{ "conference": { "slug": "ux-australia", "name": "UX Australia 2026", "url": "https://webdirections.org/ux-australia/" }, "updated_at": "2026-07-27T08:02:57.211Z", "count": 24, "speakers": [ { "id": "0bccb2e4-31a5-496e-a54d-edf9146261c3", "slug": "amanda-pitcher", "full_name": "Amanda Pitcher", "job_title": "Practice Lead — Strategy & Design, and Software Engineering", "employer": "Versent", "bio": "A seasoned experience design and digital strategy practitioner, Amanda brings extensive cross-sector expertise spanning finance, government, media, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and insurance. With a foundation in CX/UX and digital production, Amanda has spent nearly 20 years at the intersection of human-centred design, technology, and organisational culture - translating complex customer needs into meaningful digital experiences.\r\nKnown for building diverse, high-performing teams and fostering the conditions where creative problem-solving thrives, Amanda is a practitioner who believes that great experiences emerge when people, process, and technology move in the same direction.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/0bccb2e4-31a5-496e-a54d-edf9146261c3?v=1779065399273", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": null, "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": "https://linkedin.com/in/amandapitcher" }, "presentation_ids": [ "f427c3fd-a0d1-4ae5-b14c-6a0c7394b263" ] }, { "id": "b2471614-dc32-44ed-9e69-a2aac5511112", "slug": "amir-ansari", "full_name": "Amir Ansari", "pronouns": "He/His", "job_title": "Design leader", "bio": "With over 25 years’ experience in the field of design, as a practitioner and leader, he has worked across the private and public sectors, in-house and agency, managing researchers and designers, while delivering digital products and technology.\r\n\r\nHe is passionate about inclusion, leaving long-lasting impact and democratising the craft of design - doing it all with a smile and a hug.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/b2471614-dc32-44ed-9e69-a2aac5511112?v=1781742883439", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": null, "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": "https://amiransari.com.au" }, "presentation_ids": [ "3b9b0102-fce0-4e1e-aec8-08f4cce381cd" ] }, { "id": "e2aaf0d1-9bd9-4635-bf34-a533515aeffe", "slug": "ben-shelton", "full_name": "Ben Shelton", "job_title": "Senior Manager, User Experience & Business Improvement", "employer": "The University of Newcastle, Australia", "bio": "Dr Ben Shelton is a Human–Computer Interaction researcher specialising in human-centred design and Senior Manager, User Experience & Business Improvement at the University of Newcastle.\r\n\r\nHis work bridges cognitive science and applied UX practice, exploring how Cognitive Load Theory can be used to measure interface effectiveness and reduce digital noise.\r\n\r\nBen’s research spans higher education user experience, ubiquitous computing, and workload measurement, with a focus on designing systems that support attention rather than compete for it.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/e2aaf0d1-9bd9-4635-bf34-a533515aeffe?v=1779266245763", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": null, "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-shelton/" }, "presentation_ids": [ "b0e6a27d-a084-458a-b4cc-c6025c4d5744" ] }, { "id": "52fcdfc9-4322-4214-8cda-fddad06d9e30", "slug": "cordelia-prangley", "full_name": "Cordelia Prangley", "pronouns": "She/Her", "job_title": "User Experience and Service Design Specialist", "employer": "University of Newcastle", "bio": "Cordelia Prangley is a Design and Research Specialist at the University of Newcastle, working at the intersection of service design, human-centred design, and complex system improvement. With a background spanning research, teaching, and project delivery, Cordelia is recognised through national design awards and is known for translating insight into practical, scalable solutions that improve real-world experiences.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/52fcdfc9-4322-4214-8cda-fddad06d9e30?v=1780012970993", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/cordeliaprangley/", "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": null }, "presentation_ids": [ "b0e6a27d-a084-458a-b4cc-c6025c4d5744" ] }, { "id": "56af4366-3ec8-463b-a3ab-0be5070c6c9a", "slug": "cornel-steyn", "full_name": "Cornel Steyn", "job_title": "Principal Consultant: Strategy & Design", "employer": "Versent", "bio": "Cornel is an industrial engineer turned strategic designer, WA strategy and design lead at Versent, and co-founder of UX Camp Australia. He helps teams take action on what matters, while establishing the vision and culture to keep it going.