UX Podcast
UX Podcast is a twice-monthly digital design podcast hosted by James Royal-Lawson and Per Axbom. Since 2011, it has shared insights about business, technology, and people to help listeners understand and improve user experience. The show aims to push boundaries in how UX is perceived and boost confidence in the work practitioners do.
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Season 3 update from James and Per
This is an update to let you know that we have reached the end of Season 3. Have a great summer, and perhaps Per will see you at Camp Digital in Manchester, England, and perhaps James will see you at Web Summer Camp in Opatija, Croatia.
Accessible design systems with Karen Hawkins
S03E11 (#339). Karen Hawkins, accessible design practice lead at Level access and chair of the W3C ARRM group joins us to discuss accessibility and design systems. Design systems can really help improve accessibility, but in reality design teams often don’t know their exact responsibilities, leading to accessibility gaps in implementation.
Designer burnout with Katrina Alcorn
S03E10 (#338). About 15 years ago Katrina Alcorn suffered from burnout while managing a team of designers and raising a family. Drawing from her own experience, Katrina highlights during our conversation the importance of autonomy, connection, as well as purpose in the workplace.
Headspace with Cal Thompson
S03E09 (#337). Cal Thompson, VP of Product Design and Research at Headspace, joins us to talk about the evolution of Headspace from a pure mindfulness app to a comprehensive mental health platform, including health coaches and therapists.
UX for business with Joel Marsh
S03E08 (#336). Inspired by feedback from his booked UX for beginners, Joel Marsh has written UX for business. A comprehensive guide for designers navigating real-world challenges. We talk to him about his own journey from design principles to practical business applications.
Service literacy with Lou Downe
S03E07 (#335). Lou Downe, author of Good Services and former director of design for the UK government joins us in this episode. We sat down with Lou and asked—Where is service design going wrong, and are we even doing service design?
Defending against evil with Aarathi Krishnan
S03E06 (#334). Aarathi Krishnan is an international aid expert, specialising in humanitarian futures and strategic foresight. In a world where the sets of rules that have governed us as humanity are rapidly changing, how will we know if the solutions that we are designing now are going to be fit for purpose?
Fail early
S03E05 (#333). A linkshow. James and Per discuss two articles they’ve stumbled on. This time we feature articles about things that slow down your website’s experience and why you can’t do anything about it plus the concept of “failing early” but not in a “failing fast” startup way.
More systems thinking with Sheryl Cababa
S03E04 (#332). Two years on from when Sheryl Cababa released Closing The Loop, her book about systems thinking for designers, we hear Sheryls reflections and insights about what she’s learnt during that time and we grapple with the challenge of applying system thinking as designers “out of the box”.
Murky middle with Christina Joy Whittaker
S03E03 (#331). Your destiny isn’t tied to a role. You were a person before your role. Leadership expert and strategist Christina Joy Whittaker talks to us about the murky middle, a phenomenon rooted in misalignment and purpose and quite distinct from imposter syndrome which is rooted in confidence.
The Great Amazon Heist with Oobah Butler
S03E02 (#330). Oobah Butler, journalist and filmmaker known for his prankster antics, joined us to discuss his work, including “The Great Amazon Heist” and “The Shed at Dulwich”. Oobah highlights the relative ease of manipulating algorithms, such as TripAdvisor and Amazon, to boost fake products’ rankings.
Dark mode
S03E01 (#329). In the first episode of Season Three, James Royal-Lawson and Per Axbom discuss the concept of dark mode, its benefits, and its implications for UX design, user experience and accessibility. We delve into the European accessibility directive, and the EN 301 549 European standard which includes a section on user preferences, requiring user...
A heartfelt update from James and Per ❤️
This is an update to let you know that we are delaying the start of season 3 as Per is soon to have a heart operation. We’re aiming now to start Season 3 in the new year, once Per has recovered.
Season 3 update from James and Per
This is an update to let you know that we have reached the end of Season 2, a sensible 10-month season this time rather than more than 10 years! It’s time for us to take a short break before we kick off Season 3 on August 9th.
Interviewing users with Steve Portigal
S02E18 (#328). Over ten years have passed since the first edition of Steve Portigal’s legendary book Interviewing Users was released. Together with Steve, we reflect on how user research has evolved during the past decade, and how the importance of user research in order to understand people and their needs is still crucial.
