Edinburgh UX monthly meetup

We’re happy to announce that this event will now be live-streamed as well as being in-person! Massive thanks to Product Forge (https://www.productforge.io/)

You can watch the event in real-time (starting at 7pm) via this link: [ https://www.youtube.com/live/po8U0y4KzpU?feature=share](https://www.youtube.com/live/po8U0y4KzpU?feature=share)

This meetup is currently ‘sold out’ for in-person attendance, but anyone is free to watch online (no need to RVSP). If you are on the list to attend but would rather watch online, please update your RSVP to ‘no’ (to give someone else the chance to attend in-person)

For our first in-person meet-up of 2023 we are excited to partner with FanDuel, who are kindly hosting us at their all-new UK Collaboration Hub in Fountainbridge.

For the evening’s proceedings we are delighted to welcome two awesome speakers from Infinity Works, part of Accenture - Rashmi Kakde (Senior User Research Consultant) and Hannah Steele (Design Practice Lead).

A Planning Framework for Accessibility Testing (Rashmi Kakde)
Find out how to go about planning for accessibility testing:
- Where to start
- How to make a case for accessibility testing
- Who to test with
- How to get buy-in from the business

The framework shares practical methods for planning accessibility testing, with real-world examples that are tried and tested to ensure that you start from a strong foundation and achieve a successful outcome.

Ego, the obstacle to Design success (Hannah Steele)
Over the last few decades, the designer’s role has improved in how we are perceived to operate and collaborate within the business world. Yet, it is still frustrating to see design rarely being utilised beyond the marketing and branding teams in businesses today.

Yes, there are reasons outwith our control. But, I challenge us to look inwardly at ourselves. Do we bring too much ego into our design practice? Are we as collaborative as we think we are? Do we make the effort to understand different departments, as much as we expect them to understand us?

About Rashmi
Rashmi grew up and spent a large part of her life in Bangalore, India. Her artistic flair led her to study Visual Communication Design at Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology.

She started her career in 2007 as a visual designer working mostly on websites and apps. Her quest for the ‘why’ behind design and business decisions led her to taking a career break and going back to study a master’s programme in Design Ethnography at University of Dundee.

Since then, she has worked as an ethnographer, UX designer and a user researcher for over 11 years in India and Scotland and has acquired broad and deep skills across the spectrum.

She specialises in qualitative and quantitative user research, user experience design principles, ethnography and graphic design, with storytelling, usability and accessibility central to her practice.

About Hannah
Hannah found started her career in London advertising, working on campaign and website design, but soon got frustrated at the lack of understanding brands had for their customers' wants and needs. After establishing a user research practice, she moved into service design, working on bettering the customer experience for brands like Disney, BT, and Ocado.

Since then, she has worked as a Service Designer, Business Designer and User Researcher for large organisations and start-ups, specialising in qualitative research, customer experience and strategy.

During the pandemic, she moved back to Edinburgh, where she joined Infinity Works. She’s now the Design and Research Practice Lead, leading the growth of their design practice across Scotland.