

As a continuation of the series where we talk to our UX experts, we spoke to a long-time UX Connections team member, and asked everything you’d need to know about their UX journey. Meet Sophie. Okay, let’s start off with the basics – where did your interest in UX start, and how did you get to where you are today? My interest in you UX started from having a general…

Bridging the Digital Divide: Advancing Access and Equity for Older Adults
As the UK’s ageing population continues to grow, this digital divide poses a significant challenge for businesses and policymakers alike. What can be done to bridge the gap and ensure that everyone can participate fully in the digital age?

A Robot Companion for Inclusive Learning
Engineers at the University of Waterloo have developed ‘socially assistive’ robots that help children with learning disabilities focus better in classrooms.

Recipe for a Cozy Game
How do you wind down after a busy day of work? Maybe it’s reading a book, or watching your favourite show on Netflix. Perhaps you enjoy de-stressing through baking or painting. We all crave a break from reality every once in a while. For some, video games provide this escape. More recently, there has been an emergence of “cozy games” as a category for games specifically designed to create a…

Three Female Leaders Changing the Australian Tech Industry
As part of our Women in Tech campaign, we’d like to highlight the female leaders in the industry who are making meaningful differences. Three mentions coming from our Australian office are featured in this article, but please head over to our UK, US and Swedish editions if you are interested in stories of women in tech! Melanie Perkins (source: https://femaleonezero.com/business/this-woman-has-designs-on-the-world) Melanie Perkins is the founder of Canva, the new,…

Three Female Leaders Changing the US Tech Industry
As part of our Women in Tech campaign, we’d like to highlight the female leaders in the industry who are changing the game and also the world. You will find three mentions coming from our US office in this article, but feel free to head over to our UK, Australian and Swedish editions to read more stories about women making waves across the global tech industry! Gwynne Shotwell (source: https://www.nasa.gov/content/national-space-council-users-advisory-group/membership_roster_g_shotwell/)…

Three Female Leaders Changing the UK Tech Industry
As part of our Women in Tech campaign, we’d like to highlight the female leaders in the industry who are changing the game and also the world. This article includes three mentions coming from our UK office, but feel free to head over to our US, Australian and Swedish editions to read more stories from women of different backgrounds! Anna Boden (source: Anne Boden/Starling Bank via https://www.altfi.com/article/8487_starling-is-not-for-sale-says-anne-boden-in-new-chapter-of-her-book) Founder of Starling,…

Women in Tech: Charities We’re Supporting
To kick off our Women in Tech campaign, UX Connections is donating to four charities that stand with women and girls just as we do. Donations are made from each of our offices in London, Gothenburg, New York and Sydney as we want to support and make an impact on the local communities. Join us if you have the same faith! UK: Tech She Can Launched in 2018, Tech…

The Hydrogen-Powered Train
China has, reportedly, produced their first train powered solely by hydrogen.

Consultant Profile: Patch McCabe
As a continuation of the series where we talk to our UX experts, we spoke to a long-time UX Connections team member, and asked everything you’d need to know about their UX journey. Meet Patch. Okay, let’s start off with the basics – where did your interest in UX start, and how did you get to where you are today? I’ve been aware of UX for a long time, mainly…

SpaceX Starship’s Wet Dress Rehearsal
Following the success of the Starship’s wet dress rehearsal, SpaceX are edging ever closer to a trip to Mars.

Apple Announce Entry to AR and VR Market
This Spring we can expect the unveiling of Apple’s first product in the AR/VR market that has been seven years in the making.

Gravity Batteries: Making Renewable Energy Viable
A new concept for batteries that store gravitational potential energy could be a solution for a key issue with renewable energy sources.

ChatGPT
Over the last few months, an incredibly intelligent AI called ChatGPT has taken the internet by storm. What will this open chatbot mean for the future?

A Return to Netflix Gaming
There’s a new feature to the familiar Netiflix app; Games. We look into how it works, why it’s there and what this means for the future of the platform.

Deepfakes: Navigating the Intersection of Technology and Deception in International Conflict
Experts in AI and foreign policy at Northwestern University and Brookings Institution suggest the creation of a code of conduct by world governments to moderate the use of deepfakes to combat digital disinformation.

Breaking the Chains of Technophobia: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Progress
The volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous business environment of the 21st Century requires overcoming technophobia and embracing the role of AI in building a society with more meaningful work and lifestyle.

Why The UK Treasury Is Pushing for the Digital Pound
Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are on the rise across many developing and developed economies of the world. The UK government is considering following suit with its own “digital pound” stablecoin. But why?

