BayCHI

# Details

Light dinner served at 6:30pm PT. Feel free to bring your own if you prefer. We strive to support both in-person and remote attendance, so we'll also fire up the Zoom at that point to support virtual socializing.

Abstract

Observing the User Experience in 2025: UX research in the era of AI, shifting organizational power, and remote work

It’s a weird time to be a UX researcher right now. There’s more actual user research than ever before, yet fewer people have “UX Researcher” in their title. Product development for UX research and design is booming, yet chatter about their death pervades professional forums. What’s going on? As Elizabeth Goodman and Mike Kuniavsky prepared the third edition of their widely used UX research methods handbook, Observing the User Experience, they realized they had to rewrite the whole thing. The completely rewritten and reconfigured third edition of the book launches next year. This talk will share what they learned in the process about how research jobs have changed, the new power dynamics of tech development, and the rise of AI.

Bios:

Elizabeth Goodman is a design and strategy leader who works to improve healthcare in the United States. She currently serves as VP of Design and Strategy at A1M Solutions. Previously, she was Director of Design at 18F, a digital services group within the US government. Elizabeth has a PhD from UC Berkeley’s School of Information, where she taught UX research. She is the lead author of the second and third editions of Observing the User Experience. https://www.linkedin.com/in/esgoodman/
Mike Kuniavsky builds high-performing, diverse R&D teams that deliver breakthrough technical innovations by combining world-class research with cutting-edge product design. He is currently the Founding Product Lead at PaperMoon AI, an AI risk evaluation, measurement, and management startup. Previously, he led product strategy for AILuminate, an AI risk benchmark, at MLCommons. Before that he led an AI+neuroscience R&D group at Accenture Labs, and before that he was Head of Design at Xerox PARC. He is the originator of Observing the User Experience. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikek/

Location
UCSC Silicon Valley Extension (3175 Bowers Ave Santa Clara, CA 95054 - Room 3003) OR Online

Our weekly working sessions for those in the UX Life and Careers BOF. The BOF draws a lot of interest from folks who are looking for new opportunities or those who are otherwise looking for more depth than we do in our monthly one-hour evening meetings.

This weekly session is a longer networking and/or co-working time especially for those looking for support as they seek new opportunities, hosted by Edwin.

So if you want to work alongside other folks on their UX life tasks, especially job search activities, whether resume s, portfolio work, or other such tasks, or if you want to ask for feedback from other UX folks on various aspects of UX, this is a weekly meeting via Zoom meant for support and company.

Wednesdays at 3:30pm, just fire up the the same link you'll have received for the monthly UX Life And Careers BOF.

Note that the plan is to run these every week, even if there's no BayCHI calendar event. The BayCHI calendar doesn't currently support recurring events, so I will most likely not create a calendar event for every week in the year.

One registration for that series will provide a link that will be good for all subsequent meetings and work sessions in this series.

Our weekly working sessions for those in the UX Life and Careers BOF. The BOF draws a lot of interest from folks who are looking for new opportunities or those who are otherwise looking for more depth than we do in our monthly one-hour evening meetings.

This weekly session is a longer networking and/or co-working time especially for those looking for support as they seek new opportunities, hosted by Edwin.

So if you want to work alongside other folks on their UX life tasks, especially job search activities, whether resume s, portfolio work, or other such tasks, or if you want to ask for feedback from other UX folks on various aspects of UX, this is a weekly meeting via Zoom meant for support and company.

Wednesdays at 3:30pm, just fire up the the same link you'll have received for the monthly UX Life And Careers BOF.

Note that the plan is to run these every week, even if there's no BayCHI calendar event. The BayCHI calendar doesn't currently support recurring events, so I will most likely not create a calendar event for every week in the year.

One registration for that series will provide a link that will be good for all subsequent meetings and work sessions in this series.