Maryam Ndope

Designers and researchers, we’re here for you. 🤝 Outwitly connects UX, service design and research practitioners with meaningful work, long-term career support, education and free online resources. We partner with leading private and public organizations across North America and match designers and researchers to roles aligned with their strengths and career goals. Our approach is built on real design experience, thoughtful vetting and ongoing support before, during and after placement. 💼 Outwitly’s Talent Pool: We connect experienced design and research professionals with meaningful contract and full-time roles — from Fortune 500s to high-growth organizations across North America. - Role placement across UX, UI, service design and research. - Embedded team opportunities, not just short-term gigs. - Onboarding support and continued guidance throughout placements. - Access to a trusted network of designers, researchers and industry professionals. 📚Resources for Practitioners: We offer practical learning and resources to help designers and researchers grow their UX skills. - Training and self-paced learning through Outwitly Academy, including our course, Design Research Mastery. - Practical tools, templates and downloadables for real-world design and research work. - Free weekly UX & HCD newsletter. - Thought-provoking webinars and engaging virtual events. - Our extensive blog, packed with curated tips, tools and insights from industry experts. 👉 Advance your UX career by joining our growing design community! https://lnkd.in/eHVrdbuh . . . #Outwitly #UXDesign #UXResearch #ServiceDesign #DesignCareers #UXCommunity #HumanCenteredDesign

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Design work often asks us to think harder when what we actually need is to slow down, ground ourselves, and play with LEGOS. At UX Camp Calgary, Elisabet Camprubi is bringing a hands-on workshop for designers and practitioners who want a different way of working through complexity. This session explores how presence and play can reduce overthinking, prevent burnout, and support clearer, more creative collaboration. Through grounding practices and LEGO Serious Play, we’ll work with the body as a compass. The focus is on psychological safety, emotional regulation, and communication in real design work, especially when things feel uncertain or messy. What you’ll explore * Grounding techniques that support clarity and emotional safety * How play can ease creative pressure and unlock new ideas LEGO® Serious Play® as a tool for communication, collaboration, and trust * Practical ways to stay calm, creative, and connected in day-to-day work * Simple exercises you can adapt for team sessions and co-creation Elisabet is a Senior UX Designer, mentor, and facilitator with over ten years of experience across startups, government, enterprise, and corporate wellness. She currently works with the Government of Alberta and is the founder of Designfulness™, a holistic approach to bringing presence, creativity, and human connection back into how we live and work. If your design practice has been feeling heavy, rushed, or mentally crowded, this session offers a slower, more human way forward. Join us on the afternoon of February 24 at J5 Design.

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Our Senior UI/UX Designer, Brendan Wu, shares his thoughts on the negative business impacts of inaccessible products. #WeAreProven #DigitalAccessibility #InclusiveDesign #UX Transcript: When a person who has a disability encounters a product that they cannot use, they don't use it, first of all, but that spreads word of mouth. Their friends find out they can't use it, their family finds out. You lose more than one user for every person that can't use for your site, you lose their community. And so you gain a community when you have an accessible website or product. You gain that attention, you gain that respect, that reputation. And so that's the empathy side. That's what we need to be playing out towards our clients and saying, "Hey, this is what we want. We want you to be celebrated, by and large, by all of the population, by your audience, no matter what their ability of disability is."

