Belfast Design, Belfast (2026)

20/10/2026

𝗛𝗘𝗟𝗣 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗔 𝗣𝗛𝗗 𝗦𝗨𝗥𝗩𝗘𝗬. Please take part in a PhD research project at Ulster University about creative businesses and climate action in Northern Ireland.
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If you are a freelancer, a sole trader, or you own or manage a micro or small creative business in NI, your experience really matters. Your answers will help shape better support for the creative industries here.
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In the first questions you can choose design, visual arts or IT.
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Take the survey here:
https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/ulster/ni-creative-industries-survey
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Please share it with creative friends and colleagues. Thank you for your support!
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16/10/2026

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝟮,𝟲𝟯𝟳 𝗩𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗦 𝗧𝗔𝗨𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗨𝗦 𝗜𝗡 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗬𝗘𝗔𝗥 ① Belfast Design's website had 2,637 visitors and 6,763 page views in its first year. The real lesson is not how many people came, but what they did next.
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② 17.5% of visitors opened the membership page, but only about 8% reached the thank you page. Interest was there. People dropped off at the last step, so a short, simple form matters.
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③ 321 people spent almost 4 hours in total browsing our library, but only 6 books were borrowed. People love to look around, so borrowing has to be just as easy.
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④ The Politics of Design had the most views (33), but from only 3 people. Secret of the Highly Creative Thinker had 18 different visitors. Count people, not clicks.
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⑤ Google search brought more people to our signup page than LinkedIn (57 vs 51). Most visitors came directly (292), through typed or shared links. Search and word of mouth matter as much as social media.
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⑥ 53% of signup page visitors used a phone. If your form is hard to fill on mobile, you lose half your audience.
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⑦ 199 people opened our WhatsApp page, but only 24 clicked the invite link. A page view is not a join, so the call to action must be clear and visible.
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⑧ We had visitors from 67 countries, and 287 from Belfast alone. Some big foreign numbers come from servers and bots, so local numbers tell the truest story.
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08/10/2026

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗡𝗘𝗧𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗣𝗣 𝟮.𝟬. Following today's Belfast Design Meetup, the presentation, and all the live verbal feedback from participants, we used AI to build two updated versions of The Networking App.

Both Claude Code and Codex worked much longer than we expected. What started as a quick update turned into hours of development, improvements, testing, and bug fixing.

And here are the results, built directly from the feedback shared during the meetup:

① Claude: https://networking-app-beta2.vercel.app

② Codex: https://tna-2-beta.vercel.app

A huge thank you to everyone who participated, shared ideas, identified problems, and suggested improvements. Your feedback directly shaped what was built.

Join our next Belfast Design Meetup: https://luma.com/so3c9zoa

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Join Belfast Design: https://www.belfast.design

Events calendar: https://luma.com/belfastdesign (https://luma.com/belfastdesign?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

08/10/2026

𝗙𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗙𝗢𝗖𝗨𝗦 𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗞. How do you build something people actually want?

Join us at the Belfast Design Meetup today for a talk with Ross Edwards, investor, PhD candidate, and co-founder of The SystemMan and Client Capture.

Drawing on nearly two decades of building and experimenting with technology, Ross will explore rapid prototyping, AI-assisted design, automation, and customer feedback, and the gap between what we can build and what we should build.

Register now → https://luma.com/45se0vyo

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Join Belfast Design Community at https://belfast.design

Explore our events calendar → https://luma.com/belfastdesign

06/10/2026

𝗕𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗠𝗘𝗘𝗧𝗨𝗣 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗬𝗘𝗔𝗥, 𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗡𝗜 𝗧𝗘𝗖𝗛 𝗔𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗦 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲. From 22 September 2025 to 22 September 2026, we organised 31 events: 3 workshops, 16 meetups and 12 coffee catch-ups. We didn't cancel a single one.

We haven't seen this level of effort, persistence and consistency even in London or Dublin.

By now, people across the UK, Ireland and beyond know that Belfast Design Community is exceptionally strong.

Thank you to the many, many people who made this shortlist possible.

We didn't win this year, but we'll keep pushing forward.

Will we celebrate? Yes! Join us at our next meetup this Thursday, 8 October. Everyone is welcome: https://luma.com/45se0vyo

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Join the Belfast Design Community at www.belfast.design to access our WhatsApp chat, the biggest experience and product design library, and exclusive discounts.

