Understanding Users: The UX Podcast

42. How do we avoid the trap of creating endlessly homogeneous digital products?: Ian Pocock @ Transform

Ian Pocock is MD of Research & Service Design at Transform.
In this wide-ranging discussion, Ian shares his views on how product teams should always maintain a diverse outlook to avoid falling into the trap of (re)creating homogenous products; we chat about the importance of maintaining an endlessly user-centred mindset; and he shares his experiences of using Lego within workshops as a way to powerfully unlock organisational hierarchies and democratise the design process. 
Finally, he 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.
My thanks again to our sponsor Oxford Insights. 
And if you have a moment I'd love to hear your feedback on the podcast, to help me improve it. 

41. AI / UX Shorts 2: Ten minutes on...product management culture and tooling - Moshe Mikanovsky @ Bain Public

This is the second 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 Moshe Mikanovsky of Bain Public shares his thoughts on the importance of the right product management culture, and how product managers should go about choosing the tooling they use with their product teams. 
He also reflects on the role of AI in the design space: where we are with it and where we may be going.....
You can listen to Moshe's podcast here. 
 
Thanks for listening, and enjoy the episode.  
And thanks to our sponsor Oxford Insights.
Mike Green
This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.

40. AI / UX Shorts 1: Ten minutes on...creating a scalable and reusable design system - Alex Wilson @ T Rowe Price

This is the first 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 Alex Wilson of T Rowe Price shares his experiences of working with a team to create an in-house design system, and the lessons they learned along the way. 
He also reflects 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.  
And thanks to our sponsor Oxford Insights.
Mike Green
This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.

39. What can academic research tell us about the current and future state of Generative AI? - Conversations at CHI 2023 in Hamburg (Part 2)

What is generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
What aspects of generative AI are academics conducting cutting edge research currently investigating?
How can UX researchers and designers apply lessons from this research in their own work?
And should we learn to love or fear AI?
 
In the second episode from the CHI2023 Human Computer Interaction conference in Hamburg, I chat in-person with five attendees about the event, their own research, and what the future may hold for generative AI. 
There isn’t possibly time to cover the vast range great talks and sessions at CHI2023, but I hope this will give you a flavour of what was on offer and what those who attended took away from the event.
 
Many thanks to my guests:
Eva Wolfangel 
Sophie Freeman
Kiwi Dai
Jake Rigby
and Torben Volkmann
 
Thanks for listening, and enjoy the episode.  
And thanks to our sponsor Oxford Insights.
 
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!   

38. What can academic research tell us about the current and future state of Generative AI? - Conversations at CHI 2023 in Hamburg (Part 1)

What is generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
What aspects of generative AI are academics conducting cutting edge research currently investigating?
How can UX researchers and designers apply lessons from this research in their own work?
And should we learn to love or fear AI?
 
In the first of two episodes from the CHI2023 Human Computer Interaction conference in Hamburg, I chat in-person with five attendees about the event, their own research, and what the future may hold for generative AI. 
There isn’t possibly time to cover the vast range great talks and sessions at CHI2023, but I hope this will give you a flavour of what was on offer and what those who attended took away from the event.
 
Many thanks to my guests:
Elizabeth Churchill
Anna Xyghou
Kars Alfrink
Kent Lyons
and Rgee Gallega
 
Thanks for listening, and enjoy the episode.  
And thanks to our sponsor Oxford Insights.
 
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!   

37. UX podcasters in conversation: How can user research save organisations time, money and heartache? - Tina Ličková @ UX Research Geeks Podcast

Tina Ličková is a senior user researcher and strategist, and host of the UX Research Geeks podcast, where this conversation is also published. 
She originally began her career in marketing and later found her calling in User Experience. She co-founded and managed a service design studio that helped corporations as well as startups, and she has also led multidisciplinary teams, enabling them to build insight-driven products. 
This time, rather than just me asking the questions, Tina and I interview each other...about our own experiences in UX, about how and why we do what we do, about podcasting, and about the challenges of 'moving fast and breaking things' during digital transformation in organisations.
Finally, she plays my 3 card challenge to share her favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a trend she 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.
My thanks again to our sponsor Ribbon. If you'd like to learn more, visit their website or reach out to their Founder Axel Thomson directly. 
If you have a moment, I'd love to hear your feedback on the podcast to help me improve it. 
And finally, if you'd like to support the podcast in a very modest way yourself and help me continue to producing regular content of the kind you'd like to hear, buying me a virtual coffee would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!

