Best Design Conferences You Can’t Miss in 2022

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January 2022 Conferences
February 2022 Conferences
March 2022 Conferences
April 2022 Conferences
May 2022 Conferences
June 2022 Conferences
July 2022 Conferences
August 2022 Conferences
September 2022 Conferences
October 2022 Conferences
Which design conference are you joining in 2022?

One of the best things about being a part of the design community is that most designers love to exchange ideas, spread knowledge, and share their experiences regardless of their seniority level. You can be a starting designer or an established thought leader and it’s almost a given that you find a conference that may teach you something new.

What’s also great about UX conferences is that not all of them target the UX/UI community, but the people who work with them on a daily basis, which helps designers get a seat at the table and increases awareness about the importance of design. Product managers, developers and other professionals who work closely with design can find an event for themselves.

Let’s see upcoming design conferences that you should definitely add to your calendar.

January 2022 Conferences

The first month of the year has two interesting conferences. The first one is QRCA which runs annually. Then, there’s a UXDX community event that’s open for all.

QRCA 2022 Annual Conference [Hybrid]

QRCA stands for Qualitative Research Consultants Association. The conference focuses on qualitative research. It covers research methods, tools, and lessons from experts in the field. QRCA 2022 itheme is “REimage REsearch.”

Date: Jan 12-13; Jan 18-21, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual & San Diego
Audience: UX researchers, marketing researchers
Common topics: qualitative research, research methods, research tools

Defending Your Design System [Webinar]

We invited Carola Cassaro to tell you more about defending design systems. Carola helped IKEA implement their design system and establish a design operations practice. She will tell you how to get stakeholder buy-in for design systems.

Date: Jan 18, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: product designers
Common topics: design system, leadership, DesignOps

UXDX Community USA WEST

UXDX is a popular conference for UX designers, developers and product people around the world. Usually the talks are centered around building better products, from ideation to execution.

Date: Jan 27, 2022
Free: Yes
Where: Virtual
Audience: UX designers, UX researchers, developers and product managers
Common topics: product direction, scaling design, validation, product growth
Highlighted sessions: Changying ‘Z’ Zhang “Building DesignOps As A Team Of 1.”

February 2022 Conferences

What about the second month of the year? We’ve found a couple of conferences that may catch your eye. Let’s see them.

Product World

It advertises itself as the world’s largest product manager and product developer conference, and it’s lineup is truly impressive.

Date: Feb 2-4, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
Common topics: product management, product growth, product workflow

UX360 Research Summit

Are you a UX researcher? This conference might be for you. You’ll learn more about gaining a stakeholder buy-in for research, influencing product management and new approaches to UX research.

Date: Feb 8-9, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: UX researchers, UX designers
Common topics: research for accessibility, career, leadership

ProductCon

Organized by Product School, ProductCon is a 1-day conference for product people who want to learn more about managing products and the future of product management.

Date: Feb 15, 2022
Free: Yes (for Early Birds)
Where: Virtual
Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
Common topics: leadership, future of product management, product workflow

Dave Malouf’s webinar about DesignOps [Webinar]

Dave Malouf is “the” person you think about when you hear the word “DesignOps.” In our 1-hour long webinar, he will tell you everything you need to know about DesignOps.

Date: Feb 17, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: product designers
Common topics: design system, leadership, DesignOps

Experience Design Conference

The conference is devoted to human-centered design and sharing best practices coming from the Experience Design industry leaders.

Date: Feb 29 – Mar 3, 2022
Free: No
Where: Denver
Audience: UX designers, UI designers, product designers
Common topics: UX, product management, human-centered design, design thinking

March 2022 Conferences

March is going to be an exciting month for those of you who love tuning in for virtual conferences.

Interaction Week 22

This interaction design conference has been running quite some time. It is still waiting for submissions, so we can say for sure what its lineup will be like. This year’s theme is “One year on, what have we learned?”

Date: Mar 2-4, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: UX designers, UI designers, researchers
Common topics: UX, human-centered design, interaction design

Advancing Research

Another interesting conference for researchers. This one is organized by none other than Rosenfeld Media, a famous publisher. It is still calling for speakers.

Date: Mar 9-11, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: UX researchers
Common topics: research operations, DesignOps

Design Research by UX Australia [Hybrid]

A great conference for anyone who’s engaged in doing research before design work. The conference is still accepting submissions.

Date: Mar 16-18, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual & On-site TBD
Audience: UX researchers, product managers, product designers
Common topics: research operations, leadership, research methods, research tools

Design Matters Pop-up

A pop-up event hosted by a world-renowned conference, Design Matters. It’s theme is “Design a Sustainable Future,” and it will pose a question, “how to design for a sustainable consumption behavior?”

