2026-10-08 Ottawa Book Signing: Design Research Mastery by Sara Fortier

Meet author Sara Fortier and dive into Design Research Mastery at Indigo Kanata, Thursday, October 8, 4–6 PM. Free, RSVP appreciated.

Sara Fortier, CEO and founder of Outwitly and author of Design Research Mastery: How To Lead Research That Builds Buy-in and Great Products, is returning to Ottawa for a conversation and book signing at Indigo Kanata!

We’re inviting Ottawa’s UX design and research community to stop by, connect with Sara 1:1, ask questions inspired by the book, and get your copy signed in person.

Bring your own copy of the book, purchase a copy ahead of time (Amazon / Indigo), or pick one up on-site while supplies last.

Outwitly is one of CapCHI‘s new sponsors this season!

What to expect:

  • Meet and greet with Sara Fortier and other Outwitly team members
  • Get your copy of Design Research Mastery signed
  • Fun Outwitly branded extras for the first folks to arrive
  • Conversation about earning stakeholder trust, turning research into real business impact, and what AI is changing (and not changing) about UX and service design roles
  • Curious about the publishing process in UX? Sara would be happy to chat about that too

Sara grew up in Ottawa and came back in 2016, after years in Silicon Valley, to found Outwitly. Her debut book Design Research Mastery launched across North America this past April. This signing at Indigo is an opportunity to mark that milestone close to home and meet more of the UX designers and researchers working right here in Ottawa.

 

2026-09-15 Nobody Was Frustrated: The Promise and Problem of Synthetic Users in UX Research

Hosted by CapCHI, Cristina & Zeerak  

CapCHI September 2026 event image

Our first event of the 2026/2027 season!

Join us as we kick off this new season with a talk about whether AI-generated participants can really stand in for real ones, presented by Dominira Saul, Founder & Principal, DFFRNT.

Generative AI is making it possible to create hundreds of seemingly realistic research participants in seconds. Synthetic users can answer interview questions, react to designs, complete surveys, simulate personas, and even attempt usability tasks at a fraction of the time and cost of conventional user research.

But are we actually learning about users, or generating plausible stories about them?

DATE TIME: Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 6:00-8:00 pm.

LOCATION: In-Person Event at Impact HUB Ottawa (123 Slater Street, 7th floor, Ottawa, ON K1P 5H2).

  • NOTE: The venue is in a high-rise building, and the entry doors on the ground floor/street level lock automatically at 7pm.

REGISTRATION: (Free!) meetup.com/capchi/events/316426982 

2026-05-19 CapCHI Student Showcase 2026

Hosted by CapCHI and Anna Lena-T 

CapCHI May 2026 event image

Our last event of the 2025/2026 season!

Join us as we welcome talented HCI, Design, and UX students from Algonquin College and Carleton University. Each team will present their projects in under 10 minutes, followed by an open discussion with the audience.

DATE TIME: Tuesday, May 19, 2026, 6:00-8:00 pm.

LOCATION: In-Person Event at Impact Hub Ottawa (123 Slater Street, 7th floor, Ottawa, ON K1P 5H2).

  • NOTE: The venue is in a high-rise building, and the entry doors on the ground floor/street level lock automatically at 7pm.

REGISTRATION: (Free!) https://www.meetup.com/capchi/events/314668774/ 

2026-04-21 Designing Enterprise Software with Claude Code

Hosted by CapCHI , Serdar and Anna Lena-T

CapCHI April 2026 event image

Many conversations about AI and design stay surface level. This one doesn’t. Allan Ziolkowski, Head of Product Design at Beyond Identity, will walk you through how his team went from Figma-first to fully AI-first in a matter of weeks, working inside a complex enterprise product environment.

You will leave with a practical framework you can apply immediately and bring back to your team: how to build a code-based design sandbox, how to enforce your design system as guardrails so AI output stays consistent, and how to move your team into shared repos with engineering so design intent ships to production exactly as intended. Every example comes from work that is live in production today.

DATE TIME: Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 6:00-8:00 pm.

LOCATION: In-Person Event at Impact Hub Ottawa (123 Slater Street, 7th floor, Ottawa, ON K1P 5H2).

  • NOTE: The venue is in a high-rise building, and the entry doors on the ground floor/street level lock automatically at 7pm.

REGISTRATION: (Free!) https://www.meetup.com/capchi/events/313966571/ 

2026-02-17 Someone stuffed AI into your product – Now what?

Hosted by CapCHI and Anna Lena-T

CapCHI February 2026 event image

It’s the moment every UX person dreads: AI hype hits your product roadmap, and suddenly there’s a chatbot nobody asked for popping up in your app.

AI features often get shipped without the user testing they desperately need. So what do you do when you inherit a product or service that needs a UX reality check? Generic usability heuristics weren’t built for LLMs, probabilistic outputs, or collaborative interactions.

Join us for a practical, hands-on session where you’ll learn a specialized heuristic framework designed specifically for evaluating AI applications. Then test it out on a real LLM-powered chatbot.

DATE TIME: Tuesday, February 17, 2026, 6:00-8:00 pm.

LOCATION: In-Person Event at Impact Hub Ottawa (123 Slater Street, 7th floor, Ottawa, ON K1P 5H2).

  • NOTE: The venue is in a high-rise building, and the entry doors on the ground floor/street level lock automatically at 7pm.

