Beyond the Interface: Designing Ethical & Human-Centred AI
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Beyond the Interface: Designing Ethical & Human-Centred AI

Join us for a thought-provoking event exploring the intersection of AI, ethics, and user experience.

By Northern User Experience

Date and time

Thursday, June 26 · 6 - 8pm GMT+1

Location

Accenture

2 Circle Square #2 Manchester M1 7FS United Kingdom

About this event

  • Event lasts 2 hours

Beyond the Interface: Designing Ethical & Human-Centred AI

📅 Date: Thursday 26th June
⏱️ Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
🏢 Venue: Accenture, No. 2 Circle Square, 1 Symphony Park, 5th Floor, Manchester, M1 7FS
🙏 Special thanks to our venue sponsor: Accenture

Join us for another NUX MCR evening as we explore the critical conversations at the intersection of AI, ethics, and human-centred design — featuring two insightful talks that challenge how we build, evaluate, and experience emerging technologies.


🎙️ Talk 1: The Embodiment of AI – And the Missing Link

Speaker: Dr Rabia Khan

Rabia began her work on embodied conversational chatbots during her PhD back in 2006 — long before chatbots became a mainstream term. Today, while AI technologies have dramatically advanced, the vital area of human-AI interaction often remains overlooked.

In this talk, Rabia will cover:

  • How her early research on embodied agents still applies in today's AI landscape.
  • The risks of deploying AI technologies without adequate user testing.
  • How perception, bias, behaviour, and even abuse emerge when human factors are neglected.
  • Why designing for humans must remain central in AI development.

With 13+ years of cross-sector experience, Rabia brings rich insights blending academic research and industry practice in Human Factors and Human-AI interaction.


🎙️ Talk 2: Designing and Testing Ethical User Experiences

Speaker: Chris Briggs

Design shapes behaviour — and ethics shapes design.

In this talk, Chris will explore:

  • How to treat ethics as a "meta-requirement" throughout design and development.
  • Introduce three moral frameworks: Virtue Ethics, Duty Ethics, and Utilitarianism.
  • How these frameworks help navigate real-world UX trade-offs.
  • Practical examples to strengthen ethical reflection in your design practice.

This session aims not to offer easy answers, but to spark deeper thinking and richer conversations.


🍕 Networking, Pizza & Drinks

As always, after the talks we’ll have time to connect, chat, and network — accompanied by pizza and drinks kindly provided for all attendees.
Come for the talks, stay for the conversations!

🌟 Who should attend?

If you work in research, design, development, content, product, or strategy — or are simply passionate about building more thoughtful, ethical, and human-centred technologies — this event is for you.

📍 Venue Info:

Accenture, No. 2 Circle Square, 5th Floor, Manchester, M1 7FS

🕰️ Please aim to arrive a few minutes early for registration & check-in.


⚠️ IMPORTANT: Ticket bookings will close on Monday 23rd June at 12:00 PM (midday).
Make sure to register before then to secure your place!

Tags

Organized by

Northern User Experience

We’re a bunch of usability enthusiasts who like to get together to talk about anything and everything to do with the user experience – sharing knowledge, sparking ideas and supporting each other.

We’re non-charging, non-profiteering, non-egomaniacal, friendly, normal people who like informal, sociable meetings that give us something to think about.

Our bi-monthly meetings are held on either side of the Pennines – Manchester at the start of the month, and Leeds at the end of the month. We’ve also just started an NUX group in Newcastle, so if you’re up that way keep your eyes peeled for details of the first NE event.

These meetings are completely free and open to anyone who’s interested in user experience, whatever work you do or discipline you study. And if you’d like to speak at one, you’re very welcome – we want to encourage as many people as possible to take part.

FreeJun 26 · 6:00 PM GMT+1