UK Government Launches £7 Million Fund to Decarbonize Freight Transport
The UK government is putting sustainability at the front with its £7 million freight innovation fund (FIF).

Could Taxing Robots Help Income Inequality?
The ever-increasing reliance on autonomous technology beckons a thorough consideration of the socio-economic impacts of automation. MIT economists debate whether taxing robots can address income inequality in the face of increasing automation.

Deep Learning Revolution Comes to Electric Vehicles
Designing road-safe and reliable autonomous vehicles requires technology that will enable EVs to understand the environment around them. A novel deep-learning neural network by a team of international researchers allows EVs to detect objects with a stunning accuracy of 96%.

Robots at Home: Smart Homes
In this series we are taking a look at the state of domestic robots and how close we are to robots being a common feature of the home. In our final piece of this collection, we look at how we can tie all of the different gadgets from around the house together in the Smart Home.

UX Connections’ Trip to Dubai!
Our week in Dubai as a full team was packed full of exciting experiences. Bringing together our London, Gothenburg, New York and Sydney offices, our excursion was definitely one to remember. Read on to get a feel for what we got up to over there! Design Week One of the first things we did during our Dubai trip was visit Dubai Design Week. It was an interesting mix of all…

Robots at Home: Companions
In this series we are taking a look at the state of domestic robots and how close we are to robots being a common feature of the home. Whilst we have seen the practicality of certain bots for domestic chores, perhaps one of the most demanded areas is robotic companions.

Exciting Innovations at the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup
The UX Connections team will soon be over in sunny Dubai on our company-wide trip. Whilst experiencing the culture and innovation from the Middle East, we’ll be counting down the days until the FIFA 2022 World Cup, which starts on 20th November in Qatar. Therefore, continuing our UX Inspirations series we’d like to talk about how innovative technologies are being utilised to improve the overall experience for World Cup guests…

UX Connections’ Dubai Bucket List
Since our trip to Dubai is getting closer, our team has started looking into some of the exciting things we can get up to whilst we’re there. Most of us have never visited Dubai, so we want to get the full tourist experience, and see some of Dubai’s famous places and spaces! So, as part of our Down In Dubai: UX Inspiration series, we thought we’d make a ‘bucket list’…

Robots at Home: Roomba
In this series we are taking a look at the state of domestic robots and how close we are to robots being a common feature of the home. Our next focus is on Roomba, possibly the most common example of a domestic robot.

How the Middle East is Becoming an Innovation Hub
The Middle East region is home to some of the most innovative, forward-thinking cities in the world, but also to those who are up-and-coming in terms of future vision. So, as part of our ‘Down in Dubai: UX Inspirations’ series, we wanted to take a closer look at how the different Middle Eastern countries are creating various types of innovative solutions. Innovation, in its most simple sense, is about creating…

Are Robots Contributing to Job Insecurity?
The adoption of autonomous technology is approaching warp speed across several industries, instilling a sense of insecurity and a fear of being ‘replaced’ in the workforce.

Going Global: The UX Connections Team Takes Dubai!
We are more than excited to announce that this coming November, the UX Connections team will be taking a trip across the globe to Dubai! An international hub known for its futuristic architecture and never-ending innovation, we are so excited to experience everything Dubai has to offer as a team. So, here’s the first post in our Down in Dubai: UX Inspirations series! With its forward-thinking focus, Dubai is commonly…

Smelling in Virtual Reality Now Possible with ‘Olfactometer’
The latest development in virtual reality (VR) takes immersion up a notch by allowing users to ‘smell’ their virtual stimuli with a specialized ‘odor’ machine.

Robots at Home: Optimus and Bumble C
Following Tesla’s recent update on their humanoid robot, this series will take a look at the state of domestic robots and how close we are to robots being a common feature of the home. First of all we focus on the Tesla Bot.

New Research Paves Way for Artificially Intelligent Smartphones
Next-gen smartphones may come equipped with state-of-the-art machine learning (ML) models, thanks to a new technique developed jointly by researchers at MIT and the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab.

The Early Signs of Invisibility
HyperStealth are bringing the stuff of Harry Potter pipe dreams to life with their groundbreaking material that creates complete camouflage.

