Vanessa Devine is a UX Designer and Project Manager at Cheeky Monkey Media in British Columbia, Canada.  In this episode of Understanding Users, my first full-length interview with an international guest, Vanessa tells me about starting her UX career during a pandemic, the thrill of watching your own projects develop and actually go live, and the power of getting clients emotionally invested in the UX process. We also discuss the UX scene in Canada, her frustration that so many UX books seem to retread familiar themes, and how she’s itching to know where UX goes from here.  Finally, she plays my 3 card challenge to share her favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a trend she sees (or would like to see) in the future.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.

In the final part of this 4 episode mini-series covering the fully-remote UCD Gathering 2022, I chat with some of the conference attendees to hear more about why they came to the event, what they enjoyed about it and what they will take away from the busy 2 days of online sessions.  I also ask them about the role they feel that user-centred design can and should play in ensuring the maximum impact on their product teams and end users. These conversations are with experienced UX practitioners and newbies alike, and even if you didn’t attend the event I hope you’ll find something useful here to consider in your own work. Within this short episode there isn’t time to cover all the fantastic talks and workshops that ran at UCD Gathering 2022, but I hope it gives you a flavour of what was on offer and what those who attended took away from the event. Many thanks to my guests: - Stéphanie Krus - Jenny Björkman - Barbara Mertlova - Neil Turner - Morgane Tanguy - Sarah Hill - Emma Brute Thanks for listening, and enjoy the episode.   Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.

This is the final of a three-part episode in which I chat with the keynote speakers at the fully-remote 2022 User-Centred Design (UCD) Gathering conference.  Eriol Fox is a Human Rights Centred Designer, who is currently Senior Designer @ Simply Secure and a PhD researcher @ Newcastle University.  Eriol tells me about their career to date, the way they work, and outlines their keynote address, which is entitled "Centring human rights and trauma in design". Finally, Eriol plays my 3 card challenge to share their favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a trend they hope to see more of in the future. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.    Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.   [Please note: Access to the UCD Gathering conference site will be available for 30 days after the event for registered attendees, after which time conference materials and keynote talks will only be available via a password protected Vimeo playlist.] 

This is the second of a three-part episode in which I chat with the keynote speakers at the fully-remote 2022 User-Centred Design (UCD) Gathering conference.  Ben Holliday is Chief Designer at TPXimpact. Daniel Tuitt is a freelance Service Design Lead.  Ben and Daniel talk to me about their careers to date, the way they work, and they both share more details of their keynote addresses. Ben's keynote is entitled: "Multiplied by design", and Daniel's keynote is: "How complexity is shaping the world of designing good services". They also play my 3 card challenge to share their favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a trend they see now or in the future.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.    Mike Green   This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.   [Please note: Access to the UCD Gathering conference site will be available for 30 days after the event for registered attendees, after which time conference materials and keynote talks will only be available via a password protected Vimeo playlist.] 

Welcome to the first of this three-part episode of Understanding Users, where I'm talking to the keynote speakers at the third and fully-remote 2022 User-Centred Design (UCD) Gathering conference. I talk first with Jen Thomson, who is the Programme Committee Chair for UCD Gathering 2022.  She introduces the conference and the four inspiring keynote speakers who I'm speaking to over the next few episodes of Understanding Users. She also discusses what attendees can expect from the conference in the way of engaging tutorials, live sessions, interactive group sessions, speaker Q&A - plus an all-important hallway track where people can meet and share experiences with fellow practitioners. Then I talk with the first keynote speaker, Tim Yeo, who is Design Director @ IBM and who coaches introverts to have impact and influence without pretending to be extroverts at The Quiet Achiever.  Tim tell me about his career to date, the way he works, and shares more details about his keynote address at UCD Gathering 2022, entitled: "Design leadership for introverts". Finally, Tim plays my 3 card challenge to share his favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a trend he hopes to see more of in the future.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX. [Please note: Access to the UCD Gathering conference site will be available for 30 days after the event for registered attendees, after which time conference materials and keynote talks will only be available via a password protected Vimeo playlist.] 

Jackie Brownlee is a freelance Service Designer.  In this episode of Understanding Users, Jackie discusses the importance of documenting what you're learning in the most impactful format to make sure it's seen by everyone both in and beyond a product team, and also remembering that not every user-centred problem can be solved immediately (or indeed at all) by a design team.  She shares her thoughts on the merits of UK government digital service standards, both in creating usable constraints to design against and in holding services teams publicly to account.  And she talks of the pleasure of going to work when you know what you are doing is measurably helping people in their lives.  Finally, she plays my 3 card challenge to share her favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a trend she hopes to see (or not see!) more of in the future.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.

Scott Byrne-Fraser is Chief Metaverse Officer and Technical Co-founder at Hundo.  In this episode of Understanding Users, Scott shares his views on how UX teams can have the most impact within their organisations by creating compelling narratives, based on solid research data, and getting them in front of the right stakeholders. He talks of the curiosity and empathy so crucial to the discipline, the messiness of real-world UX, and the need to stay comfortable being wrong about what you may think you know at the outset of a project. And of course we discuss the Metaverse: what it is, what it could be, the barriers to entry, and what skills UX teams might need to develop in the new paradigm of Web3.  Finally, he plays my 3 card challenge to share his favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a UX trend he sees (for better or worse) at the moment.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.

