UX Horror Stories

Your worst UX moments deserve a second life.

Spooky season is here, and UXPA Boston is turning our collective UX nightmares into a night of stories, drinks, food, and laughs.

Join us at The ROOTED Café at The Center for the Arts at the Armory on October 27 for UX Horror Stories, an open-mic-style evening where UX professionals share the projects, research sessions, stakeholder requests, production mishaps, and design decisions that still haunt them.

We’re looking for brave volunteers to share a 3-5 minute UX horror story. Submit your story ahead of time, or throw your name in the hat at the event for our open mic. No slides required—just a true story about a moment when things went wonderfully, spectacularly wrong.

Food and drinks (including non-alcoholic options) are available for purchase at the event. Check out the menu: Check out the menu here: https://artsatthearmory.org/cafeandbar.

Doors open at 7:00 pm. The laughs start at 7:30.

What counts as a UX horror story?

Maybe…

• A usability participant did something you never could have predicted.

• A stakeholder requested a feature that made your inner designer scream.

• A seemingly harmless design compromise turned into a monster.

• A critical bug or broken flow made it into production.

• A launch, handoff, research session, or project went completely off the rails.

The goal isn’t to name and shame. This is a lighthearted, judgment-free space to laugh at the messy realities of our work, celebrate what we learned, and commiserate with people who have absolutely been there.

Don’t want to tell a story?

Come anyway! Grab a drink, some bites, meet other members of the Boston UX community, and enjoy an evening of terrifyingly relatable tales from the field.

Come for the horror. Stay for the networking. Leave feeling slightly better about that one project you still think about at 2 a.m.

Tickets are FREE, but since the space is limited, we require tickets for entry.