UXE conf at Google NYC

This week I attended the 2nd annual UXE (UX Engineer) conference. The UXE role is still fairly new at Google; there are only around 250-300 of us overall. So the conference was a chance to meet other UXEs (although the Bay Area has the largest concentration, there are lots of folks in other areas) and learn a bit about what they’re doing. It was also a chance to see the Google NYC offices. I have to say they are quite nice. It helps that earthquakes aren’t really an issue on the East Coast, so they can (and have) build taller. But it also feels a bit like other locations try a bit harder to provide luster to the space; Mountain View may not try as hard since they have some default luster from being the primary location. I could definitely seeing myself exploring the possibility of working at the NYC offices a few years down the road.

A view from the 11th floor of Google’s 111 8th Ave office.

Overall the conference was worthwhile. I met a bunch of new people and learned about some tools that might be useful in my own work. The most valuable part of the conference, however, might have been the one day workshop exploring how to grow the UXE role. Lots of good discussion and ideas bounced around.