The End of an Era: IxDA's Lasting Impact on UX and My Heart

When I found out IxDA was shutting down, I cried.

The grief was real. It wasn't just the end of a community, it felt like the closing of a chapter in the story of UX itself, a beloved thread in the fabric of our field quietly coming undone.

I sat with that loss deeply, remembering how it all began.

I was twenty, a college student still learning the language of design, when I wandered into my first IxDA conference. I didn't know what to expect, but what I found changed everything.

The people there welcomed me with open arms. They didn't ask for credentials. They asked me what I cared about. They didn't expect me to prove myself. They invited me to participate. I had found my place. My people. That moment sparked a lifelong love of design, not just as a career, but as a way of being.

I dove in headfirst.

I started a chapter at my university. Then I became assistant regional coordinator for North America. Eventually, I led the entire region, supporting more than 90 local groups worldwide. I hosted monthly leadership meetings, collaborated on strategy, and organized workshops across continents, from Ireland to Canada to San Francisco. I helped new chapters launch and coached local leaders across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. I worked side by side with brilliant, seasoned design leaders, most of them a decade or more ahead of me in their careers.

We discussed design, humanity, and what it meant to lead purposefully. We didn't just build programs, we built trust. We built friendships. We laughed over late-night karaoke. We shared quiet moments on long walks between sessions. We were humans first.

IxDA shaped my early career and rooted me in values I still carry: openness, inclusion, community, and ethics. It wasn't a corporate machine. It was a grassroots constellation of people doing this work because they loved it and believed in it.

When I entered the workforce, I leaned heavily on my IxDA network. The people I met helped guide, encourage, and remind me of what mattered. I found community at local IxDA events in Cincinnati and Columbus. When I joined Amazon, it felt like coming home again. So many familiar faces from IxDA were already there, we shared stories like old friends. The web of IxDA connections spanned industries and generations. It quietly shaped the fabric of UX.

At Amazon, these IxDA connections became even more vital as we navigated the early days of AI-powered products. We'd gather after hours, wrestling with questions about automation and human agency. How do we design AI systems that augment rather than replace human judgment? The values I'd absorbed from IxDA, openness, ethics, humanity, weren't just nice-to-haves. They were essential guardrails as we built tools with unprecedented capabilities.

Even as my responsibilities grew at Amazon and I could no longer be involved in the organization's day-to-day, I remained close. In 2019, when Amazon hosted the Interaction conference in Seattle, I helped in every way I could, stuffing welcome bags, organizing badges, and working late into the night before the keynote. Because IxDA wasn't just an organization to me, it was family.

IxDA didn't hand me a straight path to where I am now, but it lit the way. It gave me mentors, collaborators, and purpose. Most importantly, it reminded me that leadership isn't a title, it's an offering.

As I reconnected with old IxDA friends while writing my book, we shared stories of conference hallways that turned into lifelong friendships, late-night design debates, and early-morning workshops. We remembered the joy, the hope, and the belief that design could change the world.

Many of us are no longer wide-eyed twenty-somethings. The young leaders I once mentored now lead their teams. Some have gone grey. Myself included. As I wrote my book, the rich brown in my hair faded to silver. It felt poetic. IxDA shaped who I became. And in some ways, my book is part of that transformation.

Together, we mourned the end of IxDA. But we also celebrated what it meant to us.

IxDA was proof that UX is more than methods and tools. It's a movement. A human endeavor rooted in empathy and community.

So, what does the business entity of IxDA closing really mean?

It means we've entered a threshold.

We are no longer in the era of defining UX. We are in the era of defending it. Defending its soul, its power to listen, include, elevate, and its ability to build products and trust.

Tech has changed. AI is rewriting how we work, create, and interact. But the need for conscious design, which IxDA championed, is more urgent than ever.

I see this tension play out daily in AI product design. The tools promise efficiency, automation, and scale. They can generate a thousand variations in seconds. They can predict user needs before users articulate them. But can they discern the quiet hesitation in a user's click? Can they feel the weight of responsibility when designing systems that will make decisions affecting human lives?

This is where we come in. This is where the IxDA ethos matters most.

When the AI suggests removing friction, we ask: is this friction actually valuable reflection time for users?

When the data suggests optimization for engagement, we ask: but is engagement what truly serves human needs?

When the technology can make decisions autonomously, we design for transparency, meaningful human oversight, and the right to question and override.

These aren't just design principles. They defend UX's soul in an era that often values speed over depth.

IxDA's formal structure may be ending, but its spirit? It lives in us.

In how we lead. In how we mentor. In how we design systems that see people fully.

The values aren't gone. They've simply been passed on to us.

The torch is ours to carry. Here's how I carry it:

I start every AI design project with a community conversation, not just a requirements doc. I bring diverse voices into the room before a single pixel is placed.

I build reflection points into my process, when we step back from what we can make to ask what we should build.

I mentor young designers in methods and values, teaching them to listen for what isn't being said and to advocate for the humans behind the data points.

These practices aren't revolutionary, they're the timeless IxDA values translated for an AI age. They represent small yet significant acts of remembering that our commitment to human-centered design must remain unwavering even as technology evolves.

In a world aching for more human connection and community, the loss of IxDA is truly tragic, but its absence resonates deeply within my heart.

But we must remain hopeful. By embedding IxDA's core principles into our work, we can honor what IxDA gave us. This is how we ensure its legacy lives on in the systems we build today, creating technology that serves humanity rather than diminishing it.

As mentioned, I am reconnecting with many of my favorite IxDA connections while gathering real human input and researching my new book, Conscious UX. My book, released in July 2025, mentions my experience with IxDA and the foundational skills it taught me to prioritize ethics and inclusion in design from a young age. If you were part of IxDA, or have AI and UX experience that you want to contribute, please share your voice.

If you need a design community or someone to talk to one-on-one, reach out to rikkiplusdesign@gmail.com. I'd love to hear your voice and discuss what the global design community means to you.

Author's note: Many local IxDA groups are still alive and thriving, and I find deep hope in that. It is beautiful that grassroots design communities will continue without the connecting thread of the business side of IxDA.

Summary of "A Final Message From the Board": Interaction Design Association (IxDA)

September 13, 2024. The Interaction Design Association (IxDA) officially dissolved its legal non-profit entity, marking the end of its global operations. However, this is not a farewell to the community itself. Local Groups around the world remain active, continuing to host events like Interaction Design Day 2024, keeping the spirit of IxDA alive through grassroots efforts.