UX Pakistan 2020: Conversation on the Past, Present and Future of Design in Pakistan

Like most events and conferences around the world, the UX Pakistan 2020 conference, held from April 18 – 19, also went virtual but continued to inspire individuals with conversations and workshops around the latest design trends and skills. The event was organised by the Design Innovation Society at LUMS (INDEX) in collaboration with the Department of Computer Science at the LUMS School of Science and Engineering; Designist, an Experience Design Agency, and Cordoba, a Human-centred Design and Market Research Agency. The conference was streamed live to over 500 attendees around the world through the video conferencing platform, Zoom.

The theme for this year’s UX Pakistan conference was ‘The Past, Present and Future of Design in Pakistan’, through which participants explored the national design landscape while taking on an expansive and holistic view of the past, how it has shaped our present, and what the future of design in Pakistan entails. The two-day conference hosted over 25 renowned speakers from international tech companies including Google and Facebook, local design and tech companies including Careem, Xavor, Cordoba, and Designist, and universities such as the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. Along with a stellar line up of conference talks the event featured five exclusive Masterclasses to teach students skills like design documentation, speculative and critical design, and how to visualise ideas and turn them into products and services. The participants not only actively took part in the discussions but gained practical design and problem-solving skills, and developed critical thinking abilities.

In light of the Coronavirus pandemic, a complete session on the role of design, technology and entrepreneurship in fighting pandemics and large-scale disruptions was also held. The panel was a part of the new Covid19 hackathon which has been initiatied by Open Data Pakistan under the National Centre for Big Data and Cloud Computing at LUMS. This year, UX Pakistan partnered with Rizq and all acquired funds were donated to help communities who have been adversely affected by the nationwide lockdown in response to the spread of the virus.

The fourth edition of the conference concluded with renewed vigour to continue to provide a platform where designers, developers, business leaders, artists, end-users and everyone in between can come together to share, collaborate, learn, and emerge as the creators of a better tomorrow.