Episodes
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"What we're aiming to do is answer the question, what do UX practitioners need to know about AI? I want to reduce people's anxiety in the same way that my anxiety has been reduced by confronting the the subject...I'd really like people to leave the conference feeling less anxious about [AI] than they felt coming in."
Danny Hope, Curator of the UX Brighton conference, talks to me about Artificial Intelligence in UX - the theme of this year's event, the speakers those attending will be hearing from and what the audience can hope to take away to try out in their own work.
View the transcript.
Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.
Mike Green
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Join me chatting with author and cultural expert Chui Chui Tan around researching and designing products for international markets. What do design teams need to consider to ensure the best cultural fit and customer uptake for what they're building? How can they better understand local market differences? What potential pitfalls should they watch out for?
You can find out more about Chui Chui's most recent book here.
You can also read the full Transcript.
Thanks for listening.
Mike Green
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Missing episodes?
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"The only reason I sometimes shy away from the words 'qual' and 'quant' is I think they present this dichotomy that is not the full truth, right?
I think people then start to think 'qual' means talking to people about fuzzy feelings and doing personas, whereas 'quant' means you sit on billions of data points and you put graphs and fancy charts out and you speak in ways that normal people don't understand.
Whereas in reality, obviously, it's a continuum, right? That's why I prefer to talk about the whole dimension as product insights, because we're all trying, at the end of the day, to understand people so that we can make better decisions for our product and for our businesses."
Join me chatting with Ben Dressler around all things quantitative research: how it differs from qualitative research, when to use it, what to watch out for, how to run A/B tests, how and why to use surveys, how to think about confidence intervals, the perennial dangers of correlation vs. causation, and lots more besides...
I hope you find something thought-provoking here to consider in the context of your own work.
You can also read the full Transcript.
Thanks for listening.
Mike Green
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Tina Lickova is an independent researcher and service designer. She is also host of the excellent UX Research Geeks podcast.
In this honest and candid episode, Tina talks with me from personal experience about professional burnout working as a researcher: what it is, how to acknowledge it, what the warning signs are and how to take action. We also discuss some positive strategies to adopt to minimise the risk of it in the first place.
I hope you find something thought-provoking here to consider in the context of your own life and work.
You can also read the full Transcript.
Thanks for listening.
Mike Green
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Steve Portigal is an experienced user researcher who helps organisations to build more mature user research practices. He is principal of Portigal Consulting, and the author of two books: Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries and Interviewing Users, the second edition of which is now out. He’s also the host of the Dollars to Donuts podcast.
In this episode, Steve and I discuss the latest edition of his classic book 'Interviewing Users'.
Some highlights from this episode:
> 05:20 - How user research has evolved in the last 10 years and the genesis of the second edition of the book
> 11:00 - Remote research and the impact of COVID
> 17:22 - Developments in user research tooling
> 23:40 - Emergence of ResearchOps as a career path
> 31:40 - Navigating challenges in running user research
> 39:37 - Steve’s own key takeaway from the book
> 45:11 - Feedback loops and ways of building rapport with users
> 50:35 - The joy and privilege of researching and learning
> 57:25 - The impact of AI on research as a discipline
I hope you will find plenty here that's thought-provoking to consider in the context of your own work :)
And there's a SPECIAL LISTENER OFFER: until 4 March 2024, you can purchase Steve's new book with a 20% discount here with the code understandingusers. :)
Thanks for listening!
Mike Green @ Researchable
FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
HIGHLIGHTS TRANSCRIPT
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Julian Della Mattia is a UX Researcher specialised in Research Operations. He helps companies of all sizes build their user research practices from scratch.
In this episode he explains the ResearchOps function, when and how it can add value to product teams, and he shares his experiences of advising and working with organisations across Europe to elevate how they gather and action insights from their users.
I hope you find something thought-provoking here to consider in the context of your own work.
Thanks for listening.
Mike Green
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This time I'm chatting with some of the attendees at UX Brighton 2023, themed around Creativity and Innovation. They share with me why they came to this year's event and what they have taken away from it.
I hope you enjoy the episode and find something thought-provoking here to consider in your own work.
Thanks for listening.
Mike Green
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"I think because of the gravitas of what AI can bring to the world in terms of social impact leaders have to be extremely humble...As a leader in this space, you have to kind of understand that you're going to have to hire people who aren't the typical employee. The other thing too - it's very important to the leadership team to hire a diverse group of people and I really mean diverse, because if you're designing for essentially the whole world, you need to represent the whole world on the team."
Chris Reardon was formerly Head of Product Design, Responsible AI @ Meta and is now Design Director - AI Envisioning Studio, Technology & Society @ Google.
This is the final part of a series of four revealing AI-related conversations with Chris as he discusses his own career journey at the cutting edge of designing artificial intelligence products, his views on the impact of AI on design as a discipline, the roles and responsibilities that will be needed for design leadership in AI, how AI might influence individual design careers.
In this episode we talk about the role of leadership in AI product teams.
Chris is hugely experienced, impassioned and persuasive, and he shares plenty of nuggets of his hard-won wisdom that anyone in any organisation considering working in the AI space should reflect upon.
