Spending two days at the World Usability Congress in Graz made me focus on UX aspect of my thesis. The talks I followed were mostly about UX KPIs, usability testing and accessibility, and I kept translating everything into my own topic: AR and IoT in retail. Instead of just thinking about how my future system could look, I started to think in a much more concrete way about how to measure it, test it and make sure it works for real people, not only in prototypes.
KPIs – Learning To Define What “Better” Means
One of the clearest lessons was how seriously UX teams treat KPIs. In my notes I wrote that valuable improvements are often only 10 to 15 percent per quarter, and that this is already considered success. That sounds small, but the important part is that these improvements are defined and measured. The typical UX KPIs that kept coming up were conversion rate, task completion time, System Usability Scale score, Net Promoter Score and error rate.
For my thesis this means I cannot just write “AR wayfinding will improve the shopping experience”. I need to specify what that improvement looks like. For example: people find a product faster, they ask staff for help less often, they feel more confident about their choices. The practical action I took from the congress is: for each feature I design, I will write down one or two concrete metrics and how I would measure them in a real store test. That turns my concepts into something that can be evaluated instead of just admired.
Accessibility As A Built In Check, Not An Extra
The accessibility track was also directly relevant. In my notes I wrote down a “quick checklist” that one speaker shared: check page layout and content, contrast and colours, zoom, alerts and error messages, images and icons, videos, no flashing animation and audio only content. It is simple, but exactly because it is simple it is realistic to apply often.
For my AR and IoT ideas, this becomes a routine step. Whenever I sketch a screen or overlay, I can quickly run through that checklist. Also thinking how my work could also have an impact on the accessibility for the end users. Are colours readable on top of a busy store background. Can text be enlarged. Is there a non visual way to access key information. Combined with talks about accessibility on a corporate level and inclusive design for neurodivergent people, it pushed me to treat accessibility as a default requirement. The concrete action is to document accessibility considerations in my thesis for every main feature, instead of adding a separate chapter at the end.
What I Take Back Into My Thesis
After World Usability Congress, my AR and IoT retail project feels less like a collection of futuristic ideas and more like something that could be developed and tested step by step. The congress gave me three practical habits. First, always define UX KPIs before I design a solution, so “better” is not vague. Second, run an accessibility quick check on every main screen or interaction and think about different types of users from the start.
This fits nicely with my other blog reflections. The museum visit gave me ideas about where AR and IoT could be applied. The festival made me think about wayfinding and smart environments. World Usability Congress added the missing layer: methods to prove that these ideas actually help people and do not silently exclude anyone.
Links
Official conference homepage
World Usability Congress – Home World Usability Congress
2025 agenda with talks and speakers
World Usability Congress 2025 – Agenda World Usability Congress
AI Disclaimer
This blog post was polished with the assistance of AI.
