Tell us about yourself
I’m Jamie, I work in the tech industry as a UX researcher and have been doing so for about 6 or 7 years.
Why did you participate?
I wanted to connect with likeminded people and understand a little bit more about Japanese design and UX practices and work on a problem that is different from my day to day work. I wanted to revitalize my UX career.
What were your first impressions?
Coming into it, I was amazed by the diversity and richness of the different backgrounds and experience levels of the participants. It was really important for me to get exposure to lots of different people, so that was a big appeal for me.
Overall what did you enjoy the most?
It’s hard to choose one thing - the people were great, it was super well organized and structured so that no-one felt lost at any point because there was a clear track. But at the same time there was enough freedom there for people to flex their creativity to do what they wanted to do. It was also just a great problem space and location, so it ticked all the boxes.
How did you feel interacting with the local community?
It was amazing. That was really good. As a researcher, I get a lot of joy from meeting different people. The locals were very receptive. Sometimes coming to a local community you need to be a bit cautious, but in this case they had already been prepared that we were coming, so they were very accepting and it went very smoothly.
What would you tell anyone considering joining in the future?
Absolutely give it a go. It is such an enriching experience. I would recommend it to anyone, particularly anyone who needs a break from the day-to-day rigor of whatever job they are doing while still building their technical skills or people skills in a different space.
