificent!

It’s always weird when an event like this moves from being something in the future to something in the past. I’ve spent the year so far fixated on getting the right line-up, getting the word out, and nervously watching the ticket sales (for some reason a lot of people left it to pretty late in the day to secure their spots—not good for my heart!). For months, then weeks, then days, this thing was coming towards me. Then it was done. Now it’s behind me. It feels strange.

I’ve spent the past few days decompressing and thinking back on the event. My initial impression of it has solidified with the addition of some rumination—it was really, really good! The best yet.

I wish I could take the credit for that, but it was all down to the fantastic speakers and my wonderful colleagues who kept things moving flawlessly. All I had to do was get up and stage and introduce the speakers. Easy peasy.

I will say that I am very proud of the line-up I put together. I had a nice mix of well-known voices alongside newcomers.

With some of the speakers, I knew that they’d deliver the goods. I didn’t spend any time fretting over whether people like Emma Boulton, Tom Kerwin or Ben Sauer would be great. I never asked myself whether Brad Frost would have valuable insights into design systems. I mean, does the pope shit in the woods?

But what really blew me away were the people I didn’t know. I hadn’t even met Clarissa Gardner or Benaz Irani before UX London. They’re not exactly fixtures on the conference circuit …yet. They should be. Seriously, I go to a lot of events, and I see a lot of talks, so I don’t offer my praise lightly. Their talks were great!

There were numerous times during UX London 2024 when I thought “More people need to see this!” More people need to see Benaz’s superb talk on the designer alter-ego. More people need to see John’s superb presentation—he put a ton of work into it and it really paid off.

And everyone needs to hear Harry’s blistering call-to-arms. His presentation was brilliant and much-needed. Oh, captain, my captain!

Oh, and needless to say, the closing keynotes on each day were just perfect. Rama, Matt, and Maggie bestowed so much great brain food, it was almost like a mini dConstruct.

I’m so grateful to all the speakers for really bringing their A game. I’m grateful to all my colleagues, especially Louise, who did all the hard work behind the scenes. And I’m really grateful to everyone who came and enjoyed UX London 2024.

Thank you.

I haven’t spoken at any conferences so far this year, and I don’t have any upcoming talks. That feels weird. I’m getting kind of antsy to give a talk.

I suspect my next talk will have something to do with HTML web components. If you’re organising an event and that sounds interesting to you, give me a shout.

But even though I’m not giving a conference talk this year, I’m doing a fair bit of hosting. There was the lovely Patterns Day back in March. And this week I’m off to Amsterdam to be one of the hosts of CSS Day. As always, I’m very much looking forward to that event.

Once that’s done, it’ll be time for the biggie. UX London is just two weeks away—squee!

There are still tickets available. If you haven’t got yours yet, I highly recommend getting it before midnight on Friday—that’s when the regular pricing ends. After that, it’ll be last-chance passes only.

UX London is just three weeks away! If you haven’t got your ticket yet, dally not.

There’s a last-minute addition to the line-up: Peter Boersma.

Peter is kindly stepping into the slot that Kara Kane was going to be occupying. Alas, since a snap general election was recently announced, Kara isn’t able to give her talk. There’s an abundance of caution in the comms from gov.uk in this pre-election period.

It’s a shame that Kara won’t be able to speak this time around, but it’s great that we’ve got Peter!

Peter’s talk is perfect for day three. Remember, that’s the day focused on design ops and design systems. Well, Peter lives and breathes design ops. He’ll show you why you should maintain a roadmap for design ops, and work with others to get the initiatives on it done.

You can get a ticket for an individual day of talks and workshops, or go for the best-value option and come for all three days. See you there!

Alright, so last week I gave you the low-down on each day of this year’s UX London:

1. Tuesday, June 18th focuses on UX research,
2. Wednesday, June 19th focuses on product design, and
3. Thursday, June 20th focuses on design ops and design systems

But the line-up for each day wasn’t quite complete. There was a mystery slot at the end of each day for a closing keynote.

Well, I’m very happy to unveil the trio of fantastic speakers who will be closing out each day…

Rama Gheerawo is the closing speaker on day one. Rama will show you how to frame inclusive design in the context of UX.

I’ve been trying to get Rama for UX London for the past few years but the timings never worked out. I’m absolutely delighted that I’ve finally managed to nab him! His talk is guaranteed to be the perfect inspirational ending for day one.

Matt Webb is giving the closing keynote on day two. Matt will show what it’s like to live and work with AI. You know my scepticism on this topic but even I have to hand it to Matt; he’s finding ways to use these tools to create true delight.

Honestly it feels like a bit of a cheat getting Matt to wrap up the day—his talks are always incredibly entertaining so I feel like I’m taking the easy route. If you’ve seen his appearances at dConstruct you’ll know what I mean.

Maggie Appleton is the final speaker on the final day of UX London. Maggie will show you how to explore designing with large language models. Again, even a sceptic like me has a lot to learn from Maggie’s level-headed humanistic approach to AI.

I’m so happy to have Maggie speaking at UX London. Not only am I a huge fan of her website, but I also love her presentation style. She’s going to entertain and educate in equal measure, and she’s certain to leave us with some fascinating questions to ponder.

With that, the line-up for UX London 2024 is complete …and what a stellar line-up it is!

Grab your ticket if you haven’t already, either for the full full three days or if you can’t manage that, day tickets are available too.

Use this discount code to 20% of the ticket price: JOINJEREMY. I’d love to see you there!