This year's UX Days, was more than we could have hoped for! Over two days, Siebel Center for Design welcomed 150+ students and professionals through our doors alongside 30+ presenters from industries spanning healthcare, consulting, enterprise tech, education, and beyond. Attendees dove into breakout sessions, a keynote panel, a lively networking reception, and rich conversations that spilled into every corner of the building.
Themed Systems in FLUX: Designing What Comes After, UX Days 2026 came at just the right time. As artificial intelligence is reshaping how designers work, collaborate, and create, familiar frameworks are being stress-tested, and the we're left with a lot of hard questions:
What do we keep?
What do we rebuild?
What does it mean to design for humans when machines are increasingly part of the process?
Across two days of informative sessions and casual conversations over shared meals, we've continued to build a community ready to confront these times of uncertainty head on.
Day 1
Friday kicked off at noon with a welcome lunch, and a buzz of excitement. The opening keynote panel, Are We Designing What's Next, or Improving What Exists?, set the tone for everything that followed. Sana Maqsood, Marisa Peacock, Spencer McDaniel, and Jeff Steffgen brought perspectives from across industry and academia to explore how designers navigate the tension between refinement and reinvention, balancing immediate needs with the pull toward something entirely new.
Rachel Switzky (SCD Director) moderates a panel featuring (left to right) Jeff Steffgen, Spencer McDaniel, Marisa Peacock, and Sana Maqsood
The afternoon then opened into a full slate of deep dive sessions, focus sessions, and lightning talks running concurrently across the building. By the time the networking reception wrapped up in the upper lobby and gallery, friendships were formed, LinkedIn handles were traded, and a vibrant network of tomorrow's innovators was beginning to form.
Day 2
Saturday morning brought breakfast at nine and a building that filled back up faster than you might expect for a weekend. The sessions picked up right where Day 1 left off, and if anything, the conversations felt more focused. Lunch brought everyone back together before an afternoon of sessions that leaned into some of the conference's biggest questions.
UX Days attendees listen and take notes during a focus session in Sunset Studio
What We Talked About
Curious about what these conversations looked like? Read on for the highlights!
AI, Systems, and the Designer's Role
AI was everywhere: as subject, provocation, and backdrop.
Jenna Yoo presenting in Sunrise Studio
Niketa Jhaveri (Amazon) opened with a look at the invisible design decisions shaping intelligent systems
Mariana Conde (PwC) examined how designers build trust and meaning in an age of uncertainty
Kyle Becker (Rebind AI) asked how the design toolkit applies to AI experiences at all
Jenna Yoo (AbbVie) pushed the question further: Where do UX designers actually generate value when AI is doing more of the work?
Nolan Havig (Adobe, AIGA LA) made the case for embracing human error as a design asset, not a liability
Career, Growth, and Navigating the Field
Faith Harron presenting in Sunset Studio
UX Days has always made space for honest conversations about what it actually takes to build a career in this field.
Ian Conger's (OSF HealthCare) Where Do I Fit? Navigating the UX Landscape spoke directly to students still mapping their options
David Burns (Savvas Learning Company) shared practical habits for thriving on fast-moving startup teams
Faith Harron (Esper Collective) led a session on networking for introverts — one of the more packed rooms of the weekend
David Alegre (BP) offered a practitioner's perspective on leading through design and building trust along the way
Design in High-Stakes and Complex Contexts
Shubham Kumar presenting in the Gallery
Some of the most compelling sessions this year explored UX at work in environments where the stakes are high and the constraints are real.