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/56af4366-3ec8-463b-a3ab-0be5070c6c9a?v=1779024326960", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/cornelsteyn/", "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": null }, "presentation_ids": [ "ce984a78-902d-4f94-a6f8-78368a3ee44a" ] }, { "id": "649b5a5d-f8a8-4481-9e52-7e8b9c981868", "slug": "elise-loeuille", "full_name": "Elise Loeuille", "job_title": "Senior Service Designer", "employer": "Transport for NSW", "bio": "Elise Loeuille is a Senior Service Designer at Transport for NSW with more than 20 years of international experience across France, Russia and Australia. She has worked across retail, education and public transport, helping organisations turn complex challenges into practical, human-centred solutions.​\r\n\r\nPassionate about collaboration and mentoring, Elise also teaches design at UNSW, UTS and Academy Xi.\r\n​\r\nOutside work, Elise rescues wildlife with WIRES, so her hobbies involve urgent incidents, incomplete information, and diverse creatures with strong opinions.​", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/649b5a5d-f8a8-4481-9e52-7e8b9c981868?v=1781329279686", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": null, "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": null }, "presentation_ids": [ "6d5e8f2d-9930-44da-a3e6-25bd9f31f76c" ] }, { "id": "9a7b3e31-2914-4969-a62d-f36633023134", "slug": "emily-smith", "full_name": "Emily Smith", "job_title": "Peer Work Manager", "employer": "ReachOut Australia", "bio": "Emily is a Peer Work Manager at leading digital youth mental health organisation, ReachOut Australia. In her role, she heads up a team of peer workers who use their lived and living experience of mental health challenges to support young people. She was instrumental in the development of ReachOut's one-to-one service, PeerChat.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/9a7b3e31-2914-4969-a62d-f36633023134?v=1779489699378", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": "https://au.linkedin.com/in/emily-smith-b57239198", "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": "https://au.linkedin.com/in/emily-smith-b57239198" }, "presentation_ids": [ "5efdff8a-4bc1-4530-ada5-df055ecb7b9d" ] }, { "id": "16c1d35f-87eb-498a-ac6d-32a315022f4f", "slug": "emma-buckland", "full_name": "Emma Buckland", "job_title": "Lead UX Designer", "bio": "Emma Buckland is an award-winning Lead Designer specialising in mobile-first UX. With over 15 years of experience across large, highly regulated financial services organisations - including CommBank, ANZ, and AustralianSuper - she has a rare ability to translate legislative and operational complexity into experiences that drive real customer behaviour - not just better interfaces. At AustralianSuper - Australia's largest super fund - Emma shaped product strategy and UX across its native iOS and Android app, growing interactions from 300,000 to over 7.6 million and reaching more than one million members. The AustralianSuper mobile app took Gold at the Better Future Design Awards (Australia, 2025) and Silver at the World awards (2026).\r\n\r\nEmma designs at the intersection of behavioural psychology, product thinking, and design systems — and when she's not at her screen, she exhibits her visual art across Melbourne. She believes the hardest design problem is always making the complex feel effortless.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/16c1d35f-87eb-498a-ac6d-32a315022f4f?v=1779490019104", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": null, "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": "https://www.ejbuckland.info/" }, "presentation_ids": [ "8ba62520-7abf-4d16-a028-8bf5634a9a3a" ] }, { "id": "3b3b6968-feaf-42fd-9fb7-c70cbbf61b26", "slug": "fatemeh-aminpour", "full_name": "Fatemeh Aminpour", "job_title": "Researcher & Sessional Academic", "employer": "UNSW Sydney", "bio": "Dr Fatemeh Aminpour is an environment–behaviour researcher and design practitioner whose work sits at the intersection of architecture, urban design and lived experience. She is one of Australia's leading voices on neuroinclusive design in public space, and lead author of Towards Neuroinclusive Public Open Spaces (UNSW City Futures, 2026), one of the first Australian studies to systematically examine how neurodivergent people experience and navigate urban environments. Fatemeh is a researcher and sessional academic at the University of Sydney and UNSW, and an Associate of the UNSW Disability Innovation Institute and the Australian Human Rights Institute.