Advancing Research 2022
March 9-March 11, 2022 | Virtual
A ground-breaking conference created by researchers for researchers
View ProgramAbout #AR2022
Are you frustrated with the state of UX research? Does it feel like things have stagnated? We have good news and bad news — and they’re the same news: you’re not alone. Many of the research leaders and senior practitioners we speak with are feeling the same way.
Advancing Research is dedicated to how we can collaboratively re-assess the state of the practice, consider the increasingly complex demands being placed upon research teams and leaders, and work together to define clear roles, set goals, and establish scalable solutions for achieving them.
Program Themes
Theme 1: Advancing our Field
As research and insight functions gain influence, we challenge ourselves to ask: to what end? Where do we want to go as a discipline? How do we use human insights to imagine new futures? How do we improve the rigor of our field without resorting to gatekeeping? This theme’s speakers explore growth, evolution, and trajectory of research as a field, and how these impact our work as practitioners, teams, and organizations.
Theme 2: Advancing Ourselves
Advancing research is as much about pushing the boundaries of what our discipline is and whom we collaborate with as it is about methods and practices. This theme explores what the research practice of the future could look like. How does research connect with data science, market research, and other practices centered on learning about people? What lessons can we learn from adjacent fields? And how do we grow as researchers and evolve our work through difficult new terrain, like trauma informed understanding, non-researchers conducting research, and the need to embrace fully global views?
Theme 3: Advancing our Practice
Research is now omnipresent. Every modern organization has a research practice, and with increased democratization of research comes a huge level of responsibility. That means we need to evolve to include new practices, while sticking to the core pillars that define good research. But, which practices are sacred and which need to be changed? How do we stay innovation-driven, yet focused on socially-relevant experiences? And how do we ensure the kinds of insights we’re generating are at once inclusive and representative? The solution is right in front of us: by celebrating the rigorous, human-centered focus that informs research practice, we can ensure responsible research and tell a more holistic story.