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🔥 Hot Tips on Building a Participant Panel 1. Understand your research panel requirements In addition to sorting out who should be on the panel and how to effectively communicate with them (both big considerations), you should also map out all the technical requirements needed to meet to get a panel up and running. This means: • A professional-looking sign-up form and screeners • A means to get the sign-up form in front of customers (a web page and other marketing initiatives) • Secure storage of participant data • The ability to pull lists of participants, based on specific criteria • A way to delete participants, when requested 2. Define research panel ownership roles and responsibilities A successful research panel is built on strong relationships, and we all know that relationships don’t manage themselves. It takes commitment, attention, and intention to make sure they flourish. Here are just a few of the tasks that fall to a research operations or panel manager: • Recruiting new participants to the panel • Keeping existing panelists engaged with relevant communications • Priming panel members for upcoming studies • Fielding panelist questions before, during, and after studies • Keeping the panel up to date as members are added, leave, or change roles 3. Choose the right users for your research panel  Your research panel should be an accurate reflection of your larger user base. This means you’ll want to recruit for diversity, and not just in terms of demographics.  When building your panel, be aware of all the attributes that can affect how someone might experience your product and respond to questions, including: • Which plan are they on? • Are they a power user or a less frequent user? • Do they have specialized knowledge about your product? • Are they already predisposed to have a better-than-average opinion of your product or organization? 4. Develop your participant incentive plan While cash or gift cards are frequently offered as incentives for user research participants, financial compensation for research panelists is less common and can be less effective than other methods. A User Research Incentive Calculator (https://lnkd.in/gM4tfsak) can help you determine the right incentive amount for your particular study. Source: Building and Managing a Research Panel for Faster, Easier Research https://lnkd.in/gkrrprTy #ux #research #ReOps

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Discover how AI in UX research is speeding up transcription, synthesis, and insight discovery, giving teams faster, smarter ways to deliver human-centered results.

At DigitalA11Y, we believe accessibility should be a part of every design process. We’ve compiled a list of Accessibility Tools and Resources for Designers to support inclusive and thoughtful design. You can find the tools and resources roundup here: https://lnkd.in/d5aUE_nY #Accessibility #A11Y #InclusiveDesign #DesignResources

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What if mastering accessibility wasn't just about doing good, but about winning more work and boosting your income? Many designers view accessibility as an afterthought or a compliance burden. But the surprising truth is, embracing accessibility transforms you into a highly sought-after expert, making it "10 times easier to get new work" and allowing you to charge more for your specialized skills. As the article points out, this unique expertise positions you as an invaluable asset. You're not just creating beautiful designs; you're delivering tangible value by saving clients time and money on costly reworks, broadening their audience reach, and enhancing their reputation. Ready to differentiate yourself and become a better, more confident designer? Check out these thoughts from Colleen Gratzer

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The new 2025 Digital Accessibility Index shows a worrying pattern: many companies still struggle with the basics — navigation, readability, usability. It’s a reminder that accessibility issues aren’t edge cases. They’re systemic. When design misses the fundamentals — clear structure, consistent controls, readable content — trust quietly erodes. I often see teams polishing what’s visible while the foundation cracks underneath. And when the foundation wobbles, everything above it does too. If you ran a quick scan of your site right now, how many hidden accessibility gaps would it reveal — before your audience does? I have no affiliation with either of these sites: Basic free scan: https://lnkd.in/gu_wQDqe Technical free scan: https://wave.webaim.org/

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So many great new UX research reads lately, it's tough to keep up. Here are our 10 favorites from May: 🚩 When research participants aren't who they say they are by Maria Panagiotidi: https://lnkd.in/gUEmjkyU 📊 The disconnect between UX Research and business outcome metrics by Carl Pearson, PhD: https://lnkd.in/guueTFaS ✍ Practical note-taking techniques every UX Researcher should know by Lawton Pybus: https://lnkd.in/dcC-6Ejf 🔎 How to run an expert research recap by Hannah Kirkbride: https://lnkd.in/gzWVyyGi 🍕 When it makes sense to test interface components in isolation by Thomas Stokes: https://lnkd.in/gpeFWkrJ ⚖️ Checks, Balances, and Vibes: Research Democratization in the Age of AI by Carolyn Morgan, Ph.D.: https://lnkd.in/eZVwemtz 🌏 A practical introduction to market research, for UX researchers by Phil Morton: https://lnkd.in/gYZACXCA 🧰 Why I'm Not Worried About My UX Job in the Era of AI by Raluca Budiu: https://lnkd.in/eXYbqcmj 🤖 The Dangerous Appeal of Fake AI Users by Trevor Calabro: https://lnkd.in/gNA5CDCD #uxresearch #userresearch #researchops

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