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/3b3b6968-feaf-42fd-9fb7-c70cbbf61b26?v=1781490358982", "speaker_type": "Keynote", "social": { "social_media": null, "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": null }, "presentation_ids": [ "dd6d40f6-f82e-4497-a06e-99e50e8b1493" ] }, { "id": "651ad8ef-a9fb-4c12-bea8-7167799cc731", "slug": "jess-witt", "full_name": "Jess Witt", "job_title": "Lead Consultant: Strategy & Design", "employer": "Versent", "bio": "Jess is a strategic product and service designer who bridges creativity and complexity. She helps medium to large organisations map, design, and evolve the systems people interact with every day, to make the complicated feel simple.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/651ad8ef-a9fb-4c12-bea8-7167799cc731?v=1779069191383", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": null, "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": null }, "presentation_ids": [ "ce984a78-902d-4f94-a6f8-78368a3ee44a" ] }, { "id": "753347e1-66b3-4762-afae-d96c5eb416f4", "slug": "jessie-pahng", "full_name": "Jessie Pahng", "job_title": "Design leader", "employer": "Independent", "bio": "Jessie Pahng is a design leader dedicated to making technology deeply human. She transforms complexity into clarity, helping organizations build intelligent ecosystems that empower people while creating lasting value for businesses.\r\n\r\nAt Actian, Jessie transformed fragmented products into a unified ecosystem, embedding intelligent experiences into workflows to simplify enterprise complexity and improve decision-making. At Google, she led UX strategy for Google Cloud Storage, helping organizations unlock the full potential of their data at global scale. As a founding member and Strategy Director at the Parsons Institute for Information Mapping (PIIM), she developed a human-centered approach to helping people understand information more effectively, make better decisions, and navigate complexity with confidence.\r\n\r\nToday, she focuses on helping organizations design ecosystems that simplify complexity, amplify human potential, and responsibly apply AI to help people make better decisions and create meaningful experiences.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/753347e1-66b3-4762-afae-d96c5eb416f4?v=1781750565131", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": "linkedin.com/in/jessiepahng/", "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": null }, "presentation_ids": [ "29e2ff8f-08b3-4593-94f7-f1215835a248" ] }, { "id": "fbd0d553-fb15-43d8-b733-21f1f9154d47", "slug": "josephine-abbatangelo", "full_name": "Josephine Abbatangelo", "pronouns": "she/her", "job_title": "Senior Product Designer", "employer": "Movember", "bio": "Josephine is a Senior Product Designer at Movember, where she designs digital experiences that support men's mental health and wellbeing. With over 10 years experience across banking, nonprofit, and digital product environments, she brings a research-grounded, end-to-end design practice to complex problems.\r\n\r\nShe is known for translating insight into clear design direction, building alignment across teams, and keeping focus on what matters most to users and the organisation.\r\n\r\nAt UX Australia 2026, she is speaking about the hidden cost that workplace products place on people with invisible disabilities and the practical design decisions that can reduce it.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/fbd0d553-fb15-43d8-b733-21f1f9154d47?v=1779064606171", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephineabbatangelo/", "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": null }, "presentation_ids": [ "2b6a4623-f8a7-4453-aa6d-c1c35421b9c4" ] }, { "id": "15497a5c-21d4-43af-9b40-0d9cc5f3b275", "slug": "maria-spozetta", "full_name": "Maria Sereno", "pronouns": "she/her", "job_title": "Design leader", "bio": "Maria (she/her) is a product designer tackling complex problems with intention and purpose: centring the people we're building for and the impact of our work on their lives. As a principal designer at National Australia Bank, she guided a design practice of 200+ on designing for greater inclusion and accessibility, developed frameworks for inclusive research and impact assessment; collaborated with product, engineering, and governance teams to embed inclusive design considerations into core processes across the enterprise. \r\n\r\nAs a queer, disabled woman of colour, Maria draws from her lived (and living) experience in addition to her work at tech startups (Linktree, modo, TeamForm) and her background in public policy and economics. She continues to advocate for tech that is data-informed, trauma-responsive, designed from the margins, and driven by moving the \"arc of the moral universe\" towards justice.