What the Future Looks Like for the Fashion-Tech Industry
As technology constantly evolves and continues to ingrain itself deeper and deeper into our everyday lives, almost every industry is finding itself having to (or even wanting to) incorporate it into their process. When it comes to the fashion industry, this means that more companies are using tech to improve the creation process, personalise the e-commerce experience, or predict the future of customer interest. No matter how or why they…

How the Fashion Industry Continues to Develop its User Experience
Lifting the curtain of 2022 fashion week, New York has brought the world’s focus back to fashion. The dazzling catwalks and new collections that set the trends for the coming spring are splashed across the front page of almost every magazine. Here at UX Connections, we are not going to compare which brand has done a better job at fashion week, or which designer has more aesthetic designs, since that’s…

NFTs: The Developing Relationship Between Fashion and Tech
Over the past few years, the world has been becoming evermore digital and taken a big step toward the future. Things such as art, music, and photography have all taken steps towards digitalisation, so why not the fashion world? For the first article in our FashionXTech miniseries, we’ll be taking a look at how fashion has done just that, with the sudden creation of NFTs – and don’t worry if…

Future Trends and Innovation in the Automotive Industry
In our latest Automotive Worldwide Series, we have discussed in depth the UX in automotive and have had a bird’s eye view of the industry in certain booming cities. (Check those articles out if you haven’t!) Now it’s time for us to turn our heads fully forward and look ahead to the future. There are trends that have been lurking around and we believe are about to change the landscape…

Sydney’s rainiest year to date – UX Connection’s commitment to limiting consultant’s contribution to global warming
How UX Connections is limiting consultant’s contribution to global warming With Sydney on track to break its annual rainfall record, and record breaking heat-waves in the northern hemisphere, we are continuing to experience the catastrophic effects of climate change. At UX Connections AU, we are committed to being mindful of our impact on the environment and encouraging conversation around our environmental responsibilities. We spoke with some of our UX consultants…

From Sweat to Energy: The Next ‘Green Revolution’ in Consumer Electronics
New ‘biofilm’ conceptualized by researchers at UMass Amherst can harvest energy taken to evaporate sweat off the skin to power wearable technology.

Worldwide Automotive: The E-Commerce Experience
The creation and advancement of the internet has completely changed the buying process in most industries, even automotive. Since we’re in the middle of our Worldwide Automotive campaign, we thought we would take a look at these adaptations, comparing and contrasting the different e-commerce experiences of car buying and selling websites. The user experience of these sites is an integral part of their success, as the user has to be…

How Robotic Self-awareness Is Becoming a Reality
Engineers at Columbia University have developed a robot which can model its body by gazing at itself in a hall of mirrors with childlike curiosity.

Worldwide Automotive: Inside The Gothenburg Automotive Industry
For years, Volvo and Gothenburg have been inseparable – when we speak of one, the other comes into mind naturally. However, the automotive industry at Gothenburg is not a one-man show. Gothenburg is home to many other companies in the supply chain too. In this article, we are going to look at three standouts: Smart Eye, Lynk+Co and CEVT. Smart Eye Smart Eye is a technology company of human insight…

Are Video Games Making You Smarter?
Gaming is emerging as a popular pastime in many parts of the world. New research sheds light on how indulging in your favourite video game might be improving your decision-making skills.

Managing People Through AI (Part II of II)
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has witnessed steadfast adoption in many large corporations. As AI solutions become more commonplace, accessible and scalable, small firms are likely to follow suit.

The Four Steps to Combating Climate Change With AI (Part II)
By recognizing and unlocking the potential of artificial intelligence tools at our disposal, we can address the climate crisis the world faces.

The Four Steps to Combating Climate Change With AI (Part I)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to become one of our most powerful tools in enacting climate action measures. The Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) details four methods to accelerate climate action through AI.

The Environmental Responsibility Of UX Consultants
As we have chosen to support a sustainability-focused charity this quarter, we wanted to dig a bit deeper in how sustainability and UX can work together. Thus, we had a chat with some of our UX consultants about how sustainability and tech intertwine, discussing how to be sustainable as a UX designer, and some personal tips on things one can do as an individual. How can tech help with sustainability?…

The Mission Of CAT: Introduction to the Centre for Alternative Technology
As part of our quarterly charity donation, UX Connections are happy to support an environmental organisation working towards a zero carbon world! The organisation is called Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), and we are excited to champion their cause by making a £1,000 donation to support their work to create a better world for us and future generations. What is CAT? CAT is an educational charity, founded in 1973, with…

Sneak-peak into IOS 16: Accessible Apple
“Accessibility is a fundamental right, and we’re always pushing the boundaries of innovation so that everyone can learn, create and connect in new ways.”- Tim Cook, Chief executive officer at Apple Ahead of Apple’s 2022 Worldwide Developers Conference and in time for Global Accessibility Day, Apple have previewed a range of powerful updates designed for people with physical disabilities. The new set of accessibility design features will be released later…