You might have seen the Call for Participation for Quant UX Con 2024. I hope all of my blog readers will consider proposing a talk, panel, or workshop!
In this post, I share a few reflections and suggestions that might be helpful.
Most of all: consider proposing something that YOU would have liked to know or learn a few years ago! What method, approach, advice, example, or best practices would have been helpful to you? Others will be interested.
ICYMI, there is a free ask-me-anything session on Dec 19 (10am Pacific). Bring your questions about Quant UX Con proposals, or just show up and listen to others. Sign up for the Dec 19 ask-me-anything session here.
Some Topic Ideas
I'll speak just for myself personally, as a reviewer of proposals. For the 2024 conference, we have a total of 40 volunteer reviewers plus 7 of us on the Organizing Committee. So there will be great community coverage in selecting the presentations, and these thoughts reflect only my opinion as 1 of those 47.
At Quant UX Con 2024, we have identified 22 topic areas (non-exclusively; other topics are also welcomed!) Those are listed on the CFP. Among the topics on the CFP, I am personally especially interested to see the following:
METHODS: Best Practices or Review of Methods
METHODS: Data Visualization
METHODS: Programming in R or Python (including shared code)
METHODS: Survey Research
ORGANIZATION: Careers and/or the Quant UX Role
ORGANIZATION: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Organizations
TOPICS: Accessible and Inclusive Quant Research
TOPICS: Governmental or Public Services
TOPICS: Health or Mental Health
TOPICS: UX Metrics Frameworks or Processes
You can combine those, of course! For example, a talk might discuss inclusive research for mental health using survey methods.
Note that you do not need to and should not share confidential data. Everyone at Quant UX Con understands that some data cannot be shared, and approximated proxy data is acceptable as long as the context is clear.
Also, unlike an academic conference, do not worry about "novel contributions". The goal at Quant UX Con is to be useful to the audience, not to be novel.
Some Things to Avoid
There are a few things I personally do NOT like to see in proposals:
Vague, unsubstantiated, or exaggerated claims. For example, if a proposal claims that it will revolutionize the field or accomplish some extremely unlikely objective, I will be extremely skeptical.
Sales pitches, self-promotion, agency promotion, or proprietary methods. If your talk concerns a method or advantage that only you can offer, I'm not interested. The goal at Quant UX Con is to share knowledge.
Using AI systems as a source of data. IMHO there is no good theory to justify "learning from AI" or comparing the results of AI processes to those of humans (for example, determining whether an LLM answers surveys in the same way as people). Don't bother.
Purely qualitative research. Quant UX Con is open to presentations that combine quantitative questions or data with qualitative methods and results. But if a presentation is only about qualitative results, it doesn't fit our audience.
Extremely short proposals without detail. We ask for abstracts, not full papers, so the burden is low. But if your proposal is only a paragraph or two, it is unlikely to have enough information to evaluate. A good target is 200-350 words (about 1-2 pages).
Rudimentary case studies. The audience is familiar with basic methods and probably will not be interested in "how we did [basic method] at [my company]." However, this CAN be interesting if you add non-obvious aspects, such as hard-won lessons and best practices, more advanced methods, scaling up basic methods to the next level of complexity, and so forth.
Extremely technical talks that many attendees will not understand. This is a technical conference about Quant UX, but attendees vary in their backgrounds. Even if your presentation is highly technical, make its problem statement and takeaways approachable for a general UX audience. Then dive into the details! The goal is to be useful, not to show off.
All the Details
Need more inspiration? Check out the presentations from Quant UX Con 2023.
Other questions?
Join the Organizing Committee for an ask-us-anything session on Dec 19 (register here)
Find an editable Google Doc version of the Call for Proposals here
Or see the Quant UX Conference website for more details!