Understanding Users: The UX Podcast

55. UX Brighton 2023 - Part 2: What is happening at the intersection of creativity, innovation and AI in the design space? - The Speakers @ UX Brighton 2023

"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

54. DX Leeds Part 3: The Attendees | How do you see AI impacting your job role? What insights did you take away from DX Leeds 2023?

"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
 

53. UX Brighton 2023 - Part 1: How can we learn to talk comfortably and knowledgeably about creativity and innovation? - Danny Hope, Founder @ UX Brighton

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

52. DX Leeds Part 2: The Speakers | What practical tips can attendees at the Digital Experience Leeds 2023 live event expect to take away for their own work?

"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

51. DX Leeds Part 1: The power of in-person events & the perils of deploying AI without understanding user needs: Digital Experience Leeds live event - Andy Curry @ Lion+Mason

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
 

50. AI / UX Shorts 7: Twenty minutes on...talking product design and gauging the importance of AI to your customers - Chrissy Fleming, Product Consultant & Erin Eisinger, Founder @ Four By North

"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

49. How can digital teams ensure organisations fully understand the value of a user-centred product design process?: Claire White @ Exscientia

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

48. AI / UX Shorts 6: Ten minutes on...using AI to unlock the potential of facial analysis during user testing - John Crouch @ Entropik

"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.

47. How can design teams develop resilience when embedding user-centred design in digitally immature organisations?: Gerry Scullion @ The Human Centred Design Network

“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

46. What role can technology play in managing the ever-increasing demands on healthcare around the world? - Ian Mulvany @ BMJ

Ian Mulvany is Chief Technology Officer at the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
Join me for a fascinating conversation with a seasoned technology leader building innovative and empowering healthcare products. 
"Technology as it is configured today....we are still at the foothills of understanding [how] this is going to drive our future economies... There are still hundreds of millions of people to come to the web and so when we think about healthcare, the future demand on healthcare is going to far outstrip the access to the number of doctors that are out there. So how do we equip people to work at what is sometimes called the 'top end of their licence', to be able to deliver that? I think digital has an immense role to play there. So I'm hugely excited about being in a place where the tools we build can help build that story."
Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode. 
Mike Green