REGISTRATION: (Free!) https://www.meetup.com/capchi/events/313222912/ 

2025-12-16 Can AI and UX Research Co-exist?

Hosted by CapCHI, and Hala and Solmaz.

CapCHI December 2025 event image

Join us for an informative and interactive lunch and learn with Meena Kothandaraman, co-founder and strategist at twig+fish. a cutting-edge progressive UX Research microagency in Boston.

DATE TIME: Tuesday December 16, 2025, 12:00 pm (noon).

LOCATION: ONLINE Event! Link visible for attendees on registration.

REGISTRATION: (Free!) https://www.meetup.com/capchi/events/312319216/ 

2025-11-28 CapCHI Student Chapter: Accessibility Workshop

Join us for an insightful Accessibility Workshop featuring Sercan Kum, an Accessible and Inclusive Consultant! Sercan will walk us through how to create truly inclusive, end-to-end user experiences—the skill that future employers are demanding. This is a must-attend event for all students in design, IT, development, UX, and related fields who are looking to build inclusive skills. Date: November 28, 2025 Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM Location: Algonquin College (1385 Woodroffe Ave, Ottawa, ON K2G 1V8), Building C, C128

  • NOTE – This is open to students and recent graduates only.

REGISTRATION: (Free!) https://www.meetup.com/capchi-ottawa-student-chapter/events/312121785/ #Accessibility #UXDesign #Inclusivity #StudentEvent #OttawaStudents #UOttawa #AlgonquinCollege #CarletonUniverity #CareerDevelopment #CapCHI  

 

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2025-09-16 Love at First Query, Regret at First Hallucination

Hosted by CapCHI, and Melis.

CapCHI September 2025 event image

 

Join us for a thought-provoking CapCHI session with JP Simbandumwe, co-founder of Ottawa UX consultancy Jumping Elephants, where we’ll explore the promises and pitfalls of AI-enabled search.

UX practitioners now face a new design frontier: search interfaces we don’t control, powered by LLMs that remix our content. In this session, JP will unpack the mechanics and benefits of AI search, from intent detection and multi-source synthesis to conversational follow-ups, using real-world examples of Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT answers, and Perplexity’s “answer engine”.

You’ll also hear about the risks, hallucinations, bias, zero-click behaviour, and accessibility gaps, and gain practical, actionable strategies to help clients and organizations optimize their content for visibility and accuracy in this rapidly changing landscape.

Whether you’re a UX practitioner, content strategist, or simply curious about the future of search, this session will offer actionable insights and real-world examples you can take back to your work.

DATE TIME: Tuesday September 16, 2025, 6:00-8:00 pm.

LOCATION: In-Person Event at Impact Hub Ottawa (123 Slater Street, 7th floor, Ottawa, ON K1P 5H2).

  • NOTE: The venue is in a high-rise building and the entry doors on the ground floor/street level lock automatically at 7pm.

REGISTRATION: (Free!) https://www.meetup.com/capchi/events/310838720/ 

2025-05-20 2025 CapCHI Student Showcase

Hosted by CapCHI, and Anna-Lena T.

CapCHI May 2025 event image

Our last and favourite event of the 2024/2025 season! Join us as we welcome emerging HCI, Design, and UX talent from Algonquin College, Carleton University and the University of Ottawa. Each team will present their projects in under 10 minutes, followed by an open discussion with the audience.

DATE TIME: Tuesday May 20, 2025, 6:00-9:00 pm.

LOCATION: In-Person Event at Impact Hub Ottawa (123 Slater Street, 7th floor, Ottawa, ON K1P 5H2).

  • NOTE: The venue is in a high-rise building and the entry doors on the ground floor/street level lock automatically at 7pm.

REGISTRATION: (Free!) https://www.meetup.com/capchi/events/307755268/ 

2025-04-15 Field Trip to the Centre for Air Travel and Research (CATR) (Limited Spots)

Hosted by CapCHI, Jed and Andrés.

CapCHI April 2025 event image

Spark your curiosity by joining us on an engaging tour through the NRC‘s Centre for Air Travel Research (CATR) with your host, Senior Research Officer Shelley Roberts!

This centre is the only facility in the world made to study the whole experience of travelling by air. Shelley and her team work with academia and companies to deliver world-leading research for safe and healthy air travel experiences. You’ll find all the features that are present in modern air travel: the process of checking in, boarding and flying in an airplane.

This amazing place is a must-see! Don’t miss this unique opportunity!

– – – – – – – – – – –  >>> 🚨🚨🚨 SPOTS ARE LIMITED 🚨🚨🚨 <<<  – – – – – – – – – – –

To ensure everyone has enough room and feels comfortable on this field trip, we have limited the number of spots. Grab your seat while you can!

You can use your PayPal account or your debit or credit card to pay. The total amount, including fees, should be $10. The payment secures your spot and is non-refundable. However, it’s transferable. If you already have a spot and would like to transfer it to someone else, please let us know at treasurer@capchi.org. Thank you.

All proceeds from this event will go directly to CapCHI to help continue creating outstanding events for you!

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DATE TIME: Tuesday April 15, 2025, 6:00-8:00 pm.
LOCATION: In-Person Event at National Research Council – Aerospace facilities 1920 Research Road Building U-61 · Ottawa, ON.

REGISTRATION: (Paid Event / Must be registered to attend!) https://www.meetup.com/capchi/events/307114562/