UX Speakeasy is Southern California's largest UX design community — free monthly events, an open member directory, and a movement run entirely by volunteers. Here's how we serve that mission.
United by community and purpose, UX Speakeasy champions User Experience Design in Southern California. We connect people, share knowledge, and amplify local voices to shape a better future, by design.
UX Speakeasy is Southern California’s largest UX community—a volunteer-powered nonprofit connecting designers, researchers, writers, product people, and the organizations that need them. Through free events, shared resources, regional partnerships, and an open member network, we create the connections that help good people and good ideas move forward.
We serve both sides of the design economy. Practitioners gain knowledge, visibility, relationships, and opportunities to grow. Employers gain access to local talent, fresh thinking, and a stronger understanding of what effective UX can bring to their organizations. By bringing the two together, we strengthen the profession, the companies that depend on it, and the Southern California community we share.
UX Speakeasy at a monthly event
Free events and an open directory that turn strangers into your people.
Talks, workshops, and a video library that keep you sharp.
A stage for members to speak, host, and get seen.
Our story began in 2011 with two communities and a shared purpose. In San Diego, 13 local UX professionals came together to build the network their region was missing. In Orange County, OCUX was taking shape around the same need: a place for practitioners to learn, connect, and advance the craft. Both became official chapters of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), serving their local communities while contributing to a growing global design movement.
Each community developed its own character. In San Diego, UX Speakeasy grew alongside the region’s craft brewery scene, creating events where the setting and social connections mattered as much as the content. Its unofficial motto—“Easy on the Speak and Heavy on the Easy”—captured an approach that was serious about design without taking itself too seriously. The community also created ambitious programs, including a one-day conference at the San Diego Zoo that brought together more than 250 practitioners, employers, recruiters, and sponsors.
For more than a decade, UX Speakeasy and OCUX worked in parallel—developing practitioners, connecting talent with opportunity, and giving UX a stronger voice across the region. In 2025, the two organizations merged, bringing San Diego and Orange County together as one Southern California design community.
Our community has always been part of something larger. In 2025, UX Speakeasy joined Design Forward Alliance as an ex-officio member and now helps bring San Diego Design Week to life. We work closely with fellow community organizations including Friends of Figma, SD Design Trek, Global Service Jam, World IA Day, AIGA, and others. Our relationships with the UC San Diego Design Lab and UC Irvine’s Master of Human-Computer Interaction program also help connect education, practice, and industry.
Today, we carry both legacies forward. Our programming serves newcomers and design leaders, practitioners and employers, San Diego and Orange County. By connecting people, organizations, and ideas across the region, we’re helping the entire Southern California design community learn, grow, and shape what comes next.
"It's the people. I've made close friends here—spent holidays, gone on vacations, and shared plenty of beers. Every event feels like social hour with old and new friends alike."
"Hosting the AI Conversations series with UX Speakeasy was time well spent. It gave us some quality time with San Diego's UX leaders, and we all left feeling energized."
"Today's co-working session was percolating with coffee, talks of AI, and the design practice of little to no interface as an interface solution."
