Building a Thriving UX Community

Challenge: The goal was to establish a dedicated chapter for Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF) in Chicago, creating a space for UX professionals to interact, share insights, and grow their expertise. The challenge was to build an engaging, sustainable community from scratch that would attract both junior and senior professionals.

Solution: I co-led the chapter’s growth with two other chapter leaders, focusing on delivering value through our community builders framework. This allowed us to create a diverse support network of engaged members, while giving them opportunities to host and run events—a valuable skill for any ux professional. Key components included:

  • I set up the community slack to give people a shared space to interact, ask questions and participate in industry conversations. This also gave us another engagement point to announce upcoming events.

  • We developed a content plan that included monthly live discussions, expert presentations, and design learning, which catered to the needs of professionals at different levels.

  • We appointed community builders to act as moderators and promoters to ensure active engagement and maintain a welcoming atmosphere. The program's success was largely due to these highly-engaged high performers.

  • We regularly collect feedback to adjust and improve the chapter's experience based on member needs.

Results

The Chicago chapter grew from 65 to 355 active members within 2 years and our slack channel now has 490 members. Engagement metrics showed consistent growth, and 93% of regularly-participating members reported feeling more connected with other UX professionals.

The initiative has fostered long-term engagement and provided lasting value to its members.