I hope you enjoy this episode and find something thought-provoking to consider in the context of your own work.
Thanks for listening.
Mike Green
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“If I think about five years from now, I would say that UX as we know it today will be radically changed....Things that deal with rote tasks are definitely going to be something of the domain of AI in the future.... [but] I think the space that we [as designers] work in is around intuition, empathy, emotion, and that's much much harder for AI. You know, it's a scary time for everyone, right? Everybody's a little nervous. But the reality is that a lot of what we do already is still very valuable in this future world that's already here."
Chris Reardon was formerly Head of Product Design, Responsible AI @ Meta and is now Design Director - AI Envisioning Studio, Technology & Society @ Google.
This is the third of my series of four revealing AI-related conversations with Chris as he discusses his own career journey at the cutting edge of designing artificial intelligence products, his views on the impact of AI on design as a discipline, the roles and responsibilities that will be needed for design leadership in AI, how AI might influence individual design careers.
In this episode we talk about career planning for designers and researchers working on AI-based products.
Chris is hugely experienced, impassioned and persuasive, and he shares plenty of nuggets of his hard-won wisdom that anyone in any organisation considering working in the AI space should reflect upon.
I hope you enjoy this episode and find something thought-provoking to consider in the context of your own work.
Thanks for listening.
Mike Green
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“Design is really going to be the practice of ethics in AI...Designers bring into reality these esoteric concepts, and so while an ethicist sitting next to you is helpful in the sense that they can help you think about these things, the designer's role is actually going to be how you implement those things..
We will also start to build UX AI tools that will help us iterate at a much larger scale...So imagine being able to create numerous scenarios where you can test your model against them in real-time, iterate and fine-tune...”
Chris Reardon was formerly Head of Product Design, Responsible AI @ Meta and is now Design Director - AI Envisioning Studio, Technology & Society @ Google.
This is the second of my short series of revealing AI-related conversations with Chris as he discusses his own career journey at the cutting edge of designing artificial intelligence products, his views on the impact of AI on design as a discipline, the roles and responsibilities that will be needed for design leadership in AI, how AI might influence individual design careers.
In this episode we talk about the importance of ethics in building AI-based products and services.
Chris is hugely experienced, impassioned and persuasive, and he shares plenty of nuggets of his hard-won wisdom that anyone in any organisation considering working in the AI space should reflect upon.
I hope you enjoy this episode and find something thought-provoking to consider in the context of your own work.
Thanks for listening.
Mike Green
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“I think the biggest thing is that with AI, you are definitely going to create net new roles in the in the team that you had never thought of before. And there's not going to be a playbook for that, and the HR person and the recruiter is not going to know how to help you with that and you're gonna have to figure those things out together as a team…Design will be less about UI in the future and more about different methods of communicating…”
Chris Reardon was formerly Head of Product Design, Responsible AI @ Meta and is now Design Director - AI Envisioning Studio, Technology & Society @ Google.
Over the course of the next four episodes I talk to Chris about his own career journey at the cutting edge of designing artificial intelligence products, his views on the impact of AI on design as a discipline, the roles and responsibilities that will be needed for design leadership in AI, how AI might influence individual design careers.
In this episode we talk about his career and how AI is likely to impact the makeup of product teams.
Chris is hugely experienced, impassioned and persuasive, and he shares plenty of nuggets of his hard-won wisdom that anyone in any organisation considering working in the AI space should reflect upon.
I hope you enjoy this episode and find something thought-provoking to consider in the context of your own work.
Thanks for listening.
Mike Green
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"Something that's colliding is definitely that sense of artificial intelligence and particularly generative AI, and what that means for creativity... I'm much more in the kind of William Morris view of the world, I think we need more thinkers and crafts people. And my positive view of AI is that it will get rid of some of the drudge work we do and it will free up time for people to be more imaginative and more creative. As a result of that we can spend more time with the people we're trying to solve problems for, coming up with more imaginative ideas.."
This time I'm chatting with some of the speakers at UX Brighton 2023 in advance of the event. They talk to me about what insights they plan to share, what they hope the audience will take away and share their views how creativity, innovation and artificial intelligence are starting to intersect.
My thanks to:
Elizabeth Churchill
Alice Helliwell
Stefanie Posavec
Chris How
Tricky Bassett
and Tom Kerwin.
Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoy the episode and find something thought-provoking here to consider in your own work.
Mike Green
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"Speak to your users directly and ask them specifically what their challenges are. That was that was probably the biggest takeaway [from today] for me.... I think, certainly in my [small business] sector we tend to assume rather than ask, and I think asking directly what users have feedback about, or reviewing how they how they use services or how they don't use services specifically, is really [important]."
"I'm just really enjoying being around other digital professionals and being able to talk about a lot of the things that are affecting us in our industry."
This is the final episode in a three part mini-series about the Lion+Mason event at the Leeds Digital Festival 2023.
Recorded on the day, you'll hear from a variety of event attendees as they they reflect on what they learned from the sessions and what practical tips they plan to take away to use in their own organisations.
My thanks to all the attendees who agreed to share their thoughts, and to Alisha Moran and Jana Petrova from Lion+Mason for doing the recordings for me.
Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.
Mike Green
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Danny Hope is a Product Strategy Consultant and Founder of UX Brighton, a long-running annual one-day UX conference on the south coast of the UK.
The theme of this year's event is Creativity and Innovation, and in this episode I chat with Danny about the kinds of talks attendees can expect and what learnings they can hope to take away to try out in their own work.
"I've seen time and again the damaging effects on teams where innovation and creativity aren't recognised as important. I've seen the limiting effect that that can have on the quality of the output of those teams - and to some extent the happiness of the individuals contributing. Creativity and innovation are such important concepts, but the terms are so misused. I'd like to ask people to be able to talk about these things comfortably, and with a kind of sound framework of understanding..."
Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.
Mike Green
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"AI has existed for a long time. It's built into so many design tools that we use these days...It's just a case of exploring it, seeing what works for you and what doesn't - and obviously, getting a good understanding of, is this helping me or is it hindering me?"
"In terms of AI, I don't know (and I don't want to know) how AI is going to affect people who write about funerals. Because you cannot replace that human empathy...I'm one of those content designers who doesn't like it and who really believes in the skill and the experience that we bring to our profession."
"We're still learning how to use AI. And I think it's going to be really, really key to be able to work alongside it and just kind of understand how we can utilise these features to our benefit."
The Leeds Digital Festival is returning this year: an open, collaborative celebration of digital culture in all its forms held across the city.
In association with Leeds Building Society local digital design agency Lion+Mason is hosting an informal in-person event to hear from leading specialists discussing some of the key digital challenges facing businesses - including how AI holds immense potential for enhancing product capabilities and how it can directly impact user experience.
In this episode I chat with the speakers about what they will be covering in their talks and what relevant, practical tips they hope attendees can take away to use in their own organisations.
The speakers are:
Joe Deadman Senior Creative UX Designer at Leeds Building Society
Marc Bowers User Experience Consultant at LION+MASON
Helen Lawson Lead content designer at Co-op
and Me!
More details about the event are here.
If you wish to attend, you can register here.
The blog post about AI which Marc mentions is here.
Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.
Mike Green
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Andy Curry is Managing Director of product and design agency Lion+Mason.
L+M are returning this year to the Leeds Digital Festival, an open, collaborative celebration of digital culture in all its forms held across the city.
In association with Leeds Building Society, L+M are hosting an informal in-person event to hear from leading specialists discussing some of the key digital challenges facing businesses - including how AI holds immense potential for enhancing product capabilities and how it can directly impact user experience.
In this episode I chat with Andy in advance of the event about the kinds of talks attendees can expect and what learnings they can hope to take away.
More details about the event are here.
You can register for the event here.
Listen to Andy's previous appearance on this podcast here, where he chats engagingly about his career in UX and his work.
Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.
Mike Green
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"We're not going to be replaced by AI, but we might be replaced by humans who know how to use AI."
This is the final part in a series of bite-sized conversations with UX design and research leaders, recorded live at the UXDX conference in New York in May 2023.
In this episode Chrissy Fleming, an independent product management consultant and Erin Eisinger, Founder and CEO of design studio Four By North, share their views on product management, approaching design problems in a user-centric way, and how a new generation of AI-based tooling could help us unlock the way product teams plan and conduct research with their users.
They also reflect on the role of AI in the design space, where we are with it and where we may be going...
Thanks for listening, and enjoy the episode.
Mike Green
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Claire White is Product Design Lead @ Exscientia, an AI-based Pharmatech research company.
She shares with me her experiences of moving into the rapidly-evolving world of AI-powered Pharmatech, her views on the importance of rapid, ongoing prototyping when designing products, and why User-Centred Design is not just UX Design.
Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.
Mike Green
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"This is an arms race and no one's taking their foot off the gas..."
This is the sixth in a series of bite-sized conversations with UX design and research leaders discussing a range of topics, recorded live at the UXDX conference in New York in May 2023.
In this episode John Crouch of Entropik shares his views on how a new generation of AI-based tooling can help us powerfully rethink, democratise and unlock the way product teams plan and conduct research with their users.
He also reflects on the role of AI more generally in the design space and beyond: where we are with it and where we may be going.....
Thanks for listening, and enjoy the episode.
Mike Green
This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.
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“What would I say is, first of all, be kind to yourself because that stuff is hard...It’s not a case of just going in and dialling it in every day...You require a deeper set of resilient skills to be able to survive in those kinds of places, especially if you've come from a place where design is accepted, that could be from university or academia, whatever it is...You have to really figure out where the opportunities lie for you to play, to deliver value to both the customer and the business…To start it off, I would really try and identify the least amount of effort that you can actually do to get the most amount of reward for the business..”
Gerry Scullion is a long-standing Podcast Host, and Founder of The Human Centered Design Network & the Makers & Doers School.
He shares with me his fascinating journey into UX and Service Design during the early years of the 'Celtic Tiger', his advice on building individual resilience to overcome the challenges inherent in digitally immature organisations, and the need for us all to be mindful of not washing away years of hard-won UX expertise in the current goldrush for all things 'AI'.
Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.
Mike Green
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