The hottest of takes on the most trivial of topics. Kate and Laura argue about the future of AR, chatbots, the on demand economy, and whether pattern libraries will finally put designers out of business (fingers crossed!). Drink Pairing: Trader Joe's Brand Bourbon (BECAUSE APPARENTLY KATE DRANK ALL THE BLADE AND BOW)
In this episode, Kate and Laura talk about building a personal brand as a designer, and why in the name of all that is holy anybody in their right mind would want to do that. They have some vague advice about speaking at conferences, writing about design, and (don't do it) podcasting. Drink Pairing: Blade and Bow Bourbon (Thanks, Bob and Celeste!)
In this episode, Kate and Laura discuss a tool and process for tracking the things you believe and getting better at predicting. The tool, predictably, is from Build Better Products. Which you should have bought by now, but if you haven't, there's still time! Build Better Products: A Modern Approach to Building Successful User-Centered Products $39.00 By Laura Klein Drink Pairing: Bloody Marys...
In this episode, Kate and Laura try and fail to tackle some typical UX questions in 2 minutes or less. Laura gives the most useful advice you will ever get about starting a new job. It's a short one, because frankly, it's the holidays, and this podcast crap is cutting into our drinking time. Drink Pairing: Veuve Clicquot, Vintage Rosé Brut 2004
In this episode, Kate and Laura talk about picking the right users and advocating for them. Also, they explain why this is not entirely the designer's job. Drink Pairing: Mulled Wine Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton...
In this episode, Kate and Laura plug their new book, Build Better Products , by discussing how the User Map was created. Surprise! It involves design thinking and sketching. Drink Pairing: Irish Coffee (this is a long one. you'll need the caffeine.) Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton User Map Template: Get the Book! Build Better Products: A Modern Approach to Building Successful User-Centered Products $35.73 By Laura Klein...
In this episode, Kate and Laura discuss the pros and cons of doing UX work in agencies, big companies, and startups. This is a good one if you're trying to figure out where to go next. Drink Pairing: Sidecar Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
Kate and Laura discuss the difference between "building a chatbot" and "building a product that solves a need for a human." Also, we talk about how to decide which platform is right for something that you're building. Drink Pairing: Sidecar Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
In this episode, Kate and Laura talk about why sketching is useful and how to get better at it without being an artist. Drink Pairing: G&T & keep 'em coming Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton Want more advice from people who know what they're talking about? Check out the User Research for Everyone conference from Rosenfeld Media on October 11, 2016! Use KLEIN for $50 off the ticket price....
In this episode, Kate and Laura talk about some of the red flags that can mean a project or a job is not a great place for doing good UX design work. Drink Pairing: Red Bull and Vodka Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
In this episode, Kate and Laura completely fail to answer simple questions about UX. We do blather on for a bit about ourselves though, as usual. Drink Pairing: Craft brews - the more pretentious the better Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
Kate and Laura dig in a little more on what "designing for delight" really means. They argue that most things designers find delightful just end up annoying users. Drink Pairing: Something delightful, obvs Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
It's not always clear when you should stand up for yourself against clients or stakeholders and when you should do what is asked of you, even when you think it's a bad design decision. Kate and Laura argue about where the line is and whether it's better to be flexible or to push back. Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton Drink Pairing: The stiffest drink you can stand
Kate and Laura answer questions submitted by the fine UXers at Tradecraft. This week, we completely fail to tell the future of the UX. Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton Drink Pairing: Vintage Champagne
In this episode, Kate and Laura talk about the advice we wish people had given us instead of making us learn things the hard way. We really don't like doing things the hard way. Drink Pairing: You never drink what we tell you to, anyway Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
In this episode, Kate and Laura discuss the best advice that we've ever been given about life, products, and work in general. Drink Pairing: Ask someone else for advice on this Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
In this episode, Kate and Laura argue about what makes a design good and come dangerously near a few moral absolutes. Drink Pairing: Whatever you like best. Who are we to judge? Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
In this episode, Kate and Laura discuss the things that we wish people, including designers, knew about UX design. Drink pairing: Rum and coke Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
In this rapid fire episode, Kate and Laura try (and fail) to answer easy, yes or no UX questions. Maybe is not an option, nor is death. It's the antidote to "It Depends." Drinks: Screwdrivers Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
You can't solve every problem for every user. That means you need to learn to prioritize your design changes. In this episode, Kate and Laura talk about how we think about priorities and the really important things that you're probably forgetting to prioritize. Drink Pairing: The important thing is that you're drinking. Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
In this episode, Kate and Laura talk about some of the unanswerable questions they get asked all the time like "What sort of research should do?" and "What is wrong with my product?" Then we answer them, because why the hell not? Drink Pairing: Absinthe Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
In this episode, Kate and Laura discuss why it's so easy to get blocked when doing "creative" work. We also offer a few, probably unhelpful, tips about how we personally get past the blockers. Hint: it's not all booze and self loathing. Drink Pairing: Singapore Sling Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
In this episode, Kate and Laura complain about the overuse of UX-specific jargon and then totally contradict ourselves by explaining why we sometimes find it incredibly useful. Laura also complains, unsurprisingly, about the fact that we can't all agree on what certain words like "designer" mean anyway. Drink Pairing: Lemon Drops Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
In this episode, Kate and Laura talk about the different types of spaces in which design activities occur and fight about which are the best ones for which tasks. Drink Pairing: Scorpion Bowl (which Kate assures me is a Tiki drink and not an actual bowl of scorpions, but she is not to be trusted) Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
Sometimes stakeholders or clients want things that you know will be terrible for their users. In this episode, Kate and Laura discuss how to handle bad feature or design requests and argue about our responsibilities as designers. Drink Pairing: Dry Martinis Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
Sometimes stakeholders refuse to look at any deliverables that aren't pixel perfect Photoshop mocks, which causes all sorts of problems for designers. In this episode, Kate and Laura explain why this is such a terrible idea and give designers some suggestions for handling it better. Drink Pairing: Something Artisinal Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
You can never get a straight answer out of a designer. In this episode, Kate and Laura explain why designers like the phrase, "It depends" so damn much and what we can do to make it slightly more useful. Drink Pairing: Truth Serum (or gin, whichever you have on hand) Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
In this episode, Kate and Laura discuss how to take the feedback you asked for a little more graciously and maybe even benefit from it. Do not, in any way, think that this is a request for you to give feedback to Kate and/or Laura. Yes, we understand the irony, and no, we're not having any of it. Drink Pairing: Your Tears, probably Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
In this episode, Kate and Laura talk about the dismissive bastards who claim "users don't know what they want." In a surprising twist, they also give some decent advice about how to think about getting user feedback. Drink Pairing: Mimosas Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
In this episode, Kate and Laura discuss the one weird trick to doing better customer interviews. Ok, it's not really a trick, but it is weird. When conducting research, interviewers often behave very differently than they would normally, creating a sort of Research Persona or Character that helps them build rapport quickly and get participants to open up and share. Drink Pairing: Wassail (that's a thing, right?) Music: The Future Soon by Jonathan Coulton
