On the 25th September we hosted another cracking UX themed live event at the iconic Wardrobe in Leeds City Centre. Built on the success and tradition of previous years it was the most popularly attended edition – into its 5th year and part of the Leeds Digital Festival programme.

Guests from across the North of England were welcomed by Andy Curry, Strategy Director of LION+MASON. He also delivered a short but highly amusing and informative talk entitled ‘The Problem With People’. He explored human behaviours and stressed the importance of not making assumptions about people. As “Humans are B@$!@/ds”, but why are we like this and what can we do as designers?

UX LEEDS 2025 Brings Together The UX Community For A Busy Afternoon Of Industry Talks And Discussion 4

Following Andy we heard from Jonah Dearlove, a practicing NHS GP and the Founder & CEO of Neurotech. His talk was titled ‘Designing for Neurodiversity: From Clinical Experience to Codesign’ where he drew on his medical and design experience. He described co-designing with autistic young people and adults with ADHD, and discussed how empathetic, user-centred design rooted in clinical insight can lead to effective, inclusive products that better serve neurodivergent users.

UX LEEDS 2025 Brings Together The UX Community For A Busy Afternoon Of Industry Talks And Discussion 6

To conclude Alec Barr, a global human-centred design practitioner, behavioural scientist and AI strategist spoke about ‘Post-Human Research: Is “Good Enough” Insight Good Enough for Growth?’ He questioned if it is ethical to replace humans with robots? He explored the controversial potential of “synthetic personas” – digital clones of real people – to unlock customer insight at speed. Can these digital doppelgängers capture the messy, nuanced reality of the human condition, or are we chasing phantoms?

UX LEEDS 2025 Brings Together The UX Community For A Busy Afternoon Of Industry Talks And Discussion 8

Both speakers took numerous questions from the inspired audience followed by drinks, cake and networking.

LION+MASON Founder Andrew Machin said “This event seems to get better each year, the content is always thought provoking and it’s great to see the guests thoroughly engaged. The original plan was always to provide a space for professionals working in digital products, transformation and user research to get together, knowledge share and connect. The appetite is clearly there so we plan to create similar events in the future.”
Videos of the talks from this and previous years can be found on our YouTube channel LION+MASON – YouTube