The President of Iceland
S02E17 (#327). A linkshow. James and Per discuss two articles they’ve stumbled on. This time we feature articles about how certain features of e-commerce sites have to go, and how a design mistake impacted civic engagement in Iceland.
Strategic impact with Nathan Shedroff
S02E16 (#326). Nathan Shedroff, author of A Whole New Strategy, talks to us about how we as designers can have strategic impact. Through an expanded understanding of the context you are working within, and building both situational and operational awareness, we can bridge the gap between design and business.
The rule of three with Ellen Lupton
S02E15 (#325). Ellen Lupton, designer, educator and author, helps us stock up our toolbox of design principles and methods, starting off with storytelling in visual design, and the “rule of three” before we move on to linear and non-linear experiences. Will we follow the rule of three and have a third topic?
Sketching workshop with Eva-Lotta Lamm
S02E14 (#324). A slightly different episode to usual. Eva-Lotta Lamm joins us to hold a visual thinking sketching workshop – Eva-Lotta, James and Per have fun going through three sketching exercises set by Eva-Lotta that can help you with your creativity, team-building, visual thinking and much more.
Change leadership with Maria Giudice
S02E13 (#323). We are in the age of design-driven change. Maria Giudice joins us to talk about being changemakers – How we can design change in a complex world. We start by looking at the history of change management and how we are now firmly in the age of design-driven change and that requires change...
The right question with Meena Kothandaraman
S02E12 (#322). Asking the right question and wanting to get a good response. How do we handle that as researchers? Meena Kothandaraman joins us to talk about our curiosity as researchers, the different lenses of inquiry we can apply from exploratory to validation. We talk as well about being curious and the skill of getting...
Building trust in AI with Carol Smith
S02E11 (#321). How do we know when to trust a system? Carol Smith leads the Trust Lab team at Carnagie Mellon Universty, where they conduct research into making trustworthy, human centered, and responsible AI systems. Our conversation highlights the importance of guardrails and ethical considerations in AI development, as well as to ask the right...
Digital Ownership with David Dylan Thomas
S02E10 (#320). What does it mean to own something? We talk with David about the concept of ownership, going beyond the legal definition and into the wider concept of ownership and how digital artefacts lead us to re-think and re-evaluate some of the concepts that we have previously relied on.
Experience strategy
S02E09 (#319). A linkshow. James and Per discuss two articles that have caught their attention. The articles in this episode are about pragmatic discovery; delivering value to projects, and how UX Strategy should focus on, understand, and design, across all touchpoints, for the users – Experience strategy.
Lost history with Zoë Rose
S02E08 (#318). Zoë has been researching the history of some of the creative thinking methodologies we use as designers. In this episode she takes on a journey back to the origins of brainstorming, the double diamond, and design thinking.
Hidden dilemmas
S02E07 (#317). A slightly different linkshow featuring two articles, one by James and one by Per. The articles in this episode are about how the experience of a delayed flight highlights the wider impact of poor service design, and how the way in which you type can reveal who you are.
Designer accountability with Kim Goodwin
S02E06 (#316). Reflections and Lessons from heathcare design. Kim Goodwin has spent many years working within the healthcare industry. We discuss design principles used in healthcare and how they are transferrable across industries, as well as how designers should be more accountable.
Presenting design work with Ben Sauer
S02E05 (#315). Death by screens. Presenting high stakes design work with Ben Sauer. We talk about how presenting is an experience that needs to be designed, and we discuss some of the ways in which you can approach crafting a presentation experience and become better at communicating your design work.
Make it more so with Chris Noessel and Nathan Shedroff
S02E04 (#314). Sci-fi and AI. Over a decade on from our first chat with Chris and Nathan, after the publishing of their book Make It So – Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction, Per and James found themselves with the opportunity at UXLx to talk to Chris and Nathan again. Our conversation starts with AI...
Frugal computing
S02E03 (#313). A linkshow featuring two articles that have grabbed James and Per’s attention. The articles in this episode are about the need for low-carbon and sustainable computing and CSS media features that can be used for detecting user preferences and creating more inclusive experiences.
