Understanding Users: a UX Podcast

24. How UX Design can solve the digital challenges of today - Leeds Digital Festival 2022 (Part 1 - The Speakers)

Understanding Users is at the Leeds Digital Festival 2022!
Returning for its 7th year, the festival is an open, collaborative celebration of digital culture in all its forms and hosts a two-week line-up of world class tech content in September to showcase the city’s dynamic and growing digital sector.
In this short episode I'm talking to the speakers at an event entitled: 'How User Experience Design can successfully solve the digital challenges of today', taking place on 26 September. This free event is jointly hosted by local digital design agency Lion+Mason and Leeds Building Society, with leading specialists and peers discussing some of the key digital challenges facing businesses.
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:
Andy Curry, UX Director at Lion+Mason
Kelly Moran, Head of UX at Leeds Building Society 
Imran Afzal, UX Design Leader at Co-op
Paul Cook, Principal Consultant at Lion+Mason
If you wish to attend, you can register here. 
 
Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode. 
Mike Green
This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.

23. Designing and building better digital public services - The SD in Gov Conference - Scotland, September 2022 (Part 1 - The Conference Chair)

Sophie Dennis is the conference programme chair of the SD in Gov (Service Design in Government) conference, held in Edinburgh, Scotland in September 2022. 
The conference is aimed at participants who manage, design or develop central and local government services, health and education services, emergency sector services, civic technologies and others including Government employees, consultants and design agencies.
In this episode Sophie and I chat about this year's conference, returning in-person again after running remotely in 2021 due to the pandemic. We discuss the inspiring keynote speakers, and the varied programme of engaging live sessions, interactive group sessions, and speaker Q&A - plus an all-important hallway track where attendees can meet and share experiences with fellow practitioners.
This is the first of three episodes featuring SD in Gov 2022. Join me again soon for Part Two when I'll be in-person at the conference, chatting to attendees and capturing their thoughts and reflections on what they've learned and how that can benefit them in their roles.
Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode. 
Mike Green
This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.
 
 

22. The Reunion - Lessons learned from doing UX the right (and wrong) way

I'm really excited to share this - it's something I've been wanting to do for ages!
In this episode of Understanding Users, I speak with four friends and fellow freelance digital folks, and who I've had the great privilege of working with. 
We reflect as a group on an (unnamed) large-scale UK government digital transformation project that we all worked on: what we did, how (and why) we did it, the challenges we faced and what we learned along the way. 
To what extent is an organisation ready to hear - and then act upon - problematic and challenging feedback from users of its services? How do you change long-established and deep-rooted processes within an organisation? Why are collaborative design workshops so powerful to the UX process? What can happen if you don't fully bring senior stakeholders with you on the journey? And why is the UK government's GDS assessment process so important in guiding teams to build digital services the right way?
My wonderful, highly experienced guests are:
Laura Cusack - Delivery Manager
Jon Sykes - Service Designer and UX Strategist
Ben Watson - Interaction Designer
Louisa Harper - Content Designer 
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!   
 

21. The Games User Researcher - Steve Bromley

Steve Bromley is a games user researcher. 
In this episode of Understanding Users, Steve talks of the fascinating and ‘unique production environment’’ of video games, along with varying UX maturity levels within the games industry, and the implications both of these have on how games user research is planned and carried out.
He discusses the importance of being able to conduct both generative and evaluative research during games development and the challenge, familiar to many UX teams, of ensuring that user insights are properly acknowledged and taken onboard by product teams in their product roadmaps.  
Finally, he plays my 3 card challenge to share his favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a trend he sees (or would like to see) in the future. 
Read more about this work here and here.
Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode. 
Mike Green
This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.

20. The UX Research Lead - Tim Dixon @ Atlassian

In this episode of Understanding Users, I have the pleasure of chatting to another international guest, this time based in Sydney, Australia.
Tim tells me about his career journey into UX from academia via experimental psychology and social and economic research, and he shares his views on the differences between strategic and tactical research approaches. He also discusses an unexpected - but beneficial - consequence of COVID-19 in allowing his organisation to rethink some of its UX team structure and working practices, and we chat about UX as a discipline in Australia.  
Finally, he plays my 3 card challenge to share his favourite UX tool, favourite technique and a trend he 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.
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!   

19. I’d love to hear your feedback on Understanding Users!

Thanks for listening to this podcast. 
This time, I'd like to do something a little different - and reach out to you the listeners for your thoughts and feedback!
The show has been running since October 2021 and, in the spirit of practising what I preach as a User Researcher, I'd love to get your opinions and feedback on what you like, and don't like, about it - and how I can improve it :) 
If you're happy to provide your feedback, please fill in and submit this short survey:
https://forms.gle/dndWts7zMc6K7kJF8 
Feel free to be honest as you like.
It should take you no more than a few minutes. All answers are anonymous and will not be shared with, or accessible to, anyone other than myself. Many thanks in advance for your time and comments. 
And do keep listening for more candid and revealing interviews with seasoned UX professionals coming soon!
Mike Green
This podcast is brought to you by Researchable UX.

18. The Recent UX Designer - Vanessa Devine @ Cheeky Monkey Media

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.

17. The Remote Conference Attendees @ UCD Gathering 2022 (Part 4)

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.

16. The Remote Conference Keynote Speakers @ UCD Gathering 2022 (Part 3) - Eriol Fox

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.] 

15. The Remote Conference Keynote Speakers @ UCD Gathering 2022 (Part 2) - Ben Holliday and Daniel Tuitt

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.]