James Gartrell
James Gartrell
Co-founder & Principal UX Design Strategist, Purpose UX
James Gartrell is a UX designer, strategist, and facilitator based in Durham, North Carolina. He is the co-founder of Purpose UX, a design agency specializing in data-rich digital products for businesses solving complex, often technical problems, where validating ideas with real users is the core of the practice. Design with purpose. Earlier in his career he helped lead a user research evangelism campaign that turned a research-skeptical SaaS organization into one where engineers wouldn't make a decision without asking what the user would think. This talk grew out of conversations with other senior UX designers about how the work is changing.
Design as the Organizational Immune System
Executives are adopting AI the way people order peptides off the internet: on hype, on what a peer swears by, without understanding what they're putting into the body of the organization. Some applications are proven. Some are fads. Some are harmful. Most organizations can't tell the difference. That's what an immune system is for, and it's why UX exists. Our discipline was born to stop companies from shipping the wrong things. AI has made production faster and cheaper than ever, and organizations are bypassing validation again to ship directly. This talk reframes UX as the organizational immune system and hands you a field-tested playbook: read the vital signs, make risk visible, recruit champions, and speak the language of value so human judgment becomes impossible to ignore.
