It’s that time of year again when the sun begins to shine and the techies of Bristol congregate for a day of thought-provoking UX collaboration. On Friday 12th July, the M Shed museum will host UX Bristol 2019, with 12 stimulating workshops planned. The PFR team will be in attendance, however this time we will be representing our modernised testing facility – User Viewing.

As gold sponsors of this year’s event, User Viewing is Bristol’s only combined usability and UX testing lab and market research viewing facility. Recognising an increase in demand for use of the space, we have remodelled the facility to create a more flexible and inviting environment for the researchers and the participants. Not only this, the lab is fitted with state-of-the-art technology, ensuring a wide range of industries and teams can make the most out of their research and testing sessions.

With less than a month to go, it’s time to have a look at the UX Bristol workshops that we are most excited about.

Designing for irrational minds

With a background in service design and innovation, Kat Matfield will be combining her interest in psychology and behavioural economics to explore the relationship between the human mind and design. The hands-on workshop is a must if you want to better understand how to design a product/service suited to both the rational and often irrational way our minds operate.

Designers who write

There’s nothing worse than when you sit down to write but find yourself staring at a blank page struggling to come up with ideas. Luckily, Inayaili de Leon Persson wants to help! With her experience writing for online publications and even her own web design blog, her workshop promises to improve how we write about our work and why it’s important within the design process.

Research Ops

You have probably heard of ‘Research Ops’ by now: it’s all about operationalising customer research function to maximise efficiency and scale across projects via repeatable processes and ready-to-apply methods, making research more relatable and insights more accessible for everyone. Emma Boulton will be exploring exactly what Research Ops is and how organisations can use this discipline to help in-house teams perform more effectively.

Practical design principles

Taking a more hands-on approach, Ben Brignell is here to help you create a collection of design principles of your own. With a strong background as a design consultant, Ben is sharing his inside knowledge of how brands use design principles within their organisations to meet a common goal. Along with covering the topic as a whole, he will be discussing the following: what are design principles; what types are there; why are they valuable; who are they for and how we use them.

Unintended consequences of design

Although new technology is typically intended for improving a user’s experience or life, sometimes the unexpected happens, where the negative effects outweigh the positive. Mike Harris, researcher and service designer, poses the question of who is then held responsible? His workshop aims to uncover approaches UX practitioners can use to predict the ‘full effect’ of a new technology before it’s released and hence prevent any unforeseen ramifications.

If you already have a ticket for UX Bristol, we hope to see you on 12th July at the M Shed! Grab one of our team members for a chat if you have any queries about our viewing facility (or about user recruitment). Tickets for the event have sold out, but you can join the waiting list and wait to find out if any more tickets become available.



Will Fenton, Digital Marketing Assistant

