Fueling the Future of UX at Illinois

This year’s UX Days, hosted by and at the Siebel Center for Design, was nothing short of electric. Over two days, we welcomed nearly 150 students and professionals through our doors, alongside 30+ presenters from industries ranging from healthcare to automotive—and one unforgettable keynote speaker. The atmosphere buzzed with curiosity, creativity, and connection as attendees jumped into 20 breakout sessions, a powerful keynote, a lively networking reception, and hands-on portfolio reviews. We even offered free professional headshots to help attendees level up their LinkedIn presence.

Thanks to Michaels Catering, we shared some seriously delicious meals—and even better conversations. Whether it was during a workshop or while grabbing seconds, attendees and presenters alike expressed genuine excitement to learn from each other, share ideas, and grow their UX skill sets. UX Days 2025 was more than an event; it was a vibrant celebration of the design community we’re building together.

UX Days 2025 brought together an energetic community of designers, researchers, and technologists to explore the future of user experience through a rich variety of breakout sessions.

A strong focus on innovation and technology was evident in sessions like UX Design for VR/AR: Crafting Immersive Experiences, Design for Emerging Technology, and The Design and Development of a Spatial Computing App to Combat Opioid Overdose Using the Apple Vision Pro. These sessions invited attendees to consider how UX practices can adapt to immersive, spatial, and AI-powered environments. Further exploring the intersection of UX and artificial intelligence, sessions such as When the User is an AI, UX Best Practices & Research in AI: Empowering Design for the Future, AI-Powered UX: Supercharging Design Thinking with PartyRock, and Accelerating AI Innovation: The Transformative Power of Research encouraged designers to future-proof their work and embrace the growing influence of autonomous systems and machine learning in shaping user needs.

Human-centered healthcare and social impact design emerged as powerful themes, with sessions like OSF My Visit Guide: Reimagining Patient Pre-Procedure Guidance, The Development and Installation of Healthcare Kiosks in Homeless Shelters and Community Organizations in Illinois, and Behavioral Insights for Inclusive UX: Designing Financial Solutions for Underserved Communities. These offerings highlighted how thoughtful UX can address equity, accessibility, and trust in high-impact sectors.

Attendees also explored practical tools and frameworks to enhance their design practice. The UX Superpower You Didn’t Know You Needed: Object Mapping, Prototyping Experiences, and Importance and Creation of UI/UX Design Systems provided hands-on insights for building intentional, research-informed experiences. Sessions such as Putting the Product in Product Designer and Designing Exploratory Research bridged design with business strategy and user insight, equipping participants with approaches to make their work both innovative and effective.

Professional growth was a cornerstone of the event, with sessions like Designing Your UX Career with Intention: Lessons from a Career Switcher, Unlocking Your Potential: Navigating Your Professional Quest, Lessons from Year One: From Soft Skills to the Big Wins, and Navigating a Burning Building: Conveying Your Human Value (without Losing Your Humanity) offering honest perspectives on building sustainable, purpose-driven design careers. Personal storytelling, practical advice, and community reflection made these sessions stand out as valuable touchpoints for attendees at all career stages.

The program also included moments of inspiration and play—From Hobbies to Brilliant Designs reminded participants how personal passions can inform professional creativity, while Playing with Fire! Designing with the U.S. Air Force Firefighting Academy showcased UX at work in high-stakes, real-world environments.

The conference culminated with keynote speaker Ovetta Sampson, who spoke compellingly on the future of AI and design. Her insights challenged attendees to not only adapt to rapidly evolving tools and systems but to lead with humanity, ethics, and imagination at the core of their work.

We’re still riding high on the energy from this year’s UX Days, and we couldn’t be more grateful to everyone who made it such a success. A huge thank you to our event sponsors—Hyatt and the OSF Healthcare Innovation Lab—for making this experience accessible and affordable for students and early-career professionals. Your support makes this community possible.

To every attendee who showed up with questions, ideas, portfolios, and excitement—you’re what makes UX Days truly special. Your curiosity fuels conversations and attracts an incredible lineup of presenters year after year. Speaking of which, we’re endlessly grateful to the Siebel Center for Design staff for the behind-the-scenes magic, and to the following presenters who brought their time, talent, and energy to this event:

Alastair Merrett, Allie Ofisher, Amy Choi, Beth Keegan, Brendan Kim, David Alegre, Emma Riddering, Erik Pedersen, Jai Khanna, Jonathan Hanahan, Joshua Nard, Junu Kang, Kathleen Culligan, Kyle Formella, Maddox Binder, Matthew Kase, Miriam Salah, Monica Muthaiya, Naveen Rajadhyaksha, Nick Maschinski, Niketa Jhaveri, Nikki Ely, Ovetta Sampson, Peyton Cecil, Roy Magnuson, Ryan Larkin, Sarah Louderman, Scott Barrows, Shubham Kumar, Spencer McDaniel, Steph Lambruschini, Tyson Atley Glover, Valerie Villanueva, and Will Notini.

Want to dive deeper into what happened? Check out the UX Days 2025 event page to view full session descriptions, speaker bios, and any resources shared during the event.

And hey—don’t wait until next year to get involved! Sign up for our UX Interest Group to be the first to hear about future speakers, workshops, and UX Days 2026 announcements.

We can’t wait to welcome you back (or for the first time) next year!