Get the words to work with Torrey Podmajersky
S02E02 (#312). Torrey Podmajersky, author of Strategic Writing for UX, joined us to help us get the words to work. Together with Torrey we highlight the importance of giving our work context as well as establishing a shared vocabulary.
The leader’s journey with Donna Lichaw
S02E01 (#311). Donna Lichaw takes us on another enthrawling journey in our latest podcast interview with her. This time Donna helps us understand the value of finding out your superpower and becoming a superhero. What’s all that got to do with leadership? Listen along and find out.
Season 2 update from James and Per
We’ve got an update for you about season 2 of UX podcast. After our 10-year long first season, we’re soon back for season 2. August 11th 2023 will see the first episode of the new season released.
An update from James and Per
We’ve got a little update for you about UX podcast. We’ve been publishing an episode every other Friday without fail for just over a decade since episode 33, which is absolutely insane. It’s a streak of 277 episodes. 554 weeks. We’ve quite recently actually surpassed 2.5 million downloads. What we’re going to do now is...
#310 Fudge design thinking with Anna Kirah
Power dynamics, egos, “I know best”. The ways in which we go about solving problems need to be challenged and changed. Anna Kirah joins us to help us facilitate that change and make a move from design thinking towards transdisciplinary thinking.
#309 Container queries and design thinking
Episode 309 is a linkshow. James and Per discuss two articles that have grabbed their attention – we feature articles about container queries being available to use in all major browsers and how design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong?
#308 Systems thinking with Sheryl Cababa
What is systems thinking and how can designers make use of it in their work? In her book Closing the loop, Sheryl Cababa lays out her answer and approach to this question. We talk to her and discuss some of the core definitions and concepts. 
#307 Policy and design with Alexandra Schmidt
In this conversation with Alex Schmidt, author of Deliberate Intervention, we discuss “policy” in relation to digital design and tech. We discuss how even though designers intend to do good and have a positive impact, harm can still happen as a result of our designs. We talk about how it is natural for systems to...
#306 Human centred design with Alastair Somerville (UXP Classic)
We are constantly simplifying the world around us and the people within it. This is a perfectly understandable reaction to the messy things we have to work with. But with every step back we are building a wall between the user and what it is to be human. We talk to Alastair about human centred design. How...
#305 Dyscalculia and ChatGPT
Episode 305 is a linkshow. James and Per discuss two articles that have grabbed their attention – we feature articles about designing for people with dyscalculia and low numeracy, and How ChatGPT is blowing Google out of the water: a UX breakdown.
#304 Building a content strategy practice with Natalie Marie Dunbar
Getting anything up and running takes both time and planing. Content strategist Natalie Marie Dunbar joins us to talk about her content strategy practice blueprint and how it can help you when building a practice. What to do in order to avoid being an unheard and unappreciated silo as you grow from being a solo...
#303 Metacognition with Steve Fleming
We take a dive into neuroscience and metacognition. Thinking about thinking and thinking about other minds. We are joined by Professor Stephen Fleming, neuroscientist and author of the book Know Thyself to learn more about how our cognition works and the implications for our work as mind-creating creatives and in the development of AI.
#302 Articulating design decisions with Tom Greever (UXP Classic)
We talk to Tom Greever about Articulating Design Decisions. How do we talk about our designs effectively with stakeholders? Every designer has to explain (and justify) their design decisions to non-designers but what are the skills tactics and methods that are needed to pull this off in a way that opens the door for your project to create...
#301 Informed consent with Kim Foulds and Joyce Rafla
Informed consent is a critical part of the research process. We talk to Kim Foulds and Joyce Rafla about how they made use of videos featuring Sesame Workshop muppets to make taking a consent decision more inclusive, accessible and informed.
#300 Jokes and humour with Delia Chiaro
We’ve been tacking jokes onto the end of our shows since Episode 138. So to celebrate Episode 300, we take a look at jokes and humour. We’re joined by Professor Delia Chiaro, who has spent decades researching humour to learn more about what makes things funny and if it’s safe for us to be humorous...
#299 Best practice with Rich Brophy
“Let’s find out what’s best practice and just run with that”. That’s something many of us will recognise and have experienced. But what actually is best practice? Is it something we should follow? And can we? Rich Brophy joins us to talk about best practice and to offer some advice about what might be even...
