Service literacy with Lou Downe
S03E07 (#335). Lou Downe, author of Good Services and former director of design for the UK government. We sat down with Lou and asked—Where is service design going wrong, and are we even doing service design?
UX Podcast
UXPodcast™ is a twice-monthly digital design podcast - hosted by James Royal-Lawson and Per Axbom - sharing insights about business, technology and people since 2011. We want to push the boundaries of how user experience is perceived and boost your confidence in the work you do.
Episodes
Defending against evil with Aarathi Krishnan
S03E06 (#334). Aarathi Krishnan is an international aid expert, specialising in humanitarian futures and strategic foresight. In a world where the sets of rules that have governed us as humanity are rapidly changing, how will we know if the solutions that we are designing now are going to be fit for purpose?
Fail early
S03E05 (#333). A linkshow. James and Per discuss two articles they’ve stumbled on. This time we feature articles about things that slow down your website’s experience and why you can’t do anything about it plus the concept of “failing early” but not in a “failing fast” startup way.
More systems thinking with Sheryl Cababa
S03E04 (#332). Two years on from when Sheryl Cababa released Closing The Loop, her book about systems thinking for designers, we hear Sheryls reflections and insights about what she’s learnt during that time and we grapple with the challenge of applying system thinking as designers “out of the box”.
Murky middle with Christina Joy Whittaker
S03E03 (#331). Your destiny isn’t tied to a role. You were a person before your role. Leadership expert and strategist Christina Joy Whittaker talks to us about the murky middle, a phenomenon rooted in misalignment and purpose and quite distinct from imposter syndrome which is rooted in confidence.
The Great Amazon Heist with Oobah Butler
S03E02 (#330). Oobah Butler, journalist and filmmaker known for his prankster antics, joined us to discuss his work, including “The Great Amazon Heist” and “The Shed at Dulwich”. Oobah highlights the relative ease of manipulating algorithms, such as TripAdvisor and Amazon, to boost fake products’ rankings.
Dark mode
S03E01 (#329). In the first episode of Season Three, James Royal-Lawson and Per Axbom discuss the concept of dark mode, its benefits, and its implications for UX design, user experience and accessibility. We delve into the European accessibility directive, and the EN 301 549 European standard which includes a section on user preferences, requiring user...
A heartfelt update from James and Per ❤️
This is an update to let you know that we are delaying the start of season 3 as Per is soon to have a heart operation. We’re aiming now to start Season 3 in the new year, once Per has recovered.
Season 3 update from James and Per
This is an update to let you know that we have reached the end of Season 2, a sensible 10-month season this time rather than more than 10 years! It’s time for us to take a short break before we kick off Season 3 on August 9th.
Interviewing users with Steve Portigal
S02E18 (#328). Over ten years have passed since the first edition of Steve Portigal’s legendary book Interviewing Users was released. Together with Steve, we reflect on how user research has evolved during the past decade, and how the importance of user research in order to understand people and their needs is still crucial.
The President of Iceland
S02E17 (#327). A linkshow. James and Per discuss two articles they’ve stumbled on. This time we feature articles about how certain features of e-commerce sites have to go, and how a design mistake impacted civic engagement in Iceland.
Strategic impact with Nathan Shedroff
S02E16 (#326). Nathan Shedroff, author of A Whole New Strategy, talks to us about how we as designers can have strategic impact. Through an expanded understanding of the context you are working within, and building both situational and operational awareness, we can bridge the gap between design and business.
The rule of three with Ellen Lupton
S02E15 (#325). Ellen Lupton, designer, educator and author, helps us stock up our toolbox of design principles and methods, starting off with storytelling in visual design, and the “rule of three” before we move on to linear and non-linear experiences. Will we follow the rule of three and have a third topic?
Sketching workshop with Eva-Lotta Lamm
S02E14 (#324). A slightly different episode to usual. Eva-Lotta Lamm joins us to hold a visual thinking sketching workshop – Eva-Lotta, James and Per have fun going through three sketching exercises set by Eva-Lotta that can help you with your creativity, team-building, visual thinking and much more.