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/15497a5c-21d4-43af-9b40-0d9cc5f3b275?v=1782158123592", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": "LinkedIn: mariasereno", "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": "https://msereno.net" }, "presentation_ids": [ "a305d2c2-b406-497a-b1a2-f346282d5aff" ] }, { "id": "78214e9d-94fd-40dc-adc2-930c4f098fe2", "slug": "mc-monsalve", "full_name": "MC Monsalve", "employer": "ABC", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/78214e9d-94fd-40dc-adc2-930c4f098fe2?v=1781501965997", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": null, "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": null }, "presentation_ids": [ "018ddda8-0ec9-4c79-a092-ff2daec6dfbe" ] }, { "id": "d889ba96-850b-4a55-bd3c-e49abb66cda7", "slug": "mina-giang", "full_name": "Mina Giang", "job_title": "Co-founder, Head of Product & Experiences", "employer": "Oexa", "bio": "Mina Giang is a digital health advocate, UX leader, and co-founder of Oexa – a connected care ecosystem connecting providers, pharmacies, and health consumers to Australia's digital health infrastructure. She champions interoperability, consumer rights, and designs that work for real people navigating a fragmented system.\r\n\r\nMina has launched multiple digital health products including Scripty, a free consumer eScript app, Light, a clinical platform for pharmacies trusted by TerryWhite Chemmart, and Managed Intermediary, the gateway to Australia's national prescription infrastructure. She also serves as CPO of Mibowork, a psychosocial risk platform with clients including Royal Flying Doctor Service, QBE, and Foxtel.\r\n\r\nAn active contributor to the Australian Digital Health Agency ePrescribing Working Group, HL7 Australia, and Sparked AU, Mina is a published voice on healthcare UX and interoperability – writing from experience, with a bit of humour, because the system needs honest conversation as much as it needs good technology.\r\n\r\nShe is also a patient. Recently diagnosed, through major surgery, with more to come – she is building the system she needs to exist.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/d889ba96-850b-4a55-bd3c-e49abb66cda7?v=1778828519675", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": "www.linkedin.com/in/minagiang", "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": null }, "presentation_ids": [ "5a8e88d1-f713-4862-bb21-ed73551027ea" ] }, { "id": "74734825-ec4b-4c66-98d3-234ba3d54ed4", "slug": "nadine-raydan", "full_name": "Nadine Raydan", "pronouns": "she/her", "job_title": "Senior Product Manager", "employer": "ReachOut Australia", "bio": "Nadine Raydan is a senior product manager, researcher and advocate for responsible and impact-driven digital design. At ReachOut Australia, she leads the PeerChat On Demand service and referral partnerships that connect young people to additional support.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/74734825-ec4b-4c66-98d3-234ba3d54ed4?v=1779489853583", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": null, "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": null }, "presentation_ids": [ "5efdff8a-4bc1-4530-ada5-df055ecb7b9d" ] }, { "id": "ea10a2aa-8375-46d3-8b6c-21d43a21085c", "slug": "nathan-shedroff", "full_name": "Nathan Shedroff", "pronouns": "He/Him", "job_title": "Full Professor", "employer": "California College of the Arts", "bio": "Nathan Shedroff is a serial entrepreneur in various technology and strategic sectors, including blockchain, conversational interfaces, software services, media, and new tools. He led the Foodicons.org project to develop an extensive visual language to unite the food systems around the world. He is a design pioneer turned entrepreneur and an international educator, speaker, and consultant.\r\n\r\nHis new company plans to disrupt the strategic consulting industry with a new strategic model, tool, and services.\r\n\r\nNathan was the founder and chair of the ground-breaking Design MBA programs at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, CA, where he has taught since 2000. He is currently a full professor teaching in the MDes in Interaction Design program. He also teaches internationally at KaosPilot in Aarhus, Denmark and ELISAVA in Barcelona.\r\n\r\nHe is a pioneer in Experience Design, Interaction Design, and Information Design, is a serial entrepreneur, and researches, speaks and teaches internationally about meaning, strategic innovation, business value, and science fiction interfaces. He’s authored more than 10 books, including the new A Whole New Strategy, as well as Blindspot, Design is the Solution, Design Strategy in Action, Make It So, and Experience Design 1.1.