3XE Digital welcomed delegates from across Ireland to its User Experience Conference on 16.05.2019 at Croke Park, Dublin. The conference brought together experts from 14 organisations who are paving the way as thought leaders in the UX industry – in Ireland and beyond. The speakers shared actionable takeaways and practical insights about UX and Design Thinking through talks and workshops.
Among the practitioners sharing their experience from the industry was Fathom CEO and founder Gareth Dunlop, who kicked–off the conference with a talk entitled ‘Never be data–driven’. Gareth’s theme focused on the importance of marrying quantitative and qualitative research to understand of the human stories behind your data. The key takeaways from Gareth’s talk were to:
- Obsess about the data
- Pursue context relentlessly
- Venture beyond a single truth
- Speak to real people
- Test, test, test, test.
Fathom’s Gareth Dunlop delivers a talk at the 3XE Digital User Experience Conference 2019. Retrieved from Fathom’s YouTube channel
Joining Gareth on the day were leading digital experts representing a diverse range of organisations, ranging from small agencies to Google:
- Goran Peuc from SAP.com: The design gap is increasing
- Jono Anderson from Yoast: 0.6 seconds is the new slow
- Rachel O’Donnell from The UX Studio: The relationship between UX and Marketing
- Andrew Fulton from Dawson Andrews: How to measure the value of UX in numbers
- Kevin, Gustavo and Robbie from Wolfgang Digital How to manage your Google UX in 2019
- Anna Potanina from Google Test, Learn, Change: What you need to know about mobile UX
- Joe Doveton from Binary Bear Telling CRO and UX data stories
- Graham Carroll from Friday Agency Building trust into the enterprise
- Martin Meier from Future Finance Leading UX at a startup – Essential lessons
- Ed Melvin from Publicis Empathy and efficiency in experience design
- Treasa Flynn from Matrix Internet Journey mapping: Actions, mindset and emotions.
Our top picks from the day
Here’s what some of the Fathom delegates had to say about their highlights from the event:
“I got a lot of insight from Joe Doveton’s (Binary Bear) talk on telling stories with UX and CRO. As an archaeology graduate who fell into UX, Joe’s point on spending too much time digging around in the data really hit home. Behind those conversions, clicks and downloads are users. Joe’s talk was great at showing us how we can present that data and insight in a way that will help our clients understand it, and more importantly get the rest of their business involved.”
Andy Robinson (UX Research & Marketing Executive)
“One of my top takeaways from the conference was a statement made by Jono Alderson (Yoast): ‘Speed underpins user experience.’ Jono used industry statistics to demonstrate that people today simply expect web pages to load instantly, and if they don’t, irreparable harm is done to the overall user experience. Thankfully, there are many small tweaks we can make to manage these expectations; Jono shared multiple examples from reducing file sizes to using lazy loading for the ‘perception of speed.’
“Overall the talk was very practical and useful, which was a theme across the conference.”
Jonah McLachlan (Former Fathom UX Designer)
“I particularly enjoyed the insights from Anna Potanina (Google) on optimising mobile UX. She made a really memorable point – ‘Change happens by culture, not a checklist.’ This underlined the importance of fostering an organic culture to improve the UX of your products. In order to help our clients, we must use tactics to promote discussion, relationships and collaboration.
“I’d really recommend going to 3XE to keep your skills sharp. The digital world is constantly changing, and it’s important to stay on top of the latest information; whatever your specialism is, you can benefit from a solid day away, with over 10 awesome sessions and breakout workshops, and a great opportunity to network.”
We’d like to thank the organisers at 3XE Digital for inviting us to participate and for putting on a great event – we look forward to seeing you again in the future.
You can watch more of our talks and webinars about UX and service design on our YouTube channel.
