Attending the World Usability Congress two times was one of those experiences that leaves your brain pleasantly stimulated. It was a gathering of people who genuinely care about how technology fits into real human lives.
What intrigued me first was the strong emphasis on context. Again and again, speakers reminded us that usability doesn’t live in wireframes or prototypes—it lives in messy, unpredictable, real-world situations. Whether it was designing for high-stress environments like healthcare or for everyday tools we barely notice, the message was clear: if you don’t understand the user’s context, you don’t understand the problem. I also gained a deeper appreciation for the maturity of the UX field. There was a noticeable shift away from “best practices” as rigid rules and toward informed decision-making.
Design systems are like LEGO kits; they contain reusable components and instructions, they can be assembled in a variety of ways, and instructions are for both creation and use.
Accessibility was another major takeaway. Not as a checkbox, but as a mindset. Several sessions showed how inclusive design leads to better products for everyone, not just users with specific needs.
I was also reminded that usability is as much about ethics as it is about efficiency. Talks about dark patterns, persuasive design, and user trust highlighted the responsibility we have as practitioners. Just because something can be optimized doesn’t mean it should be. Designing with empathy and integrity is becoming just as important as designing for speed or conversion.
One of my favorite insights was about innovation built by great teams. Great usability doesn’t happen in isolation. Researchers, designers, developers, product managers, and stakeholders all shape the outcome, whether intentionally or not.
Reflections
I left the World Usability Congress 2024 and 2025 genuinely inspired. It reinforced why I care about usability in the first place and why I chose my thesis to be rooted in product UI UX design, because good design respects people’s time, attention, and limitations. And that’s a standard worth continually striving for.
Disclaimer: AI was used to fix any grammatical mistakes and for better phrasing.
