Design systems or design languages are a holistic set of instructions that help Designers and product teams understand how to build their products, and why to build them that way. This is more than your bog standard pattern library or style guide and is intended to give direction to your design. They come in all shapes and sizes so join Chris and Carla and special recruit Liam Harberd as they untangle these jargon filled beasts....
Design thinking is a methodology that works anywhere. You don’t have to be designing an app or website to apply it to problem solving both in business and in your every day life. Chris and Carla talk about how you can apply this powerful set of tools anywhere, any time.
Supposedly 1 in 3 of us are introverts. In the world of UX, Design and Research you are often expected to talk in front of large groups of people, run workshops and talk to users – typically things you might associate with extrovert personality traits. However, it is possible to do these things as an introvert and maybe even enjoy them! If you prefer a book and a hot chocolate to a crazy party but want to overcome those nerves then join Chris and Carla on this little chat boat to find out how....
#IamRemarkable is a Google initiative empowering women and underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond. Carla speaks to Aggie Dawborn and Sofia Corrêa de Sá Stratton about the background to I am Remarkable and the reasons for its existence. You can learn more at #IamRemarkable .
We speak to Steven Blyth – Designer at one of the main fintech challenger banks in the UK – Starling Bank. Starling is an app based bank and is also moving rapidly into the business account space. We chat to Steven about how they do design at Starling, branded interactions and how to work be Zen at work.
What should designers keep in mind when they are releasing things into the world? Is what you’re letting lose going to benefit humanity? Is it going to screw them over? Why is just designing for 80% of users a bad idea? All this and more from a freezing cold rooftop at Google HQ.
What is a proposition? How do you identify a proposition? How do you test a proposition? Great questions everyone! Let’s do an episode on just that.
Nobody likes being criticised. But as a Designer, getting critiques is an essential way to help power up your designs and your thinking to the next level. We talk about what makes a healthy and productive design critique and what you can do to improve how you handle feedback.
What do we mean when we talk about ‘data’? How can you use data and insights to create design hypotheses that allow you to create and test your designs effectively and help remove bias? What did we get up to at Christmas?
How do you design when you have a user-base of millions? Chris and Carla speak to Brendan Kearns about Product Design at Google, Twitter and his work with startups.
We get to grips with the Stock market with James Storer – Head of Design at Freetrade . Freetrade is a new London-based startup aiming to disrupt the stock market old guard and make investing affordable and understandable to the masses. We talk about scaling, product approach, designing inclusively and the problem with the title ‘Junior Designer’.
We speak to Dan Harvey from The Dots about the challenges facing our design community now and in the future. Brexit, diversity, the glass ceiling – what does it all mean for us as designers? You can also join Chris and Carla on a nice walk around London.
It’s our birthday and we’ll cry if we want to. Over the past year we have pumped out 27 episodes, covered topics from UX portfolios to Jobs to be done , interviewed some amazing Designers and Researchers and had a whole lot of fun doing it. In fact, we’ve had so much fun we’re willing to give away a free Design Untangled t-shirt! Listen for more details on how to enter....
Carla speaks to Kate Crowley – Agency Head of Google Marketing Platform about GDPR, ePrivacy and the impact this legislation has on companies and designers.
Chris and Carla speak to Zander Brade – Product Designer at Monzo Bank. Monzo is a startup challenger bank here in the UK offering a mainly app based service and has been built from the ground up. They are known for their transparency, innovative features and mission to make banking better. You can also check out Chris’ interview with Zander from a year ago over on The UX Review....
Carla talks to Liam Harberd, Design Director at Deloitte Digital (4D’s) about visual design, how it interacts with UX and as usual what all the different job titles mean. They also talked about UI vs UX without mentioning that stupid tomato ketchup graphic. Chris also gets mentioned extensively. Fun fact: Liam designed the Design Untangled logo!
Carla chats to Calum Forsyth about experience strategy. What is experience strategy? How does it differ to UX Design? How do you set KPIs for experience? Why are there so many trains and who is texting?
Chris speaks to Josh Harris, Product Manager at Dog Buddy. We chat about the difference between a Product Owner and a Product Manager, what they do, who they talk to and why they are important in the project delivery process. We also talk about drills for the second time in two episodes.
What is a job to be done? How is it different to a user need? What size hole do you want? Chris speaks to Liz Kessick, Senior Researcher about how you can use Jobs to be done as part of your UX toolkit.
As Chris and Carla didn’t prepare properly for this episode we are going to go through and answer some of your questions from the uxmentor.me Slack channel and call it a special. It’s also a day late – enjoy!
What is the mysterious process between doing user research and then doing something with it? Hint – it’s called user research analysis. Carla, Chris and special guest Christina Li talk about note-taking, affinity mapping and sh*t sandwiches.
Users have needs. They are the foundation of everything you do as a UX Designer and should be taken seriously. But how do you uncover user needs and what do you do with them once you’ve found them? What do you do when the business poops on them?
No we aren’t talking about job interviews this time, we are talking about how to extract juicy insights out of your users and stakeholders. We have tips for interviewing when using different research methodologies, how to deal with different personalities in your research sessions and finding out why Carla looks like a bear.
Prototyping is the process you go through to get the design in front of real users. Paper prototyping, Axure mockups, Invision, Sketch – there are a hundred ways to get an output you can use in user research. But which is best and what should you use when? There’s only one way to find out..
UX portfolios are how you sell yourself to potential employers. But what goes into a portfolio? How much UX work should you show? What format should a UX portfolio be in? Chris and Carla pass on some tips from both sides of the fence as hirers and candidates which should help you craft a winning story and land that dream UX job.
Guerilla user testing is the art of approaching complete strangers and getting them to test your designs out in the real world. It can be scary, but with the right preparation, it doesn’t have to be a shot in the dark at getting the insight you need. Chris and Carla pass on their hard won tips from the field.
At some point before getting a UX job you usually have to have a job interview. The format of UX job interviews can vary a lot. Some contain design challenges, most will want to explore your design thinking and process and some just involve having a coffee. Chris and Carla talk through some of their experiences from being both interviewers and candidates and pass on some tips to help you prepare.
What is a design workshop? Who should be in it? How do you tell people to be quiet without making them hate you? How do you achieve the right outcomes? The answer to these questions and many more in unlucky (and slightly late) episode 13 of Design Untangled.
We’ve talked about content first , now it’s time to talk about content strategy. Carla once again channels her inner Jeremy Paxman to talk to Emma Hoddinot who is Associate Content Strategy Director at SapientRazorfish.
Carla takes to the streets to talk to Kieron Leppard, Group Creative Director at Huge about the do’s and do nots of Design Principles. You will learn about: What makes a good design principle What makes a bad design principle How you use design principles in your organisation