#298 Colonised Thinking and Figma
Episode 298 is a linkshow. Per and James discuss two articles that have grabbed their attention – we feature articles about how car culture colonised our thinking, and how Figma is making you a bad designer.
#297 Complexity with Jonas Söderström (UXP Classic)
In this classic UX Podcast, Jonas Söderström joins us to talk about complexity. We like to think that we have made the world better through digitalisation, but perhaps all of the productivity gains were actually in the very early days of computing. 
#296 Introvert designers with Tim Yeo
How do you make an impact as an introvert without pretending to be an extrovert? Often designers find themselves as quiet people in a noisy world, struggling in silence and being frustrated at not being heard. Tim Yeo joins us to talk about how introverted designers and design leaders can work with their introversion and...
#295 Discovery with Dan Brown (UXP Classic)
We need to ask the big hard questions at the beginning of the process so we can make good design decisions later. We talk to Dan Brown about the “discovery phase” or, as Dan suggests, the “discovery mindset”.
#294 Sitemaps
Episode 294 is a linkshow. Per and James discuss two articles that have grabbed their attention – we feature articles about designing the perfect button, and how sitemaps are an essential tool in web design.
#293 Designing for stress with Katie Swindler
We often find ourselves in stressful situations. Sometimes that’s expected, but sometimes it’s not.  The same can be said about the things we design. Sometimes we knowingly design for stressful situations, but sometimes our designs are used (unexpectedly to us) by people while under stress. Katie Swindler, Author of Life and Death Design joins us...
#292 Product management with Christian Crumlish
What is product management? And “product”? And product designers? We talk to Christian Crumlish, author of Product Management for UX People to learn more about how designers can collaboration and contribute in a product organisation.
#291 Designing elevators with Reetta Ranne and Jussi Hiltunen (UXP Classic)
Lifts and elevators are things that we love to talk about in UX circles. Every elevator panel is capable of being the starting point for a user experience conversation. In this classic UX Podcast interview, we talk to Reetta Ranne and Jussi Hiltunen who, at the time of recording, were senior UX design specialists at...
#290 Web3 with Laura Kalbag
Web3 is a term that’s getting a lot of attention, along with associated concepts such as blockchain, crypto, NFTs. There are a lot of concepts and phrases to understand, some of them quite technical, before we can get to the question of what benefits they can deliver. Laura Kalbag joins us to help us gain...
#289 Diagramming with Abby Covert
Diagrams are everywhere and used by many people in many professions. But what is a diagram? When are they useful? And what makes a good one? Information architect and author of “How To Make Sense of Any Mess” Abby Covert joins us to talk about diagrams and diagramming – which is the topic of her...
#288 Native emojis 🐻❄️
Episode 288 is a linkshow. Per and James discuss two articles that have grabbed their attention – we feature articles about the problems with, and the alternatives to, the term “users” plus the surprisingly complex world of emojis.
#287 Endineering with Joe MacLeod
Joe’s first book “Ends”, back in 2017 was focused on why we don’t do endings, and how that links into consumerism. Joe’s second book, “Endineering” is about how to actively design endings, a ‘how-to’ book for improving how products, services and consumer relationships end.
#286 Reintroduction to Information Architecture with Donna Spencer (UXP Classic)
We get a reintroduction to information architecture with Donna Spencer. Donna shares with us some of the methods and tools she teaches as part of her workshops as well as look at some of the challenges that information projects can throw at you.
#285 Brainstorming with Christopher McCann
Why don’t we just brainstorm that? Brainstorming as a tool for ideation has a number of drawbacks, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be useful. Design leader and leadership coach Christopher McCann joins us to discuss how we can improve our innovation processes, and hold better and more inclusive creative sessions.
#284 Additive bias
Episode 284 is a linkshow. Per and James discuss two articles that have grabbed their attention – we feature articles about additive bias and the current state of mobile UX.
#283 Core web vitals with Katie Hempenius
Your own vital signs are your heart rate, temperature, breathing and blood pressure. These are used to help get an idea of your health, and give a “heads-up” that something is not as performing as it should be. Google has come up with its own set of web vitals to give you an idea of...
