Refining Taste in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (Online)

With minimal input, AI can already get us remarkably close to a competent average. But average rarely sets you apart. What still makes the difference is what we bring ourselves: experience, context, judgement, imperfection - and taste. As AI gets better at producing the work, taste may become one of the key things that keeps the human in the loop and separates polished output from genuinely creative work.

1️⃣ Welcome & Introduction (10 min) • Host: Gordon Cindrić
Short introduction to UXZGB and getting to know the audience.

2️⃣ Refining Taste in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
(40 min) • Speaker: Therese Fessenden
What is taste? Why is it a differentiator? And why does no one talk about how to improve it? A keynote about the role of research and context in cultivating taste, and how to move from taste recognition to comprehension.

About the speaker:
Therese Fessenden is a Senior Experience Specialist at Nielsen Norman Group, where she works as a UX researcher, strategist, and consultant studying how people interact with complex systems. Her work spans mixed-methods research, human-centered strategy, organizational change, and technology transformation, with a particular interest in cognitive load, trust, and decision-making under uncertainty. She also spent a decade as a U.S. Army Reserve officer, an experience that continues to inform how she approaches research, risk, planning, and complex systems. Therese is also the host of the NN/g UX Podcast, where she explores research, design, and the broader practice of user experience.

3️⃣ Q&A and Open Discussion (15-30 min)

🗓️ Sep 9, 2026 @ 19:00 - 20:15 CET (Zagreb)
📍 Remote (Google Meet)
🌐 Language: English