Change leadership with Maria Giudice
S02E13 (#323). We are in the age of design-driven change. Maria Giudice joins us to talk about being changemakers – How we can design change in a complex world. We start by looking at the history of change management and how we are now firmly in the age of design-driven change and that requires change...
The right question with Meena Kothandaraman
S02E12 (#322). Asking the right question and wanting to get a good response. How do we handle that as researchers? Meena Kothandaraman joins us to talk about our curiosity as researchers, the different lenses of inquiry we can apply from exploratory to validation. We talk as well about being curious and the skill of getting...
Building trust in AI with Carol Smith
S02E11 (#321). How do we know when to trust a system? Carol Smith leads the Trust Lab team at Carnagie Mellon Universty, where they conduct research into making trustworthy, human centered, and responsible AI systems. Our conversation highlights the importance of guardrails and ethical considerations in AI development, as well as to ask the right...
Digital Ownership with David Dylan Thomas
S02E10 (#320). What does it mean to own something? We talk with David about the concept of ownership, going beyond the legal definition and into the wider concept of ownership and how digital artefacts lead us to re-think and re-evaluate some of the concepts that we have previously relied on.
Experience strategy
S02E09 (#319). A linkshow. James and Per discuss two articles that have caught their attention. The articles in this episode are about pragmatic discovery; delivering value to projects, and how UX Strategy should focus on, understand, and design, across all touchpoints, for the users – Experience strategy.
Lost history with Zoë Rose
S02E08 (#318). Zoë has been researching the history of some of the creative thinking methodologies we use as designers. In this episode she takes on a journey back to the origins of brainstorming, the double diamond, and design thinking.
Hidden dilemmas
S02E07 (#317). A slightly different linkshow featuring two articles, one by James and one by Per. The articles in this episode are about how the experience of a delayed flight highlights the wider impact of poor service design, and how the way in which you type can reveal who you are.
Designer accountability with Kim Goodwin
S02E06 (#316). Reflections and Lessons from heathcare design. Kim Goodwin has spent many years working within the healthcare industry. We discuss design principles used in healthcare and how they are transferrable across industries, as well as how designers should be more accountable.
Presenting design work with Ben Sauer
S02E05 (#315). Death by screens. Presenting high stakes design work with Ben Sauer. We talk about how presenting is an experience that needs to be designed, and we discuss some of the ways in which you can approach crafting a presentation experience and become better at communicating your design work.
Make it more so with Chris Noessel and Nathan Shedroff
S02E04 (#314). Sci-fi and AI. Over a decade on from our first chat with Chris and Nathan, after the publishing of their book Make It So – Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction, Per and James found themselves with the opportunity at UXLx to talk to Chris and Nathan again. Our conversation starts with AI...
Frugal computing
S02E03 (#313). A linkshow featuring two articles that have grabbed James and Per’s attention. The articles in this episode are about the need for low-carbon and sustainable computing and CSS media features that can be used for detecting user preferences and creating more inclusive experiences.
Get the words to work with Torrey Podmajersky
S02E02 (#312). Torrey Podmajersky, author of Strategic Writing for UX, joined us to help us get the words to work. Together with Torrey we highlight the importance of giving our work context as well as establishing a shared vocabulary.
The leader’s journey with Donna Lichaw
S02E01 (#311). Donna Lichaw takes us on another enthrawling journey in our latest podcast interview with her. This time Donna helps us understand the value of finding out your superpower and becoming a superhero. What’s all that got to do with leadership? Listen along and find out.
Season 2 update from James and Per
We’ve got an update for you about season 2 of UX podcast. After our 10-year long first season, we’re soon back for season 2. August 11th 2023 will see the first episode of the new season released.
An update from James and Per
We’ve got a little update for you about UX podcast. We’ve been publishing an episode every other Friday without fail for just over a decade since episode 33, which is absolutely insane. It’s a streak of 277 episodes. 554 weeks. We’ve quite recently actually surpassed 2.5 million downloads. What we’re going to do now is...
#310 Fudge design thinking with Anna Kirah
Power dynamics, egos, “I know best”. The ways in which we go about solving problems need to be challenged and changed. Anna Kirah joins us to help us facilitate that change and make a move from design thinking towards transdisciplinary thinking.