\r\n\r\nHe holds an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School and a BS in Industrial Design from Art Center College of Design. He worked with Richard Saul Wurman at TheUnderstandingBusiness and, later, co-founded vivid studios, a decade-old pioneering company in interactive media and one of the first Web services firms on the planet. vivid’s hallmark was helping to establish and validate the field of information architecture, by training an entire generation of designers in the newly emerging Web industry.", "bio_short": "Nathan is a business strategist, education innovator, author, and speaker. He is a serial entrepreneur in various technology and strategic sectors, particularly interaction and experience design, sustainable design, social impact, and strategy. He is a thought-leader who has written over 10 books, started more than 6 companies, and founded the ground-breaking Design MBA program. He’s taught at his home institution, California College of the Arts, for 26 years and Columbia University since 2024, as well as international programs at KaosPilot and ELISAVA. \r\n\r\nNathan has led the Foodicons.org Challenge, an initiative for building a global, open-source, visual language for food systems. \r\n\r\nHis latest book, A Whole New Strategy, defines a more successful approach to strategy and his new company, ASTRA.tools is building a SaaS platform to make strategy better, faster, and much less expensive for everyone.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/ea10a2aa-8375-46d3-8b6c-21d43a21085c?v=1781555221109", "speaker_type": "Keynote", "social": { "social_media": null, "linkedin": "linkedin.com/in/nathanshedroff", "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": "https://www.nathan.com" }, "presentation_ids": [ "b4aaccf3-3169-4460-8d0c-d7457769da18" ] }, { "id": "69100b3b-bf7e-454c-8de5-47d9b0a83985", "slug": "nila-rezaei", "full_name": "Nila Rezaei", "pronouns": "She/Her", "job_title": "Co-founder & Design Director", "employer": "RK Collective", "bio": "Nila Rezaei is working towards a design culture that builds dignity, one in which communities are active co-authors of the objects, spaces, and systems that shape their lives, and where design accounts for people, place, and planet together.\r\n\r\nShe is Co-Founder and Design Director of RK Collective, a Sydney-based product design and innovation studio working at the intersection of circular design, material storytelling, and social impact. She is interested in the political, cultural, and ecological dimensions of materials and products, treating co-design as a form of authorship, and making as a form of activism.\r\n\r\nNila has over ten years of commercial experience spanning material innovation, consumer products, packaging, furniture and homewares, electronics, mobility, spatial design and public art installations, where she uses design as a tool to restore connection, resilience, and dignity in a rapidly changing world.\r\n\r\nHer flagship project Crafted Liberation, which transforms Iranian Women’s donated headscarves and reclaimed textiles into public seating using waste resources, has been recognised with the 2024 Good Design Award for Social Impact, the 2025 Seoul Design Award, and selected as a 2026 Doha Design Prize finalist.\r\n\r\nWith a background that bridges commercial design and critical practice, Nila is a Good Design Australia Ambassador. She chairs the Design Institute of Australia NSW Council, co-founded Industrial Design Xchange Sydney (IDX SYD), and teaches at UNSW Art & Design. \r\n\r\nPassionate about sharing knowledge and nurturing future generations, Nila regularly speaks and exhibits work at national and international forums on sustainability, material innovation, and social design, inspiring others to see design as a powerful agent of cultural and systemic change.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/69100b3b-bf7e-454c-8de5-47d9b0a83985?v=1778796793631", "speaker_type": "Keynote", "social": { "social_media": "@nila.rezaei", "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": "https://www.rk-collective.com/" }, "presentation_ids": [ "67ca6009-b0f9-4e3c-b465-82969f526bdc" ] }, { "id": "356acc7f-c69b-4545-9ebf-358d4b3188f2", "slug": "patima-tantiprasut", "full_name": "Patima Tantiprasut", "pronouns": "She/Her", "job_title": "CEO & Managing Director", "employer": "PetRescue", "bio": "Patima is the Managing Director and CEO at PetRescue, a progressive Australian tech charity that’s working towards a future where every pet is safe, respected and loved. She leads a nationally distributed team who look after Australia’s most visited charity website alongside running multiple programs and initiatives helping to save lives and bring happiness... every day.