UX Festival 2024: The Mecca for UX enthusiasts
The German UPA’s UX Festival has become a well-established tradition and drew 388 UX professionals to the Zughafen in Erfurt this year, even more than last year. We were there again and came away with plenty of impressions, inspiration, and new knowledge.
Record attendance and new features
With sand beneath our feet and a relaxed atmosphere at Erfurt’s Zughafen, the setting was perfect for sharing knowledge, networking, and reconnecting with old friends. It’s no wonder the festival is now often referred to as the industry’s class reunion. The event was completely sold out, and the waitlist was long, a testament to the growing interest and the high quality of the event. German UPA has once again succeeded in organizing a unique event that brings the community together and inspires it.
“There’s just such a welcoming atmosphere here. The UX Festival is a safe space where you can try new things.” – Nadine Pieper, Senior UX consultant at UX&I
“It’s really interesting to look back now and see what came out of the session on skill mapping and the momentum it’s generating. It’s great that the discussion is continuing on LinkedIn. That way, even those who couldn’t attend can benefit from it.” – Mona Reimholz, Senior UX consultant at UX&I
The UX Festival thrives on its open and collaborative atmosphere, which encourages all participants to step outside their comfort zones and share their own ideas. This year also saw a change in the opening session: Instead of external speakers, two community members, Zorica Zettelmeyer and Michelle Hausen, took the stage. Both had been coached by mentors beforehand, which helped them deliver great keynotes.
UX Challenge Finals
Another highlight was the finale of the German UPA UX Challenge. The jury, comprising Ulf Schubert from DATEV, Robin Schreiner from Siemens, and Kai Spiegel from UX&I, made a preliminary selection, and the finalists were presented to the audience. The winning app was then determined by a round of applause. The winner was Matthia Leyendecker with her project “memTUI: Tangible Memories, Digital Assistance for Dementia.” She was awarded prize money of €2,000. Congratulations!
In addition to a total of 61 presentations and workshops, the stage also featured entertaining activities such as a family quiz with UX questions and Dominique Winter’s selection of the best UX joke. Once again, there was no shortage of fun at the festival. A special highlight was the presentation of the Best Session Award to Fabian Ziegler for his talk on the psychology of performance optimization.
Topics shaping the UX landscape
The role of AI in the evolution of UX
As expected, the topic of artificial intelligence played a key role, not only in the sessions but also in conversations offstage. In the session “AI and the role of UX—Humans,” Fabian Ziegler emphasized: “Humans gain quality through AI.” We must focus on where we can create added value, through self-optimization, using AI as a sparring partner, personal communication, and experience management, and learn to handle it in an ethically responsible manner. In “Evaluating Usability Tests with ChatGPT,” Lennart Weber noted that evaluating tests with AI is generally still time-consuming and fraught with pitfalls. It requires a lot of follow-up questions and careful verification, as AI often omits results or invents them. Another exciting insight came from the session “How Do You Design AI Agents?”: The UX and UI of these agents are still in their infancy and largely unexplored, an area where the industry can take the lead.
Future-proof UX strategies and business models
The importance of a flexible and data-driven approach to UX strategies was
also a major topic of discussion. Companies must continuously adapt their UX strategies to rapid technological developments and changing user requirements in order to remain competitive. In their presentation “UX Goes Business: No Numbers, No UX,” Robin Goldberg and Kay Spiegel highlighted the importance of measurable value (expenses vs. revenue) for justifying and advancing UX initiatives. They emphasized how crucial it is to speak the language of stakeholders and clearly understand their needs in order to gain their support and trust.
“A Barcamp par excellence! Robin pitched his session right before mine, and it became clear that we were on the same page. So we spontaneously combined our sessions. After a brief introduction to the topic and the challenges of evaluating UX through a business lens, a valuable discussion quickly emerged. Not only did experienced and well-known figures in the industry provide many valuable insights with their contributions, but the participants’ visible thirst for knowledge was still palpable in conversations long into the day.” – Kay Spiegel, Senior Consultant at UX&I.
