Best UI / UX Conferences 2020

Imagine that your startup collected 4 times more funds at the crowdfunding stage. First there will be admiration. After - an awareness of what expectations investors and future users will have. What should be done? Not just live up to these expectations, but surpass them. How? Use best practices. Where to get them? At experts.

But just contacting the best is almost impossible. But they all will gather at one of the conferences, which are presented below.

UI / UX - the main vector of the user

During the year, technology can improve several times. The pace of development is not just increasing, but overtaking our capabilities. On the one hand, this makes life easier for UI / UX designers, as they have a bigger field for work. On the other hand, their life is becoming more complicated. After all, the user is becoming more demanding.

In the piggy bank it is necessary to add competitors who, day after day, implement more and more creative ideas and attract the audience with the most extraordinary design. Today, the appearance and practicality of the product is almost on par with the quality in the list of requirements of each client. Therefore, you just need to be aware of trends before they appear.

UI / UX conferences are precisely those events where you can get acquainted with practical experience, and most importantly, participate in workshops that will help improve product design. Without attending such congresses today it is impossible to become the best in the field of UI / UX.

Experience Design 2020

Site: Experience Design

Place: Denver, Colorado, USA

Date: 24-26 February, 2020

Cost: $2600-$4900

A well-drafted design means much more than just a user experience. It includes both digital and physical areas, customer acquisition and customer behavior. Experience Design 2020 encourages a deeper discussion of how interaction design principles affect the work of UI / UX designers.

Key topics:

• design and power of nostalgia;
• management of expectation and reality;
• managing a variety of designs for a better user experience;
• strategic design;
• era of hyper personalization.

When you get to XD week 2020, you can get insights from Andy Vitale (leader of strategic design and innovation at Truist), Chuck Gledney (senior creative director of CVS), David Schel (vice president of Pearson) and Hillel Cooperman (senior vice president of UI / UX Design at Oracle).

South by Southwest (SXSW)

Site: SXSW

Place: Austin, Texas, USA

Date: 13-21 March, 2020

Cost: $540-$1600

This conference offers many tracks that let visitors know what will happen next in the world of cinema, culture, music and technology. SXSW covers 22 areas of programming, so you can definitely get new information in the field of interest to you.

Key topics:

• game conferences industry;
• the future of music;
• development of start-ups (conferences);
• prospects for the film industry;
• XR (X-reality).

Every year, SXSW organizers invite hundreds of speakers, among which this year will be: Powell Jobs (founder and president of Emercon Collective), Thomas Wesley Pentz (known as Diplo - musician, producer, founder of Higher Ground label), Brent Anderson (CCO TBWA \ Media Arts Lab Global) and others. Throughout the week, you will be able to hear and make out the speeches of many leaders of your industries, so try not to miss the conference.

UXinsight 2020

Site: UXinsight

Place: Breda, Holland

Date: 6-8 April, 2020

Cost: €335- €885

UXinsight is being held for the 4th time. This year's conference is full of workshops designed to help develop both easy and complex skills. In addition, speeches will be held on the development of UI / UX research and their role as a bridge between the creative and technological industries. The purpose of the event is to give impetus to the development of such research and the community, sharing knowledge, experience and ideas.

Key topics:

• creativity is research;
• storytelling for UX researchers;
• UI / UX in the field of design, data and artificial intelligence.

Each year, UXinsight gathers over 100 leading seminars and workshops, as well as speakers. The 2020 list includes Willemaine Brower (creative expert at Creativity Inc), Ian Chipchase (founder of Studio D), Amy Thibodeau (UX director at Shopify) and Ariel Sianflone (lead UX research on LinkedIn).

UXistanbul Conference

Site: UXIstanbul

Place: Istanbul, Turkey

Date: 18 February, 2020

Cost: $250

This conference has already been held for 6 years and every year captivates guests more and more. Being the first UX conference in Turkey, UXIstanbul brought together UI / UX professionals from leading world companies both in Istanbul and from other countries. In just one day, here you can get hundreds of insights a year in advance.

Key topics:

• the path to product excellence;
• hyper personalized UX design;
• data visualization;
• how to let the customer change your business.

This year 4 workshops will be held, and since the conference is held only one day, there are only 15 speakers on the list. But among them you can see Gulay Birand (UX Lead and Product Design Manager on Facebook), Besim Kosova (Experience Design Head at UXservices), Paolo Malabuyo (UX Director of Google) and Michelle Morisson (Senior Design Program at Dropbox).

Awwwards Conference

Site: Awwwards

Place: Amsterdam, Holland

Date: 19-21 February, 2020

Cost: €850

Awwwards is one of the most visited online sites related to design. It is they who set the ratings of the best sites of the past month, quarter and year. It is Awwwards who determine the best in terms of interactivity, user experience, quality of material and animations. That is why the Awwwards conference is a ‘must have’ event for every designer. Future trends are determined there.