Date: Mar 23, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: UX researchers, product managers, product designers
Common topics: design sustainability, design process, leadership

UX Copenhagen

A global event that brings together people from around the globe. The theme for this year’s conference is “Creating a Culture Change” which pertains to empowerment and leadership in the UX design field.

Date: Mar 28-29, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: UX designers, UX researchers
Common topics: human-centered design, leadership, career

UXDX USA 2022 [Hybrid]

A hybrid event that takes place in New York and online at the same time. It’s mission is to bridge the gap between Product, UX, Design and Development.

Date: Mar 29-31, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual & New York
Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
Common topics: product strategy, scaling design, validation, product growth

April 2022 Conferences

You’ll get a couple of conferences that will be interesting for designers, researchers and product teams. What are they?

Front Utah

That’s an interesting event you need to mark in your calendar. Front Utah aims at teaching product people how to work together to create something great and valuable for the end-users.

Date: Apr 6-8, 2022
Free: No
Where: Salt Lake City, Utah
Audience: product designers, researchers, product managers
Common topics: product strategy, product growth, leadership

UXistanbul

Organized by UXServices, this conference is a place for sharing the latest UX and usability know-how. The line-up comprises designers from industry leaders, such as Google, Netflix, and more.

Date: Apr 11-22, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: product designers, researchers, product managers
Common topics: product strategy, analytics, team growth

CHI 2022 [Hybrid]

This year’s annual ACM Computer Human Interaction conference will be a hybrid event, which means that it will take place on-site in New Orleans and online.

Date: Apr 15-16, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual & New Orleans
Audience: researchers
Common topics: research tools, research methods

Information Architecture Conference 2021

It’s one of the leading conferences for information architects, designers, and others who create and manage UI and information environments.

Date: Apr 19-23, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: product designers, researchers, product managers
Common topics: information architecture, UX research, content strategy

ProductCon San Francisco [Hybrid]

April is a month for another Product School’s ProductCon event is a 1-day conference for product people who want to learn more about managing products and the future of product management.

Date: Apr, 2022 (TBD)
Free: Yes (for online)
Where: Virtual & San Francisco
Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
Common topics: leadership, future of product management, product growth

May 2022 Conferences

May will be the month for on-site UX and product conferences. Let’s see where we can travel to. Are you ready?

Confab

Hey, content managers! There’s an event dedicated to increasing your skills. Confab is a conference dedicated to content strategy where you can get insights from industry leaders.

Date: May 9-12, 2022
Free: No
Where: Minneapolis
Audience: content managers, product designers, UX writers
Common topics: career, content management, tools

Women in Product

Need inspiration and encouragement? Here’s a women-led conference to help women get leadership roles and find success working in product.

Date: May 10-11, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: product designers, product managers
Common topics: career, product management, leadership

From Business to Buttons

It’s an annual UX and service design conference. To know more about this year’s event, read their manifesto.

Date: May 13, 2022
Free: No
Where: Stockholm
Audience: product designers, product management
Common topics: product strategy, DesignOps, scaling design, leadership
Highlighted sessions: Andy Budd from Clearleft about Design Leadership

ACE! [Hybrid]

This Polish conference has two tracks: Agile Software Development and Product Design & Management. Yet, there will be a lot of content for product designers, too.

Date: May 19-20, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual & Kraków
Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
Common topics: leadership, product strategy, product growth

Design2022

A Croatian conference that focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to design and goes beyond the design process to include innovative methods and approaches to design and more.

Date: May 23-26, 2022
Free: No
Where: Cavtat
Audience: product designers, researchers
Common topics: human-centered design, leadership, accessibility

The Global FinTech Design Summit

Are you working on a FinTech product? Join the conference and meet other professionals who design and develop financial technology solutions.

Date: May, 2022 (TBD)
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: product designers
Common topics: scaling design, inclusive design, research

June 2022 Conferences

That month looks very exciting for those of you who got used to participating in events from the comfort of their homes. In other words, there will be a few interesting virtual meetups.

DesignOps Global Conference

The conference theme is “Design for Circular Economy” and it will focus on designing for a sustainable future. That’s a very relevant topic nowadays, isn’t it?

Date: Jun 7-10, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: product designers, researchers, product managers
Common topics: DesignOps, research operations, leadership

Fluxible [Hybrid]

This week-long UX design conference is based in Canada. You may expect meetups, workshops, and presentations by the world’s top UX speakers.

Date: Jun 7-11, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual & Waterloo, Ontario
Audience: product designers, researchers
Common topics: human-centered design, leadership, research

La Product Conference

Come to Paris and take part in a conference for product people.

Date: Jun 9, 2022
Free: No
Where: Paris
Audience: product managers
Common topics: leadership, product growth

Pixel Pioneers

It may be just a day-long, but the Pixel Pioneers is fully-packed with inspirational presentations from leading UX/UI designers and front-end developers.

