How to convince your boss to send you to a UX conference
We'll happily ghostwrite your pitch.
May 4, 2026
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Some people say uxcon vienna is the friendliest UX research and design conference in Europe... whether that’s actually true, you can only find out yourself. But what you can already tell from the outside: this year's lineup is genuinely strong, and a quick look at the program speaks for itself.
The international conference is happening September 16–17 at the University of Vienna, and the focus is pretty clear: UX is going through some major changes right now, and the program really leans into that... without just jumping on the AI hype train.
- One big theme is AI as part of everyday design work: It covers how interaction itself is changing, what happens to UX research when AI takes over parts of it, how to design for probabilistic systems, and the messy reality of building AI features in practice. You also get a grounded look at how teams are actually using tools like Claude in their workflows.
- But it's also about value and responsibility in design. What does “value” even mean, and who defines it? How much influence do designers really have on systems and governance? And even something as fundamental as language: Whose standards end up shaping global products, and who gets left out in the process?
- Then there's the reality check: legal boundaries. Optimization can shade into manipulation faster than expected, and dark patterns have a way of crossing from UX territory into legal territory without warning. (This is the kind of topic teams tend to ignore... until it bites.)
- Woven through all of this is a career and team angle: navigating fast-changing orgs where structure can't keep up, rethinking and pivoting careers with intent, and redefining who actually "builds" in this AI-shaped landscape.
- As a special this year, the Austrian SIGCHI meeting is being hosted alongside uxcon vienna – building a bridge between academic HCI research and hands-on UX practice. All uxcon attendees are welcome to join SIGCHI sessions at any time.
And that's not even all. You can check out the full program here.
uxcon is really about the bigger shifts and how people are dealing with all of that.
And somehow it all happens in a genuinely friendly, down-to-earth community atmosphere. :-)
