Last week Luke and I attended UX Australia—our annual pilgrimage where we connect with the wider UX community to get educated and inspired about all things UX (and, let’s be honest, chat and drink beer with friends, old and new).
While we didn’t re-enact last year’s UX Brothers cabaret act, we were still pretty involved with the conference this year, teaching workshops, hosting panels, and running hands-on sessions. And in a nod to our performance from last year, we still opted to don our trademark black hats.
Sketchnoting 101 Workshop
I ran my Sketchnoting 101 course on Wednesday before the conference, and was delighted that there was so much interest in visual thinking and visual note-taking. The class created some remarkable sketches in what was an ambitious time-frame, and I was very proud of all the people sketching the conference presentations in the days that followed!
Techniques Trading Cards
This year we partnered with the conference organisers to create a deck of illustrated trading cards, each describing a different UX technique. Each attendee received a pack of the same card, and was encouraged to swap with other conference goers in order to complete the set.
It was a great ice breaker when meeting new people, and a fun theme that continued throughout both days (I still didn’t manage to find a Competitor Analysis card. Anyone? I got Personas a-plenty to swap! :) )
UX Careers Panel
On Thursday we ran another careers panel, which proved very popular, and the talented Rebecca Jackson once again captured the panel with stunning visuals. Unsurprisingly, lots of people are interested in learning about UX careers, salaries, how and when to go freelance, how to find a recruiter, what to put in a portfolio, and more. If you’re in Melbourne and interested in this stuff but didn’t get to attend the conference, we’ll be running another panel at UX Australia Redux in October.
Related: Watch a video of the UX careers panel we held in Melbourne recently
Graphic Facilitation Hands-on Session
On the final day, Luke ran a session on graphic facilitation, and the room was packed beyond capacity (some people elected to sit down the sides, rather than miss out). The group activity resulted in some stunning communication artefacts, and this is definitely a topic we’ll be exploring further on UX Mastery.
Reflections
The UX Australia 2014 conference was bigger and better than previous years. It was great to meet so many new folks from Australia and overseas, and to reconnect with old friends I sometimes see only once a year. A huge thank you to the UX Australia team for putting on a great show! If you haven’t attended UX Australia before, set aside 25-28 August, 2015 for UX Australia 2015, in sunny Brisbane. I look forward to seeing you there!
Sketchnotes
I’ll leave you with a collection of sketchnotes from the sessions I attended:
It was lovely to meet you guys in person!
The trading cards were so much fun and worked really well as an icebreaker.
I didn’t get Personas! But I don’t have a Competitor Analysis either :(
The UX Careers panel was really useful because we got to hear from a recruiter, a freelancer, a hiring manager (and of course you guys) and they all had different views based on what they do. It allowed us to see what our options are across different facets of the industry and introduced me to things I hadn’t considered such as freelancing.
Ash
Thanks Ash, it was great to meet you, although our conversation was too short! :) Glad you enjoyed the panel.
So lovely to see both of you and love your sketchnotes as always! Trading cards were great too. I’m short one card but maybe there’ll be a chance to find it in future events.
Thank you once again for helping out with the set up of my hands on session – you guys made the experience so much better :)
Glad we could help Ruth!