Date: Jun 10, 2022
Free: No
Where: Bristol
Audience: product designers, developers, researchers
Common topics: human-centered design, inclusive design, future of design

UX STRAT Europe

Date: Jun 13-15, 2022
Free: No
Where: Amsterdam
Audience: product designers, researchers
Common topics: design strategy, future of design,

UXPA 2022

Looking for inspirational talks? San Diego’s UXPA conference may be your cup of tea. Last year’s line-up was packed with speakers from Google, Instagram, Microsoft, etc. What about this year?

Date: Jun 21-23, 2022
Free: No
Where: San Diego
Audience: product designers, researchers
Common topics: human-centered design, leadership, research

UXDX APAC 2022

It’s yet another UXDX event, but this one is an Audio-Pacific version. It’s dedicated to Product, UX, Design and Development teams that want to find a way of working together.

Date: Jun 21-23, 2022
Free: No
Where: San Diego
Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
Common topics: product direction, scaling design, validation, product growth

HCI INTERNATIONAL 2022

That international conference on human-computer interaction that is usually held in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Date: Jun 26-Jul 1, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: product designers, researchers
Common topics: human-centered design, research, leadership

July 2022 Conferences

The summer season is on, but there are a few exciting events coming. Curious what are they?

#mtpcon Digital Americas

The summer edition of the Mind the Product conference for both Americas.

Date: Jul 14-15, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: product designers, product managers, developers
Common topics: leadership, future of product, product growth

August 2022 Conferences

Want to hear from product and design professionals? August has at least two interesting events.

UX Australia

That’s an event that is due to disclose more details. Last year, UX Australia included presentations from renowned UX practitioners. Can’t wait to see the 2022 program!

Date: Aug, 2022 (TBD)
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: product designers, researchers
Common topics: human-centered design, scaling design, leadership

An Event Apart

This is a summer edition of a conference for UX designers and front-end developers who want to expand their knowledge about web design.

Date: Aug 18-20, 2022
Free: No
Where: Seattle
Audience: product designers, developers
Common topics: design process, front-end design, leadership

Product Design Week

Come to London and immerse yourself in a week packed with product design insights. It’s a multidisciplinary conference for product lovers who want to learn how to design better.

Date: Aug 30-Sep 2, 2022
Free: No
Where: London
Audience: product designers, researchers, product managers
Common topics: DesignOps, scaling design, design strategy, design process

September 2022 Conferences

After a rather less intensive month of August, September is back on track and will be full of great events for UX designers and other professionals involved in building products.

User Research London

The conference focuses on UX and design research. It aims to spread knowledge about conducting research, sourcing candidates and interpreting results.

Date: Sep 8-9, 2022
Free: No
Where: London
Audience: product designers, researchers
Common topics: research methods, design process, leadership

UX STRAT USA

This edition of the UX STRAT conference has a pretty impressive line up. We will hear from designers and product people from Spotify, Zoom, Best Buy, DoorDash, etc.

Date: Sep 12-14, 2022
Free: No
Where: Boulder, Colorado
Audience: product designers, product managers
Common topics: design process, leadership, product growth

Design Matters [Hybrid]

It’s one of the most popular conferences in the design field hosted for UX/UI designers and anyone connected to tech and innovation.

Date: Sep 28-29, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual & Copenhagen
Audience: product designers, product managers
Common topics: design strategy, design process, career

ProductCon

Time for a fall edition of ProductCon. If the conference agenda will be similar to the 2021 one, we’re up for an amazing product conference.

Date: September, 2022 (TBD)
Free: Yes (for Early Birds)
Where: Virtual
Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
Common topics: leadership, future of product management, product workflow

IxDD 2022

The World Interaction Design Day is an Adobe event that happens simultaneously in different parts of the world.

Date: September, 2022 (TBD)
Free: Yes
Where: Virtual
Audience: product designers, researchers
Common topics: leadership, design process, career

October 2022 Conferences

October seems to be so far ahead, doesn’t it? Yet, there are some confirmed dates of conferences for designers and product teams.

Impact

A fully virtual product management conference that is perfect for product managers, business analysts, but product designers can learn something too.

Date: Oct 4, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: product designers, developers, product managers
Common topics: design process, inclusive design, leadership

Amuse

A great event for the UI/UX practitioners to share ideas, experiences, and approaches to their everyday work.

Date: Oct 5-8, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: product designers, developers, product managers
Common topics: design process, inclusive design, leadership

UXDX EMEA

Finally, there’s an EMEA edition of UXDX scheduled for October, but you don’t need to be from the region to sign up for it.

Date: Oct 6-8, 2022
Free: No
Where: Virtual
Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
Common topics: product direction, scaling design, validation, product growth