UX Masterclass 2025, everything that's been brewing

We're getting ready and pumped for the 2025 edition of the UX Masterclass, the third time in Bengaluru

Hi!

Thank you for showing your interest for the UX Masterclass 2025, you’ll hear from us once in a while as we reveal what’s going behind the scenes as we design the experience of the conference using experience research as a craft to talk about UX research and its future.

Let’s talk about our theme, it is quite specific yet a blue ocean by itself, the futures, the evolvement, the moving ahead and the path for UX Research. The generation of the theme itself was done as a co-creative workshop. We did post out there about this workshop, but here we want to talk about what went on behind the scenes, and reveal some interesting bites of the potential themes we had and the initial write-ups we wrote together as a narrative, reacting to the theme and to each other one by one

We started by looking back: “Imagine writing a letter to yourself five years in the past (2020), what would you write?

This exercise highlighted “resilience” — a quality that has consistently allowed us to overcome stress and crises by forging connections and finding our communities. Human resilience has stood the test of time.

… and next, we fast-forwarded: “Imagine writing a letter to yourself five years in the future (2030).”

This naturally brought up the idea of a “VUCA world” and the need to “expect the unexpected”. It’s about having a mindset that prepares for anything, being open to change, and staying flexible.

Here are some co-created narratives that emerged. Abstracting these led to our final theme on “Navigating Uncertainty: The future of UX Research.”

• ‘Resilience’
  The world has seen a lot of shifts from the time it has existed and been documented, and what has stood the test of time is human resilience. It is human resilience that has allowed us to overcome all the stress and crises and find a way to move ahead by forging connections and finding our communities. Communities have emerged into societies, those into countries and even bigger divisions, and then we found our way to each other as we blurred these lines working with each other through technology and collective knowledge, yet bringing our differences starkly when there’s unrest across our borders. In a world of constant change humans have the ability to adapt and rebuild and grow strong. Resilience is one quality which has kept us navigating through the world and beyond the world in the cosmos

• ‘Phygital Spaces’
  While living a digital life comes with its own benefits of convenience, speed and efficiency, it is important for us to actively put in effort and be in touch with nature, with the physical world out there. It also seems to be that we live in our screens now, and our screens live with us, so there’s a bit of amalgamation of our life digitally and physically, where does it take us moving forward? The ultimate truth is the world around us in a physical form, the virtual and the physical might mix in each other, and the challenge is going to identify one from another. In the physical world we explore and experience the essence of life. The goal is to keep all our senses stimulated, so that it helps improve our quality of life. How do we strike this balance and protect ourselves

  

• ‘Funpowerment’ | ‘State of Flow’
  Important to not lose one’s sense of fun and adventure, be brave and empower others. When we have fun, we can explore, create and grow. We realise our potential. Especially while navigating uncertain times, retaining the sense of fun helps us to be humane and kind to ourselves and everyone around us. Unless we have fun we cannot unfold the true potential of innovation. Fun or play is important as we work, because that’s what puts our mind in the space of ‘flow’ which is the key to innovation, and problem-solving. The key is to use ‘fun’ as a tool to fuel innovation rather than seeking it simply as the end goal

• ‘Domino effect’ | ‘Chain reaction’ | ‘Thought-fission’
  ‘Challenging Assumptions’ | ‘Embracing interconnectedness’
  Spark that ignites change, fuels growth, and drives me toward achieving my goals. With so many options out there, it becomes important for me to keep an eye out and drive the change in my life. Need to have perspective to see and do things differently and move with the times. Catalysts in life can be small and impactful. Change in the world around us is essentially through catalysts that are small in nature, but big in impact. Every little initiative or step towards improvement after considering the entire context and interconnectedness of systems helps to spark wellbeing. Every step on the other side without understanding the larger context can lead to magnitude of effects impacting negatively like a domino effect

• Creation | The act of creating | Create | Creativity in UX
  Creating something of our own rather than consuming, which is an infinite game. There is no end to it, and there needs to be a commitment to constant innovation. Creating a better living environment is necessary for sustainability. An entrepreneurial mindset is what one asks for to own responsibilities towards creating solutions for day-to-day problems / issues. Is innovation truly new or original, or is it adding onto something that exists taking the world forward?

• Adapt | Adapting for the next | Change with Change
  Embrace change. It will be hard, but will lead to new experiences. Being okay with doing things imperfectly and not waiting for the ideal. Need to adapt to the ever changing world and connecting with the youth is the way for companies to stay relevant. Also, GenZ and Alpha making most of the purchase decisions, their habits need to be understood for adapting products and services. Remain resilient and responsive in facing the future challenges. If challenges can’t be faced, then do you face them or turn your back on them to think deeply and get back to?

• Expect the unexpected | Crafting futures | Futures are uncertain | Future Forward | Living in a VUCA world
  The mindset. No one knows what can happen, hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Being open to change and being flexible would help to prepare for the future where anything is possible. Insuring self and family is extremely important in a world of uncertainty. Being more compassionate to yourself even if things do not turn out how you expected it to. Open to unforeseen challenges, be prepared for the ever changing demands. Are there ways we can think and trick the unexpected to be expected?

• Realising the Self | Caring for self / Care-self-ing | Reflexivity
  Caring for body and mind is important, work is not what defines me as a person. Healing starts with the self. Self care beyond physical health - focusing on nurturing social connections. Mental health related aspects need to be addressed by self realisation. Also, being consistent in self care is important to make a lasting impact rather than just making short term commitments. Important to maintain the energy and creativity needed to balance what the work demands, showing up fully for our teams. Mitochondria makes energy in humans, but of late in all the talk about bio-hacking, what’s our take on what it is to be human?

As we move forward in creating the UX Masterclass experience, we will share some interesting pieces of this journey, and how we use our own craft to make a great experience. For more insight on using UX Research stay tuned to this space, and catch us at the UX Masterclass 2025 - 10th October in Bengaluru!