Hosting a UX meeting for the first time. About how this idea came up, the organization, struggles and findings.
This is the first time I'm trying to organize a meetup that has a professional background. I got a message from a UX designer on Linkedin. Since he is the only one in his company who deals with design and user experience, he would like to share his knowledge and exchange some ideas. The profession is not very common in this local area, there are just a few people working in user experience. After a first meeting and exchange, we decided to organize a meeting with some UX/UI designers in the “Oberpfalz”.
I decided to keep it simple and try out how it works. With little effort, one can see if there is positive feedback or no one is interested. I am really looking forward to it and am excited to see how many people will come. There is a table reserved for 10 people in a nice little bar where you can also eat something. At meetings like this there are often speeches, topics, etc. - We discussed this and decided to start without anything in particular. But for the future this could be quite relevant.
Why is a meeting useful? For me it is interesting to hear different opinions on topics. Comparing the maturity level is a good discussion starter. Exchanging often reveals that every designer/researcher has similar problems in their daily work. Sharing can help you feel like you are "in the same boat" and get tips on how to improve your processes. One discussion we already had was about design systems and UX repository.
It was very interesting to meet some new people. All with completely different backgrounds in small and larger companies. For the first attempt, I invited friends of friends or new colleagues of ex-colleagues. Unfortunately, many people canceled just that day. In the end, we were half of those invited.
It was very interesting to share about all the current issues, which books or online courses are the most interesting. How each of us struggles with the same issues. Also - how important is UX repository / documentation? Who documents, how detailed, what topics? The answer could be - it depends. I think it really depends on UX size and methods you use.
The plan is to have a short exchange meeting every 4 weeks to share ideas and stay in touch. For a face-to-face meeting: I don't know if it takes a specific topic or speeches to motivate people to attend. Maybe it was just the wrong time or place. I don't know.
I was thinking about topics for next time, like design systems, how they are structured, how they are used. Another topic could be UX maturity - to discuss the different levels that each company has. Maybe that could help increase the individual maturity level in your company.
Edit: There will be another meeting, this time at the christmas market. I am curious to see what the second meeting will be like and what topics we will discuss.