In his session “Nailing Your SaaS Product Strategy,” David Ranftler introduced the MPCM Framework, which helps companies successfully position their SaaS products through targeted product analysis based on eight concepts, and thus thrive in the market over the long term. In the “UX Strategy” session, Julian Peters encouraged attendees to try out Markus Andrezack’s strategy model and emphasized that strategy work belongs to everyone.
Human-centered collaboration
Effective collaboration and a shared understanding of goals are essential for developing successful products. As more teams work remotely and projects become more complex, team communication is becoming increasingly important. In the session “UX Conflicts,” Katja Busch explained how important it is to consider both the factual and emotional aspects of team interactions to avoid misunderstandings and promote a goal-oriented way of working. In the session “Stakeholder Communication,” Leila Alavi demonstrated how crucial it is to find a common language and establish processes that enable clear communication. For example, she recommended creating a glossary to establish a common foundation for key terminology. In the “UX Escape Game ‘The Lost Compass,’” Benno Loewenberg highlighted how important it is to choose metrics wisely and to consciously shift one’s perspective in the process. After all, what does the Net Promoter Score really tell us?
Language, ethics, inclusion
Just like last year, the UX writing working group was once again very active. In “8 Facts for Good UX Writing,” for example, Helma Töpper and Daria Lewandowska explained what matters most in user-centered copy (the working group’s UX writing guide is a great resource on this topic). Ethical issues were also addressed in many sessions. The new AI Working Group introduced itself and sparked a discussion about the responsibility that comes with the use of AI for all of us. After all, we have the power to develop products that can also negatively influence the behavior of generations to come. In her session “Inclusive Design,” Michelle Lubuau explained exactly what inclusion entails and to what extent it should already play a role in the MVP. Michelle also viewed the protection of sensitive data as part of inclusion.
“The fledgling UX Writing group and the Freelancers’ Working Group, which was formed here last year, show just how active and vibrant the community is. We’re incredibly proud to be a part of it.” – Alina Binzer, Marketer at UX&I
Our bags for 2025 are almost packed!
We’re already brimming with ideas for next year and can’t wait to start planning. Jasmin Peters has even put the first sketches on paper! We’re incredibly excited, and we can’t wait to see what topics 2025 has in store for us.
A big thank you to everyone who made this event possible: Thomas Jackstädt, Dominique Winter, Jana Hinze, Indra Burkart, Tim-Can Werning, Melanie Wieland, Saskia J. Wiedenroth, Juri Wan, Frede Schad, Matthias C. Schroeder, and the many volunteers who pitched in.
Many thanks also to Siemens and DATEV, who also supported the festival as sponsors.
We look forward to seeing you again in Erfurt in June 2025!
More insights
About UX&I
UX&I offers consulting, enablement, and implementation services in the field of user experience (UX). We focus on deep tech, enterprise software, and digital transformation. Our goal is to help people harness complex technology to serve users. In doing so, we bring together all relevant perspectives: human, business, and technology.
- Locations: Düsseldorf (Headquarters), Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main, Munich
- Employees: 37
- Founded: 2014
- Clients: Ten of the fifteen largest German companies, among others, rely on our UX expertise
Contacts
Jasmin is passionate about design and art. In her work, she combines her love of aesthetics with a healthy dose of pragmatism and structure.
For more than 12 years, Nadine has been passionate about complexity and has been breaking it down for clients, teams, and users, in a pragmatic way and with snappy headlines.
Kay helps project teams and organizations become more agile and human-centered, one step at a time. He draws on his more than 20 years of project experience.
Jessica is a UX consultant and has been working in digital product development since 2009. In her workshops, she manages to wow even her most introverted colleagues.
Mona Reimholz
Senior UX consultant
Mona has a degree in psychology and is a senior UX consultant at UX&I. She particularly enjoys providing holistic support to teams as they work to make their product development processes user-centered on their own.