Tim Hale (University of Illinois) brought a human factors lens to health design
Susan Thome (Signify Health) and Rachel Young (CVS Health) pulled back the curtain on backstage service design — the infrastructure that makes everything else work
Jonathan Hanahan and Tejas Garg (Washington University) connected design practice to extreme weather and preferable futures
Shubham Kumar (University of Illinois) shared the story behind designing America's largest air quality monitoring network, originally developed at UIUC and built for Chicago
Tools, Process, and the Craft of UX
Megan Hubbert presenting in Sunrise Studio
Alastair Merrett (University of Illinois, SCD) walked through the full arc of UX in Agile environments, from research to release and beyond
Valerie Villanueva and Alyssa Duong (Deloitte Greenhouse) ran a role-playing simulation of corporate UX that put attendees inside a real product decision
Spencer McDaniel (OSF Healthcare) covered the practical work of moving from a design system into a component library
Medhaswi Paturu (Vibes Inc, Pratt Institute) addressed the often-underestimated challenge of designing with engineers
Will Notini (Resy, University of Chicago) dug into research recruiting for breakthrough products
Aakreit Sachdeva (Monotype) made the case for low-touch, no-touch UX
Megan Hubbert (University of Illinois, SCD) explored a new framework for crafting microcopy
Inclusion, Access, and Designing for Everyone
Nolan Havig presenting in Classroom 1002
Across multiple sessions, presenters pushed on what it really means to design for everyone.
Brian Graves (University of Illinois, PhD candidate) brought VR accessibility into focus through the lens of wheelchair-user experience
Nolan Havig returned with a session on inclusive UX beyond compliance
Marisa Peacock (University of Illinois) connected inclusive design to ethical curriculum development in advertising education
Kirk St.Amant (Louisiana Tech University) applied cognitive usability concepts to healthcare practice
Looking Ahead
Now in its fifth year, UX Days has grown well beyond its origins as a career development event for design students. SCD Director Rachel Switzky, who has guided the conference since its founding, traces the beginnings back to a brainstorm with students and career services staff. The earliest version of the event was deliberately structured around where attendees were: students just becoming curious about the field, students building their skills, students about to graduate and looking for a way in.
That scaffolding has largely given way to something more ambitious. Switzky describes the shift as a response to what the community was asking for. Alums who returned as attendees said the event could go deeper; professional conferences that once served the field have since scaled back or disappeared post-pandemic; and the pace of change in AI and design practice has made bringing in outside perspectives feel less like a nice-to-have and more like a necessity. As she put it, "a lot of the most interesting work is happening faster outside universities right now, which is exactly why a space like UX Days matters — it's a way to keep the pulse of an industry that doesn't slow down for the academic calendar."
That instinct is baked into the conference's DNA. The goal was never to make students feel like they were at a career fair, waiting in line to spend thirty seconds with a recruiter; it was to make them feel like participants in a real professional community—curious, capable, and worth talking to. That's still true in year five.
As for what comes next? Switzky sees room to grow the research and teaching side of the program, and there are early conversations happening about what a collaboration with other professional UX organizations might look like. The contours aren't set yet, but we're aiming for more depth, more connection, and a "wider tent," so to speak.
The dirty little secret, as Switzky has said, is that the systems are always in flux. There's always going to be change, and there will always be a need for people who know how to design thoughtfully within it. UX Days exists to keep that community connected, curious, and a little ahead of the curve.
Acknowledgments
To every attendee who showed up with questions, ideas, and energy, thank you! You're what makes this event worth building year after year. A huge thank you to our presenters, who gave their time and expertise to this community:
Aakreit Sachdeva, Alastair Merrett, Bernard J Canniffe, Brian Graves, David Alegre, David Burns, Donnie D'Amato, Faith Harron, Frances Sun, Ian Conger, Jeff Steffgen, Jenna Yoo, Jonathan Hanahan, Kirk St.Amant, Kyle Becker, Mariana Conde, Marisa Peacock, Medhaswi Paturu, Megan Hubbert, Niketa Jhaveri, Nikki McConnell, Nolan Felicidario, Nolan Havig, Rachel Young, Sana Maqsood, Shubham Kumar, Spencer McDaniel, Susan Thome, Tejas Garg, Tim Hale, Valerie Villanueva, and Will Notini.
And thank you to the Siebel Center for Design staff for the behind-the-scenes work that made it all possible!
