Creating a design community in the San Gabriel Valley

What if...

there were user experience meetups, that was east of downtown? And we didn’t have to deal with parking, traffic, had better food and were a smaller, more intimate group?

SGVUX is a design collective and member-led community that fosters peer-to-peer learning.

Events are created through member feedback and suggestions, which attract new and transitioning career professionals. SGVUX also creates opportunities for leadership for our members, to build new leaders by promoting soft skill development and career growth mentorship.‍

Framing the problem

How might we make attending and actively participating in user experience meetups more engaging and meaningful for long-term career growth?

Design process

DESIGN PROCESS = EVENT PLANNING

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1. Assessed existing design meetups in West LA/Downtown

[a] Agenda = time constraints, digital/in-person venues (space, A/V, food)

[b] Slack community = topic selection, solicit feedback, recruit feedback, facilitation and engagement

[c] Operations = social media accounts, event assets made by volunteers, marketing/outreach, retrospectives & feedback for future events

[d] Planning = primarily made around food options! But also, our #planning channel on Slack is 100% transparent and an evolving group effort to produce events

2. Identified pain points through immersive research

3. Redefined ideal meetup experience, with all obstacles solved for from the user's perspective

4. Gave birth to SGVUX!

[a] First meetup was a planning workshop to collected member feedback for events

[b] Translate insights into topical events and workshops for the calendar year

[c] Planning workshop a year later to discuss learnings, feedback and plans for the next year