The Design Conference
End-to-End Experience
Designing a Timeless Home for Creativity, Learning & Belonging
2023 - 2025
Client: The Design Conference (TDC), Australia
Type: Product & UX Design · Platform Strategy
Role: Product & UX Lead (with Multipasss)
Focus: VOD platform, careers, community, and membership model
Stage: Strategic design + product architecture (pre-build)
The Design Conference is a cultural anchor for the creative community — a place where designers gather for connection, inspiration, identity, and belonging.
Every year, hundreds of creatives come to Brisbane for something unforgettable:
brave talks, soulful storytelling, raw vulnerability, and a room full of open-hearted people. TDC is truly one of a kind.
At the centre of it is founder Matt Haynes, whose vision has always been simple and powerful: create a space where creativity feels human, honest, and deeply shared.
For twelve months after each event, designers can revisit the full talks online. But once that window closes, the long-form conversations fade from reach, leaving only short 10-minute highlights on YouTube. The deeper stories — the ones people want to return to — become hard to access.
Not because anything is broken.
But because the existing system wasn’t built for the scale, legacy, and emotional weight TDC carries.
Designers kept asking for a way to stay connected — to the talks, the ideas, the people, and the feeling.
We were invited to imagine what TDC could become beyond the stage:
a timeless digital home that preserves its culture, honours its vision, and keeps the magic alive all year long.
The challenge
TDC’s live experience was world-class.
Its digital experience wasn’t carrying that same weight.
The founder’s vision was always bigger than three days in a room.
He wanted:
-
Continuity
-
Accessibility
-
A long-term cultural footprint
-
A space where learning, creativity, and community could live all year
But the digital ecosystem lacked structure.
There was no unified journey.
And the archive — TDC’s most valuable asset — was scattered and losing relevance.
The Opportunity
-
Capture and preserve timeless content with the same quality as the IRL experience
-
Give global audiences all-year access
-
Turn scattered assets into one connected, navigable journey
-
Bridge designers and the businesses who need them
-
Create continuity between the emotion of the stage and the digital world
This required a holistic experience audit
What We Did
We redesigned TDC’s digital ecosystem from the ground up — creating the foundation for a year-round platform that preserves its legacy and supports global growth.
Our work focused on four core areas:
1. End-to-End Experience Audit
We attended the conference, observed the emotional arc of the audience, and analysed where the experience dropped off once the event ended.
2. Mixed-Methods Discovery
We spoke with stakeholders, partners, speakers, and attendees, and reviewed how designers consume talks online to understand what continuity truly means for TDC.
3. Audience & Journey Definition
We identified key audience groups and mapped their journeys — from discovery to tickets, livestream, VOD, and post-event engagement — revealing where TDC could expand beyond the stage.
A feature mapping diagram showing all proposed MVP features for The Design Conference platform, organised into categories and priorities.
A moodboard and feature evaluation matrix comparing competitor platforms, mapping features from “easy and effective” to “complex and low-impact” to help prioritise what to build.
A sitemap outlining the new information architecture for The Design Conference platform, showing page hierarchy and user navigation paths.
A feature mapping diagram showing all proposed MVP features for The Design Conference platform, organised into categories and priorities.
4. Ecosystem & Platform Design
We designed a modular, scalable system that brings the whole TDC universe together:
-
Conference Engine
-
Timeless VOD Library
-
Careers Platform
-
Community & Culture Layer
This became the blueprint for a premium, unified TDC experience — one that can evolve into new offerings, markets, and formats.
Key Insights
Through the audit and discovery work, several insights shaped the platform direction:
Continuity Is Currency
The value of TDC’s talks grows over time — but only if the full archive remains accessible, organised, and easy to revisit.
One Identity, One Journey
Designers needed a single, unified experience across tickets, VOD, membership, careers, and community — not separate systems.
YouTube Is the Funnel, Not the Home
Short-form clips can drive discovery, but the long-form archive deserves its own premium, branded platform.
Tiered Access Enables Inclusion
Flexible membership tiers support students, professionals, studios, and global audiences while building predictable year-round revenue.
These insights became the backbone of the new TDC ecosystem — a platform designed for longevity, accessibility, and cultural impact.
ROI
For Designers
-
Timeless access to full-length talks
-
A premium digital experience aligned with the emotional quality of the live event
-
Clear pathways for learning, connection, and career growth
For the Business
-
Predictable, year-round subscription revenue
-
Stronger partner and sponsor opportunities across VOD, careers, and editorial
-
A scalable membership system that supports future growth and new offerings
For Culture
-
TDC evolves from a once-a-year event into a long-term cultural platform
-
Creative knowledge is preserved, not fragmented
-
A global community can form around shared practice and continuous learning
