The new makers

A growingnumber of UX researchers are building things directly - not just influencingwhat others build. They're shipping apps, founding organisations, creatingframeworks, designing communities. The core constraint that defines our field -our impact depends on someone else choosing to act - is dissolving. This talklooks at what these 'New Makers' are actually doing, and - warts and all - howthat's going for them.

It's based on interviews with researchers who've made this shift, and centreson the honest tradeoffs. What happens when researchers trained in rigour haveto ship something imperfect? When "researcher" no longer describeswhat you do? When building something real means giving up things you valuedabout the advisory role? The constraints of influence are swapped for theconstraints of shipping something and being accountable for it: quality,maintainability, prioritisation and so on.

The talk introduces five modes of making to help the audience locate themselveson a spectrum, then explores the perplexities that emerge as you move furtherfrom advising toward owning. There's no 'must' or 'should' in it - it's anhonest accounting of what a group of researchers found when they walked througha door that's only recently opened: what they're learning and how it's changingthem.