Key topics:

• role of user tests;
• AI, VR, AR and chat bots as a mandatory component of UX;
• development of prototypes of UI and selection of animation;
• development of content strategies;
• sources of inspiration.

The level of speakers corresponds to the level and scale of this event. So, in 2020, you can hear the speeches of Chris Do (founder of The Futur), Paul Boag (UX & Service Design Consultant at BoagWorks Ltd), Andy Bud (founder of Clearleft), as well as the whole Resn team.

UIArchConf

Site: UIArchConf

Place: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Date: 1-3 April, 2020

Cost: $400-1295

Field-specific, but one of the obligatory conferences for UI architects and designers. Moreover, this conference is necessary for those who are just planning to connect their lives with the development of the user interface. It will examine various aspects of the UI architecture and the role of the UI architect, as well as the tasks that UI designers perform.

Key topics:

• designer versus engineer;
• test automation in application development;
• OAuth 2.0;
• migration guide for the UI architect;
• implementation of cross-platform design.

Among the speakers this year are such experts as Chris De-Mars (front-end developer at Google), Katie Smidansky (Senior Product Designer at SoFi), Corey House (founder of React JS Consulting) and many others.

University of Illinois Web Conference

Site: University of Illinois Web Conference

Place: Champaign, Illinois, USA

Date: 8-10 April, 2020

Cost: $200-275

Not the first, or even the fifth, but the 21st annual conference of the University of Illinois, which collects constantly gathers many web designers, developers, SMM managers, content managers, UI / UX designers and many other specialists. If you want to know how the UI / UX sphere has developed, what has changed in it and what chips of the past are used now - this conference is just for you.

Key topics:

• everything new is actually well-forgotten old;
• UX evolution;
• new approaches to personalization.

The full list of speakers is still unavailable, however, on their Twitter, the organizers revealed several cards. Key speakers included Jeff Sauer (founder of Data Driven), Gene Anne (Design systems advocate in Opvitae and AIGA, as well as Product Design Expert at the Google Developers Experts Program), Emily Thompson (founder of Almanac Supply Co.) and Kathleen Shanon ( founder of Braid Creatie and Consulting).

UX Days Tokyo

Site: UX Days Tokyo

Place: Tokyo, Japan

Date: 10-12 April, 2020

Cost: $450

Tokyo has long been one of the centers of innovation in the field of development, including work on UI / UX design. UX Days is your chance to visit a country that has made new technologies its foundation, as well as exchange experiences with leading designers from both Japan and other countries.

Key topics:

• the power of visual thinking;
• UX design for fast-growing products;
• proper implementation of UX design in the organization’s strategy.

Only a few months were left before the conference, because the organizers warm up the interest of the participants and gradually reveal the names of the speakers. Today it’s known that the stage will feature: Eva-Lotta Lamm (UX designer Google, Skype and Yahoo!), Mark Stickdorn (author of the book “This is Service Design Thinking”, CEO at More than Metrics), Laura Yarou (UX Consultant at Experience UX) and Luke Wroblewski (Product Director at Google).

Pixel Up!

Site: Pixel Up

Place: Cape Town, South Africa

Date: 4-6 May, 2020

Cost: $530-630

For 4 years this conference has been inspiring and equipping professionals with practical advice. World-class companies send their employees here so that upon return they instill a new life in the product. With Pixel Up, you have a chance to gain skills that are already time-tested.

Key topics:

• development of UI / UX;
• the role of content in attracting attention;
• UX design research approaches;
• necessary skills for a successful UX designer;
• UI / UX and LEAN approach.

Another conference where the full list of speakers is unknown. However, today it’s known that Alex Oloo (Design Director in Absa), Dean Broadley (Executive design director at The School of Do), Margaret Lee (UX Community & Culture Director on Google) and Margot Stern (Content Strategist on Facebook) will perform on stage).

How Design Live

Site: How Design Live

Place: Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Date: 4-7 May, 2020

Цена: $795-1695, admission exclusively to the exhibition is free

One of the largest annual events that brings together thousands of creative professionals from around the world. Dozens of speakers and workshops, hundreds of venues and thousands of UI / UX practitioners are far from a complete list of what you can get by visiting How Design Lives. This conference is necessary not only for UI / UX designers and architects, but also for project managers, company leaders, CEOs, consultants and many others. First, they must share their experiences. Secondly, this is one of the best chances to find out the methods that are used in the world.

Key topics:

• creating an interactive design;
• how to show the value of a product through design;
• the gap between creative and corporate culture;
• using confusion for your own benefit;
• restart of UI / UX design in a year.

As already mentioned, How Design Lives annually collects dozens of speakers. This year you will have the chance to hear Jennifer Aldrich (Senior Manager of Design Community Partnerships at InVision), Rowan Adams (CCO and founder of RoAndCo Studio), Julia Birdwood (founder of BeardWood & Co), Tony Biagne (VP of Brand Creative at Axon) and many other.