UX in Japan's Countryside: Tackling Real-World Challenges

In September 2024, a group of 20 UX designers and researchers from the world's top tech companies and universities gathered in Shimoda, a sleepy seaside village 3 hours south of Tokyo. They were there to attend the Shimoda UX Workshop, a new initiative run by a group of passionate Tokyo based designers, with the goal of using UX research and design thinking to tackle problems facing rural Japan, such as depopulation, abandoned buildings and a decline in tourists. What followed was a week of intense collaboration with local businesses, a crash course in Japanese design, and innovative solutions that exceeded everyone's expectations. While the initiative is still a work in progress, it was an example of how UX research and design thinking can bring people together face to face and solve real world problems outside of the tech industry, and is receiving interest from towns across Japan.

In this talk, we will share:

• The background & reason we decided to start this initiative
• The challenges planning a UX workshop & building relationships in a rural Japanese town
• How the workshop content was designed with cultural & language differences in mind
• What challenges we faced when running the program
• What solutions participants created
• The feedback we received and our future plans

Takeaways:

• Inspiration to use UX methods in unorthodox ways outside of tech
• Learning how cultural differences impact how UX design & research is done in Japan
• Learning about a new initiative that anyone with an interest in Japan can be a part of

PRESENTERS

Maxwell Forrest (LinkedIn Profile)

Maxwell is a UX consultant and the founder of Wayfinder Japan, a Tokyo based UX agency that helps global tech companies understand Japan. From Australia, he has been living in Japan for over a decade and worked for some of Japan's top tech companies. He is also the co-founder and organizer of Tokyo UX Meetup and IxDF Tokyo and led the Izu Shimoda UX Workshop in September 2024.

John Leung (LinkedIn profile)

An experienced product designer from Canada, John moved to Japan in 2016 and has since worked at several of Japan's top tech startups. He is currently a Senior Product Designer at PayPay Securities, and was a member of the team behind the Izu Shimoda UX Workshop in September 2024, where he led lectures on designing for Japanese users.