Transcendent Experience (ZX) Design: A Design Framework for Human Connection
Summary
As design transitions to broader "fourth order" thinking about systems, how do we look after the quality of the relationships that people experience within those systems? This talk introduces Transcendent Experience (ZX) design, a new perspective on UX that expands the focus of design beyond the individual user and toward the quality of our relationships—with other people, the natural world, and the larger cosmos. Rather than asking only whether a solution is efficient, or sustainable, ZX asks whether it cultivates belonging, reciprocity, stewardship, awe, and the meaningful connections that sustain us. Many of our greatest challenges are fundamentally relational. This talk introduces specific design principles that warm the relationship between people and the world around them.
Upcoming events
Making the Invisible Visible: The most critical deliverable isn't always the design
Exit Interview #7: Facing a blank slate in retirement when constraints are all you’ve ever known
Transcendent Experience (ZX) Design: A Design Framework for Human Connection
More Videos
"We built scaffolding that teams could climb, not cages they had to sit in."
Bianca JeffersonFrom Sprints to Systems: Operationalizing Continuous Discovery Through DesignOps
September 10, 2025
"Conflicts caused by layers moving at different speeds actually keep things balanced and resilient."
Brigette MetzlerScaling ResearchOps: Helping Researchers do Their Best Work
March 30, 2020
"People were more likely to explain their thought process and just more context around the particular situation of their org."
Tara TresselInvestigating qualitative depth of AI-moderated interviews
March 10, 2026
"Tech workers in the UK are five times more depressed than the UK average, with stress killing creativity."
Dr. Karl JeffriesThe Science of Creativity for DesignOps
January 8, 2024
"The purpose of a system is what it does—so you can measure an enterprise by its outcomes, not just by its slogans or strategy documents."
Milan GuentherA Shared Language for Co-Creating Ambitious Endeavours
June 6, 2023
"We want to reduce resources required to deliver the experience and create a better experience that also serves diverse needs and challenges."
Chris HammondEmbedding sustainability into enterprise design and development: A journey towards "sustainability consciousness"
April 2, 2025
"Introducing change is introducing stress and fear and feelings of rejection."
Sofia QuinteroBeyond Tools: The Messy Business of Implementing Research Repositories
March 10, 2022
"You can’t heal your way out of death or oppression by reforming oppressive systems; you must dismantle them."
Uday Gajendar Rachael Dietkus, LCSW Dr. Dawn Emerick Dawn E. Shedrick, LCSWLeading through the long tail of trauma
July 7, 2022
"Multilingual embedding models can cluster similar meanings across languages in a shared latent space."
Ian JohnsonLatent Scope: Finding structure in unstructured data
June 11, 2025