\r\n\r\nPatima has shared her knowledge at multiple Australian conferences and also on international stages, speaking on topics such as tech for good, inclusive design, product roadmaps, fostering positive and healthy workplace cultures, and building communities.\r\n\r\nOver the past 20 years in the tech industry, Patima has held various roles including being the Head of Product and Design, a Creative Director, Digital Strategist, Co-Founder, Studio Manager, Designer, Front End Developer and even Tech Support!\r\n\r\nIn her spare time, she's been a huge champion for the creative tech community with a passion for bringing people together. She was a co-organiser for Mixin Conf, created a memorable national roadshow and hosted several tech meetups including Localhost and Product of PER. Today, she is a community manager for the Aussie Designers slack community group, a friendly space for 1,000+ Australian Designers to connect and discuss all things design.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/356acc7f-c69b-4545-9ebf-358d4b3188f2?v=1778592083786", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": "@the_patima", "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": "https://www.petrescue.com.au" }, "presentation_ids": [ "316efd8f-e685-47da-868d-cdcd7917e34a" ] }, { "id": "b177cdf8-eeca-4d54-b2f8-7fd5a1a102dd", "slug": "peter-barber", "full_name": "Peter Barber", "pronouns": "He/him", "job_title": "Staff Product Designer", "employer": "Airwallex", "bio": "Peter Barber is a Staff Product Designer at Airwallex, where he works on identity and security products. He has spent his career scaling complex product ecosystems across Afterpay, Square, Cash App, and early-stage AI research, and speaks and writes on the intersection of design and AI infrastructure.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/b177cdf8-eeca-4d54-b2f8-7fd5a1a102dd?v=1781661415562", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterrobertbarber", "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": null }, "presentation_ids": [ "828f9d81-cbe5-4160-8574-ddb3d5b08ee7" ] }, { "id": "91777ef8-400b-4492-b624-dc3a3e653b09", "slug": "rachael-wilson", "full_name": "Rachael Wilson", "pronouns": "She/her", "job_title": "Lead, Digital Content and User Experience", "employer": "Deakin University", "bio": "I lead and support user experience research, digital content strategy and experience design initiatives that improve how people engage with academic library services and systems. My work combines evidence-based research, content design and digital governance to create accessible, inclusive and user-centred experiences for students, researchers, academics and community users. I’m passionate about translating complexity into clarity and helping libraries design services that are genuinely useful, usable and equitable.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/91777ef8-400b-4492-b624-dc3a3e653b09?v=1778547918449", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachael-wilson-297192276/", "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": null }, "presentation_ids": [ "e8d2913f-d1bb-450c-9301-fc1b0aebd928" ] }, { "id": "f5d8c757-bc67-49aa-85c8-17389413e81c", "slug": "sakib-jalil", "full_name": "Sakib Jalil", "pronouns": "He/Him", "job_title": "Lecturer", "employer": "UTS & Central Queensland University", "bio": "Sakib Jalil's career and life are a **meaningful mess**: consulting, research, teaching, cultures, cities, students, clients, and questions that kept pulling him in different directions, until he realised these are connected by one question: **what is design missing when it serves efficiency but forgets ethics, affection, connection, and joy?**\r\n\r\nHe is a **designer, consultant, researcher, and educator** whose career has grown through two streams: consulting and academic teaching. As a consultant, Sakib has worked in Australia since 2018 across user experience, service design, product strategy, digital transformation, and design-led discovery and delivery. His work has included roles with Telstra Purple and NCS Australia, as well as being part of cross-consulting teams with Deloitte and IBM. He has worked across telecommunications, digital health, government, education, and enterprise technology in product management, strategy, and service design.