View our events calendar: https://luma.com/belfastdesign

02/10/2026

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗡𝗘𝗧𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗣𝗣. Join Martin for an interactive session exploring the mobile app he's building: https://luma.com/45se0vyo

He'll start with a product presentation, followed by a moderated discussion and Q&A about the problems the app solves, his approach and its key features.

With mentoring and input from the room, we'll turn that discussion into action and work together on the app's second version during the meetup.

Many people know Martin Gilchrist through his accounting work and the communities and events he's involved in across Belfast and Northern Ireland. Many also know how much he loves networking, and that he's now building The Networking App.

We've invited Martin to share what it's really like to build a product yourself, from ideas and design to testing, development and coding. But his experience is just the starting point. Together, we'll explore user research, identify problems and pain points, discuss which metrics matter and how to improve them, and apply those insights to Martin's app.

This is a chance to learn by doing: how to make a product more valuable to its users, and how to turn that understanding into its next version.

24/09/2026

VIBE CODING WORKSHOP REFLECTIONS. Yesterday, people came to our workshop with no experience of vibe coding and had three people supporting them throughout the evening.

Our workshop leader, Tom Adeleaux, had slides, a clear programme and step by step instructions, guiding everyone through the full two hours.

Justin Doherty, a CTO, helped participants with their questions throughout the session.

And Mike Robinson, an iOS and mobile developer, proactively checked in with participants, answered questions and helped them move forward.

People started from scratch and learned the basics, with experienced developers right there to support them.

And all of this is available to everyone, completely free.

Sounds like paradise? No, it’s a Belfast Design Workshop.

Our next workshop hasn’t been announced yet, but we’ll share the details soon. In the meantime, we look forward to seeing you at our next meetup.

Join the next meetup: https://luma.com/45se0vyo

Join Belfast Design now at www.belfast.design

Events calendar: https://luma.com/belfastdesign

22/09/2026

BELFAST DESIGN BIRTHDAY 🎂 One year ago, none of this existed.

There was no belfast.design. No community chat with 100 people. No LinkedIn page with 782 followers. No hundreds of Belfast Design members.

Today, we’re celebrating our first birthday and everything we’ve built together in just one year. ✨

Thank you to everyone who joined, supported us and helped turn an idea into a real community. This is only the beginning.

🎟 Register for our next meetup: https://luma.com/45se0vyo

👉 Join Belfast Design Community Now:
https://www.belfast.design/

📅 Check out our events calendar:
https://luma.com/45se0vyo

📸 Photo from our workshop one year ago, at the previous Belfast Design Quick.

21/09/2026

MANAGING DESIGNERS AS AN ENGINEER VIDEO. Rebecca Walsh shares practical lessons from transitioning from engineering into design and from working with designers for more than seven years across complex, real-world projects.

Drawing on experience across healthcare, public services, and large-scale systems, Rebecca explores the intersection of engineering thinking and design practice. From working at Bombardier to leading design strategy in social impact projects, she highlights how constraints, ambiguity, and collaboration shape better outcomes.

The talk looks at how design teams work in messy, non-linear environments, why early ideas can feel vulnerable, and how engineers and designers think differently about problems.

Rebecca also explores designing within regulations, balancing creativity with constraints, and why human-centered design still matters in an AI-driven world.

Watch the full talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqgVvX68vcg

Join Belfast Design: https://www.belfast.design

Explore upcoming events: https://luma.com/belfastdesign

18/09/2026

100 IN THE CHAT. This week we reached 100 people in the Belfast Design WhatsApp chat.

Over almost a year, a lot has happened here. Different conversations, different stories, random discussions, questions, answers and, occasionally, a little drama.

Most people are quiet. They read, listen, observe and follow what is happening. And that is completely fine too.

Is 100 a lot or a little? We do not know. But here we are.

Right now, the Belfast Design Community is together in one main WhatsApp chat, and 100 people are already part of it.

Join Belfast Design at www.belfast.design to gain access to the chat, library and discounts. It is free.

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Join the next meetup: https://luma.com/45se0vyo

Events calendar: https://luma.com/belfastdesign

Belfast Design

20/10/2026

16/10/2026

08/10/2026

08/10/2026

06/10/2026

02/10/2026

24/09/2026

22/09/2026

21/09/2026

18/09/2026

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