HCID Conference 2026: ‘Rage Against the Machine!'

Worried technologies negative impact on society? Learn about current issues and how to take positive action to become part of the solution. What is it? The HCID Conference deivered by the The Centre for Human-Computer Interaction Design (HCID) at City St George's, University of London. Each year we invite guest speakers from industry and academia to talk about UX / HCI / Interaction Design and related fields. This year our theme is ‘Rage Against the Machine!’. It will be a call to arms for people in our field. Highlighting the negative impacts that technology is having on society and suggesting how we can all take positive action. The conference will explore topics such as 'Enshitification', 'Tech Neutrality' and 'Digital Feudalism'. For years our conferences have subtly encouraged more positive practices through themes such as 'Design for Good' and 'Design Better'. But now we feel it’s time to take a more active role in instigating positive change. We hope through the day we will create a network of likeminded professionals from Industry and Academia who can collectively counter the forces corrupting our disciplines. Due to the disruptive nature of the technology a number of our talks this year will be discussing AI, LLMs etc. This year’s event will be on Wednesday 23rd September 2026 with our commercial keynote Harry Brignull (Deceptive Patterns). We will also have two academic keynotes from Bashar Nuseibeh & Dr. Elinor Carmi (City St George's, University of London) and confirmed speakers from The Restart Project, CoStar National Lab and Microsoft, with more being confirmed all the time! Our schedule and speaker details are available on the HCID2026 website. This year we have two types of tickets 'General Admission Tickets' where we are charging a small fee to contribute towards catering costs and 'Student Tickets' that are free for those entering the field. Why should I go? We had around 200+ people through the doors in past years! The audience represents a variety of fields including UX, digital, design + creativity professionals with a smattering of academics and professional students. The HCID Conference is a great opportunity to learn, network and meet people who may be recruiting or potential recruits. Instructions for the day Registration opens at 10:00am at City St George's, University of London's main reception accessed via Northampton Square with talks commencing at 10:30am. Please bring your Eventbrite ticket on the day to be scanned on arrival. Here is a run down of the rough structure of the day: • 10:00am - Registration & Refreshments • 10:30am - Opening Keynote • 11:30am - Concurrent Talks • 12:30pm - Lunch and Networking • 1:30pm- Concurrent Talks • 3:00pm - Comfort Break • 3:15pm - Concurrent Talks • 4:45pm - Networking and Soft Drinks • 5:30pm - Closing Keynotes • 7:00pm - Drinks and Pizza (Crudough Angel) ** Banner image features examples of Zines produced by students on the MSc Human-Computer Interaction Design as part of the assessment for their Design Justice module. NOTE: Tickets are also avaliable via our Universities own ticketing system -if you have booked through them they are still valid.