\r\n\r\nAs a researcher and educator, Dr Jalil holds a **PhD in Human-Computer Interaction**. Across research, teaching, and consulting, he has drawn on cognitive science, decision science, implementation science, qualitative research, ethnography, and emerging technologies to deliver practical outcomes. His work has consistently examined how people think, decide, feel, connect, and find meaning with technology. Some courses he teaches now are advanced interaction design, experience-centred design, ethics, and morals. Long before today’s AI boom, he explored interoperability between AI agents in 2010. This is now part of a longer concern with how technology becomes meaningful and humane for humankind, as individual and collective wellbeing need different perspectives.\r\n\r\nHis academic path has taken him through Thailand, Barcelona, Aalborg, California, and Australia, where he learned to **read design in everyday movement**: train stations, streets, classrooms, workplaces, and public spaces. Watching how people chose direction, hesitated, followed, adapted, and found their way showed him how deeply design can shape behaviour, emotion, and possibility. **Design is not a neutral profession; and it must be practised with great care.**\r\n\r\nSakib has had the opportunity to teach approximately **4,100 students**. He sees education as a symbiotic process: teaching students, and also learning from their questions, joys, life experiences, doubts, and ways of seeing the world. For him, these are **4,100 conversations** about technology, people, society, evidence, ethics, design, and the futures each generation wants to build.\r\n\r\nAcross consulting and academia, Sakib’s work returns to the same question: **what if design was judged not only by how efficiently it works, but by whether it acts ethically, understands its moral responsibilities, creates connection, and leaves room for joy?**", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/f5d8c757-bc67-49aa-85c8-17389413e81c?v=1781231050262", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": null, "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": "https://www.drsakibjalil.com/" }, "presentation_ids": [ "38a863bb-2ab6-48e4-8885-fc9c4f83e789" ] }, { "id": "70b97c1b-205f-4683-9c7a-41ba31965c82", "slug": "sam-alderton-johnson", "full_name": "Sam Alderton-Johnson", "job_title": "Founder & Director", "employer": "Impact Policy", "bio": "Sam Alderton-Johnson is the Founder and Director of Impact Policy, a social policy consulting firm working at the intersection of co-design, systems reform, and lived experience. His work focuses on redesigning complex public systems including child protection, justice, health, and community services through approaches grounded in power-sharing and relational accountability.\r\n\r\nA childhood survivor of forced child removal and foster care systems, Sam brings lived experience into spaces where policy and design decisions are made. His work interrogates how power operates within institutions and challenges designers to move beyond consultation toward structural change.\r\n\r\nSam’s River System co-design model reframes co-design as a decolonising practice — one that recognises sovereignty, redistributes decision-making authority, and centres communities who have historically been designed for rather than with.\r\n\r\nAt UX Australia, Sam argues that if co-design does not shift power, it is not co-design, and challenges the design community to reckon with its role in either maintaining or dismantling inequity.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/70b97c1b-205f-4683-9c7a-41ba31965c82?v=1781494892863", "speaker_type": "Keynote", "social": { "social_media": null, "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": "https://www.impactpolicy.com.au" }, "presentation_ids": [ "d2ac2521-15d9-4cdf-b437-720f497d5b22" ] }, { "id": "5c8c8188-7918-4528-bb1d-584a105b4899", "slug": "sarah-fennelly", "full_name": "Sarah Fennelly", "pronouns": "She/her", "job_title": "Visual Design Lead", "employer": "Deakin University", "bio": "I’m a visual designer, animator, and UI/UX designer based in Geelong, Australia, with 18 years’ experience in the design industry, including 13 years at Deakin University Library. I’m passionate about creating purposeful, accessible design that supports learning, particularly when it helps people engage with complex content or empowers staff without a design background to create quality work. My practice spans UI/UX, animation, design systems, and digital and print projects, and I love collaborating with learning designers, developers, UX and accessibility specialists to create solutions that truly work for our users.", "photo_url": "https://speakers.webdirections.org/photos/photo/5c8c8188-7918-4528-bb1d-584a105b4899?v=1778549718938", "speaker_type": "Speaker", "social": { "social_media": null, "linkedin": null, "bluesky": null, "mastodon": null, "website": "https://www.sarahfennelly.com/" }, "presentation_ids": [ "e8d2913f-d1bb-450c-9301-fc1b0aebd928" ] } ] }