Mariana Morris and Nanami Nakamura

Talk 1:
From insight to impact: How user research drives competitive advantage
by Mariana Morris, CEO at Fruto

UX has the power to do more than fix friction; it can define the future direction of a business. This talk explores how user research can move beyond usability to uncover what users and customers truly value: insights that inform product strategy and drive competitive advantage. You’ll learn techniques for framing “blue ocean” research questions, synthesising findings into strategic clarity, and using customer understanding as your organisation’s edge in an AI-driven world where barriers to entry are lower than ever.

About Mariana
Mariana Morris is the Founder and CEO of Fruto, a Oxford-based UX & Product Design Consultancy helping organisations achieve customer-centred transformation through strategy, research, and design. With over 20 years of experience, she’s led UX strategy for complex products across sectors and co-founded UX Oxford, which she’s been co-organising for 14 years. Mariana is passionate about putting humans at the heart of technology, ensuring it delivers real value and positive impact.

Talk 2:
Getting buy-ins from stakeholders to do the right UX and accessibility
by Nanami Nakamura, Lead Designer at the University of Oxford

As a UX professional, you know what you need to do to make the right UX and accessibility, such as conducting user research to understand the problem, building a prototype, and user testing it, shipping it, and measuring the impact. However, in the real world, getting buy-in from stakeholders could be your first challenge to do the right thing. And you cannot deliver UX by yourself. So how could we get buy-ins from stakeholders for us to do the right thing?

About Nanami
Nanami Nakamura: Lead Designer at the User Experience Centre of Excellence, University of Oxford. UX Oxford co-organiser. Global Talent Visa Exceptional Promise. Before she joined the University, she worked for Thomson Reuters, IBM, startups, and design studios both in Japan and the UK. She designed the first e-signature App for the public services in Japan in 2019 at Graffer, where she got passionate about accessibility.

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Schedule:

• 7.00pm - Doors open. Join us for drinks and friendly chat with peers
• 7.30pm - Talk 1 and Q&A
• 8.00pm – Talk 2 and Q&A
• 8.30/9pm - Ends

❤️ Thank you Fruto (Product Strategy & UX Design) for sponsoring UX Oxford!