So I thought I’d do something a little different for this episode...  After 2 years of lockdowns and remote working, I actually went to a face-to-face UX event! Yes, I hopped in my car and drove down to UXCampBrighton on the south coast of the UK. It styles itself as an ‘unconference for people interested in all areas of user experience, from  interaction design to information architecture, user research to UX writing and everything in between.’  It’s the first time I’d been to this event, and I really enjoyed myself. There was a great turnout, some very thought-provoking sessions and a really positive, supportive atmosphere throughout the day. Given the plethora of speakers and the variety of topics on offer, I wasn’t able to attend every session. What I did do though was persuade 5 attendees, all of who were giving talks on the day, to kindly give me 10 minutes of their time to chat about their own careers and routes into UX, their day-to-day work and the UX landscape as they see it.  And of course, I asked each of them played my ‘3 card challenge’ to share their favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a UX trend they see - or would like to see (or not see) - in the future... ;)  So a big thank you to:  Stephen Tomlinson @ Inviqa Laura Yarrow @ HM Land Registry Chris Myhill @ Pixelfridge Alex Baxevanis @ Reason Al Power @ Dabapps There’s a bit of background noise as these were recorded live on the day wherever we could find a quiet corner, but I hope you’ll agree that this only adds to the atmosphere. And as you’ll hear from my guests, there was palpable delight in actually being able to attend events like this in person after so long! Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.

Tim Blass is Experience Design Lead at MMT Digital.  In this episode of Understanding Users, Tim talks of the ‘aha’ moments of the experience design process and the power of continually asking ‘why?’ to ensure you get to the root cause of the problem you’re designing for. He talks of the need for designers to continually stay curious and empathetic in their work, and reflects on the surprising prevalence of imposter syndrome within the design community. He also considers the constraints that remote working places on those facilitating design workshops, particularly when trying to read a room full of participants who can’t interact physically and often won’t even turn their cameras on… Finally, he plays my 3 card challenge to share his favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a trend he hopes to see in the future.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.

Ben Watson is a freelance UX designer currently working with the London Borough of Sutton. In this episode of Understanding Users, Ben shares his view of how technology should never be an end in itself, but rather a means of allowing users to achieve their desired goals. He portrays a key part of his role as being a facilitator of the flow of information between the user and the product team, and talks of the vital importance of dispersed development and UX teams being joined up as a product evolves.   He also cautions against the danger of allowing research participants to ‘invent problems’ during the usability testing phase, and speaks of his firm belief that designers should always understand and keep in mind the medium they’re designing for, and its limitations.   Finally, he plays my 3 card challenge to share his favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a trend he hopes to see in the future.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.

Frances Maxwell is a Software Engineer at Skyscanner. In this episode of Understanding Users, Frances shares her fascinating career path - including early stints at a violin dealer and even a Bollywood streaming site - and explains how and why her ‘itch to build things’ helped her make the pivot from senior UX roles into retraining as a software engineer. She talks of her love of code, the dangers of organisations treating UX as a separate silo and the importance of entire product teams normalising interaction with their users throughout the design and development process. We also ponder on the frustrating lack of diversity in the tech world, and the risk of unconscious bias potentially creeping into product design as a result.  Finally, she plays my 3 card challenge to share her favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a trend she hopes to see in the future.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.

Nick Grantham is Associate Director at Zebra People. In this episode of Understanding Users, Nick talks about the incredible buoyancy of the current booming UX job market and the ever-growing demand for both product and service design roles. We discuss the importance of ‘going with your gut’ when job hunting, the dangers of being too purist in real-world UX projects, and we touch on some of the challenges posed to both contractors and recruiters by IR35 legislation. We also reminisce about conducting experiments to blow up magnesium in chemistry classes at school, and their surprising parallels with UX portfolios… He also plays my 3 card challenge to share his favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a trend he sees in the future.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.

Andy Curry is UX Director at Lion+Mason. In this episode of Understanding Users, Andy reminds us of the power of storytelling as one of UX’s most underrated skills and how the basics of observing users to help inform design decisions in essence dates back thousands of years. We discuss the impact of global lockdowns on carrying out ethnographic research, and of the epiphany moments of real insight he and his team gained previously from shadowing users during field visits: even going as far, in one case, as hoovering the carpet in an elderly user’s home!   He also plays my 3 card challenge to share his favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a trend he sees in the future.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX. If you'd like to help support the podcast, you can donate a very modest sum by buying me a virtual coffee. That would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!   

Katie John is Head of User Research at Caution Your Blast.  In this episode of Understanding Users, Katie shares her strong belief in technology as a force for good, and she talks about the importance of early generative research when designing digital services.  She discusses how good user researchers should not be only fascinated by other people and their behaviour, but also self-reflective. Crucially, they also need to be great communicators and comfortable with uncertainty...  Finally she plays my 3 card challenge to share her favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a trend he sees in the future.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode. Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX. If you'd like to help support the podcast, you can donate a very modest sum by buying me a virtual coffee. That would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!   

Gavin Adam is a Product Lead at NHS Digital.  In this episode of Understanding Users, Gav shares the collaborative techniques and product leadership experience he uses when building services for organisations like NHS Digital and HMRC to solve problems for their users.  He discusses how experiencing agile product delivery in government opened his eyes to a better way of building digital products; the importance of digital service assessment within government; and the value that ‘hyperspecialists’ like UX designers and user researchers can bring to multi-disciplinary product teams.  He also plays my 3 card challenge to share his favourite UX tool, favoured technique and a trend he sees in the future.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.   Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX. If you'd like to help support the podcast, you can donate a very modest sum by buying me a virtual coffee. That would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!   

Dr. Jon Sykes is Head of Service Standards at National Highways. In this third episode of Understanding Users, Jon and I chat about his fascinating and diverse career in service design; the power of collaborative design workshops, and the real benefit that using evidence-based user insight can bring when you’re trying to win round sceptical project stakeholders.   He also plays my 3 card challenge to share his favourite UX tool, favoured technique and a trend he sees in the future.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.