36. Made in Kigali not California: How do you design a mobile technology solution for African users in an African context? - Peter Kariuki @ SafeMotos

Peter Kariuki is a software engineer and entrepreneur, and the co-founder of the start-up SafeMotos, a motorcycle ride-sharing solution in Rwanda. He believes that technology can transform people’s lives and help solve Africa’s most pressing problems. 
In this episode, Peter and I talk about the context of digital design in Africa, how mobile phone coverage in Rwanda affected early design decisions within the SafeMotos app, and his belief in the importance of 'going out of your way' to user test your product in context - not just in a lab - to properly understand your users.  
Finally, he plays my 3 card challenge to share his favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a trend he sees in the future. 
Peter is one of the keynote speakers at the CHI23 conference: https://chi2023.acm.org/program/keynotes/
You can find out more about Peter here: https://peterkariuki.com/
Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode. 
Mike Green
 
This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.
My thanks again to our sponsor Ribbon. If you'd like to learn more, visit their website or reach out to their Founder Axel Thomson directly. 
If you have a moment, I'd love to hear your feedback on the podcast to help me improve it. 
And finally, if you'd like to support the podcast in a very modest way yourself and help me continue to producing regular content of the kind you'd like to hear, buying me a virtual coffee would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!
 

35. Will avatars ever replace human user researchers? - Rob Symes @ Fortell.ai

Is there a way to enable a digital avatar to ask a user research questions in an exploratory or qualitative manner? One that elicits useful research insight that can be transcribed and analyzed in real time? If users are wary of the 'uncanny valley' of interacting with an avatar will they engage with it? And how smart can these things ultimately get?
Rob Symes is CEO at Fortell.ai.
In this episode he shares with me his digital career path as a serial entrepreneur and his founder journey so far with Fortell. We discuss the opportunities and risks posed by AI in trying to understand real human user motivation and needs, the resistance he's faced from some corners of the user research community, and the power of actually going out and 'sitting in the customer's shoes', despite all the benefits that remote research can bring. 
Finally, he 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.
My thanks again to our sponsor Ribbon. If you'd like to learn more, visit their website or reach out to their Founder Axel Thomson directly. 
If you have a moment, I'd love to hear your feedback on the podcast to help me improve it. 
And finally, if you'd like to support the podcast in a very modest way yourself and help me continue to producing regular content of the kind you'd like to hear, buying me a virtual coffee would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!

34. The CEO creating tooling for rapid, continuous UX research at scale - Axel Thomson @ Ribbon

Axel Thomson is the CEO and Founder of Ribbon, a platform for rapid, continuous UX research that lets organisations do user interviews and in-product surveys in real time with customers, as they are actually using that organisation's website or apps.
In this episode, Axel and I chat about his career pivot from product manager to digital start-up founder, and how the challenges he faced as a product manager recruiting the right users to research with at pace and at scale led to the genesis of Ribbon. 
We discuss his views on the future of user research, the lessons he's learned as a founder, and the importance of resisting the urge to fill awkward silence when interviewing users...
Finally, he 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.
My thanks again to our sponsor Ribbon. If you'd like to learn more, visit their website or reach out to Axel directly. 
If you have a moment, I'd love to hear your feedback on the podcast to help me improve it. 
And finally, if you'd like to support the podcast in a very modest way yourself and help me continue to produce more of the kind of content you'd like to hear, buying me a virtual coffee would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!
 
 
 
 
 

33. The Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) Expert - Ihor Sokol @ Conversion Rate Store

What's the best way to run an A/B test? How can you increase your customer conversion rate through UX research? What is funnel performance analysis? 
"If you listen to your users they will tell you what they want and then you have to be creative in.....the experience that generates value for them. This is what customer centricity is in my view - generating value so that users are willing to continue their engagement with you and continue their interaction. So qualitative analytics and UX research is what makes CRO effective..."
Ihor Sokol is Co-Founder of Conversion Rate Store, a Ukraine-based Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) agency.
Ihor is a CRO/UXO pro who has been in the CRO/UXO field for almost a decade. He co-founded a performance-based CRO agency ConversionRate.Store, leading CRO projects for companies like Microsoft, Comodo, Ukrainian International Airlines, and Depositphotos. He is a regular speaker at marketing conferences, and a lecturer of UX, quant analytics, and A/B testing at CRO Academy.
 
In this episode, Ihor and I discuss the CRO and UX research strategies he and his team use to drive up customer conversion rates for their clients, the challenge of finding the right CRO experts to work with him and his team, and the ways to convince sometimes sceptical clients of the value of CRO. 
 
Finally, he 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!