Refactor
Doors 8:30 am · 12 September 2026

Refactor 2026

One day, three stages and 8 speakers on the craft of building software people keep using. Talks, hands-on workshops and a long lunch, in Melbourne.

Get a ticket See the programme
When
Saturday 12 September 2026
Where
Design Exchange, Melbourne
Who
480 seats · Three stages

Programme

Saturday 12 September 2026. Doors, badges and coffee from 8:30 am.

3 stages

Auditorium, level 1 — Keynote, talks and the closing panel. Captioned live, recorded for ticket holders.

  1. Doors, coffee and badges

    Foyer, level 1. Bring the QR code from your ticket email.

  2. Welcome

    Host: Ana Lima

  3. Keynote: Design systems that survive a rewrite

    Mei Chen · Northwind Labs

  4. Morning tea

    Foyer, level 1

  5. Interfaces that explain themselves

    Ana Lima · Kestrel

  6. Designing for the second year

    Ravi Patel · Tolvar Studio

  7. Lunch

    Courtyard. Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options.

  8. Prototyping in the browser

    Kofi Mensah · Fold

  9. Research at the speed of product

    Priya Raghavan · Loom & Co

  10. Afternoon tea

    Foyer, level 1

  11. Policy is a design material

    Tom Nakamura · Civic Lab

  12. Accessibility as a design material

    Sofia Ruiz · Meridian

  13. Panel: what we ship next

    Mei Chen, Ravi Patel and Priya Raghavan, chaired by Tom Nakamura

  14. Closing words

    Level 1

  15. Drinks on the terrace

    Rooftop, level 4. One drink on us with your badge.

Speakers

Eight people who ship, teach and argue about the details. Each one is on for thirty to sixty minutes with time for questions.

Mei Chen

Head of design systems, Northwind Labs

9:30 am

Mei has rebuilt Northwind's design system twice, once on purpose. She writes about the unglamorous middle years of a system: the deprecations, the migrations and the arguments about spacing.

Keynote: Design systems that survive a rewrite

Main stage

Ana Lima

Principal product designer, Kestrel

10:45 am

Ana designs the parts of a product nobody reads until something goes wrong. Her talk is about error states, empty states and the words in between. She also hosts the day.

Interfaces that explain themselves

Main stage

Ravi Patel

Design director, Tolvar Studio

11:25 am

Ravi runs a studio of nine and has shipped more brand refreshes than he would like. He argues for work that still looks right in month eighteen.

Designing for the second year

Main stage

Kofi Mensah

Front-end engineer, Fold

1:05 pm

Kofi prototypes in HTML and CSS, then hands the same files to the team. His workshop builds a component library from scratch in eighty minutes.

Prototyping in the browser

Main stage and Studio

Priya Raghavan

Research lead, Loom & Co

1:45 pm

Priya has run research inside three-month release cycles and has opinions about which studies earn their keep. She is the person to ask about recruiting.

Research at the speed of product

Main stage and Workshop room

Tom Nakamura

Service designer, Civic Lab

2:50 pm

Tom works with councils on services people have to use rather than choose. He chairs the closing panel.

Policy is a design material

Main stage

Sofia Ruiz

Accessibility lead, Meridian

3:30 pm

Sofia audits products for a living and teaches teams to stop treating the audit as the finish line. Her workshop starts at the colour tokens and works outwards.

Accessibility as a design material

Main stage and Studio

Lucas Bergmann

Type designer, Studio Halden

9:30 am

Lucas draws typefaces and fixes other people's. His workshop covers optical sizing, variable axes and the parts of a font you can actually use in a browser.

Type on screen, 2026

Studio and Workshop room

Venue

Design Exchange

1 Edison Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000

Doors and hours

Doors 8:30 am. The last session ends at 4:55 pm and drinks run until 6:30 pm.

Getting there

Two minutes from Edison Street tram stop; Parliament station is a ten-minute walk. No parking on site.

Access

Step-free throughout, hearing loops on the main stage, and a quiet room on level 2 all day. Tell us what you need when you register.

Food

Lunch and both tea breaks are included. Vegetarian, vegan, halal and gluten-free options at every sitting.

Layout

Three stages under one roof.

  • Main stage
    Auditorium, level 1
  • Studio
    Room 2, level 1
  • Workshop room
    Room 3, level 2
See what's on where

Tickets

Prices are in Australian dollars and include GST. Every tier includes all seven talks, both tea breaks, lunch and the closing drinks.

Student 60 seats

The whole day at the lowest price, for anyone in full-time study.

$120 one seat

  • All talks on the main stage
  • Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea
  • Drinks on the terrace
  • Workshop standby queue
  • Student rate, valid ID at the desk
Register

Individual Most popular

The full day for one person, with the workshops you can get into.

$340 one seat

  • All talks on the main stage
  • Every workshop and clinic, subject to seats
  • Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea
  • Drinks on the terrace
  • Recordings for 90 days after the event
  • Printed programme and a notebook
Register

Team of four Saves $210

Four seats, one invoice, and a table of your own in the studio room.

$1,150 four seats

  • Everything in Individual, times four
  • Reserved table for four in the studio room
  • A 30-minute clinic with a speaker of your choice
  • One invoice, one payment
  • Team name on the foyer board
Register

How registering works

Three steps, no queue at the door.

  1. 1

    Tell us who you are

    Name, email and the tier you want.

  2. 2

    We confirm your seat

    A person reviews every request, usually within one working day.

  3. 3

    You get the invoice and the QR code

    Payment by card or invoice, whichever your finance team prefers.

Register

Tickets are held for five working days after we confirm your seat.

Your ticket and invoice go here.

Workshop seats are given out in the order registrations arrive.

No payment yet. We confirm the seat first, then send the invoice.