UX Salzburg Evening: Headless Research

Most research tools are a login screen with a database behind it. We pay for the screen, but we actually only need the database.

At Busch Labs, a big part of our research workflow no longer has a UI. Recruiting, screening, study setup, synthesis: Claude Code talks to our data directly via MCP and SQL. No dashboards. No CSV exports. No copy-paste between six browser tabs.

This talk shows what that looks like in practice, what broke along the way (a lot), and why the interface might become the least important part of a research tool. Expect real workflows, a few embarrassing things that happened, and zero slides with a glowing AI brain.

Hosted by the Human Computer Interaction Division of the University of Salzburg at the 41st UX Salzburg Evening.