#282 Older adults and tech with Carolyn Wilson-Nash
Carolyn Wilson-Nash together with Julie Tinson, both from Stirling University, published a research paper entitled ‘I am the master of my fate’: digital technology paradoxes and the coping strategies of older consumers. Carolyn joins us to talk more about her research and the impact technology has on older people’s lives.
#281 Organisational trauma with Vivianne Castillo
We often think of trauma as something that individuals go through, but organisations can experience trauma too. Vivianne Castillo was part of producing a research-based report that reveals the ways that organisations respond to trauma. The report also puts forward a suggestion of how organisations can handling healing better.
#280 Ethical experimentation with Craig Sullivan
Mass democratisation and access to AB test tooling has meant that hundreds of millions of experiments have been run on people, via digital products and services. Although we are not running pharmaceutical trials and tests, these experiments still raise numerous ethical issues that are shared with research or experiments in a medical scenarios. Craig Sullivan...
#279 War Stories with Steve Portigal (UXP Classic)
For a number of years Steve Portigal has been collecting user research war stories. The stories describe experiences researchers have had whilst doing fieldwork. Awkward, morally challenging, painful, unsuccessful.
#278 No, seriously, it’s been a year
Episode 278 is a linkshow. Per and James discuss two articles that have grabbed their attention – we feature articles about the era of design system in Russia and a status report on the toxicity in digital design.
#277 Business unusual with Nathalie Nahai
As the covid pandemic struck and upended her art school project, Nathalie Nahai showed tremendous foresight when reflecting on the societal upheaval and its implications for sustainable business practice. In her newly released book, Business Unusual, she collects and elucidates important wisdom about how to ready your work for the unavoidable changes in consumer values,...
#276 Creativity with Denise Jacobs & Chris Noessel (UXP Classic)
We talk to Denise Jacobs about how to banish our inner critic and remove the mental blocks that get in the way of creative thinking. We also talked about how you can improve focus and get your brain into a state where you can access creative ideas best.
#275 VR in Healthcare with Almira Osmanovic Thunström
Virtual reality has had its big breakthrough in the gaming world, but what applications for this technology are there in helping the wellbeing of people who are ill? Almira Osmanovic Thunström is a Business Developer and Doctoral Researcher at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. She has spent years conducting research within the fields of AI and VR...
#274 Privacy practitioners
Episode 274 is a linkshow. Per and James discuss two articles that have grabbed their attention – we feature articles about how designers should be aware of data privacy and laws, plus how causal loop diagrams are a useful tool for understanding.
#273 Purpose and thinking styles with Indi Young
“All humans are fully human, with many ways of being in the world”. Rather than study the process or solution, we should be studying humans. Indi Young, author of mental models and practical empathy, joins us to talk “purpose”.
#272 Onboarding with Krystal Higgins
We talk to Krystal Higgins, author of Better Onboarding, about what onboarding actually is, how to recognise it needs improvement, and what kind improvements might work.
#271 Loops, arcs, and terrain
Episode 271 is a slightly different linkshow based around a tweet and article by Stephen Anderson, and two related articles, discussing arcs, loops and terrain in the context of service design.
#270 Design for safety with Eva PenzeyMoog
People will abuse our products and use them for harm. It’s not an “if”. People utilise the products we help make to hurt others, to control, abuse, and stalk people in their lives. Eva PenzeyMoog joins us to talk about how we can design for safety, prevent harm before it happens, and helping survivors of...
#269 Calm technology with Amber Case (UXP Classic)
In this classic UX Podcast interview, we talk to Amber Case, author, researcher, designer and, at the time we talked to her, cyborg anthropologist. We chat about the ideas expressed in Amber’s popular TED talk “We are all cyborgs now” before turning our attention to the notion of calm technology.
#268 Managing design systems with Brad Frost
Brad Frost joins us to talk about the nitty gritty of collaborating to create and manage design systems. We look back at the journey from responsive design to atomic design to design systems, and discuss the challenges with developing design systems and how important collaboration and culture are in order to succeed.
#267 UX Theatre with Tanya Snook
Are we all just putting on a show? A few years ago, Tanya Snook coined the phrase UX Theatre to describe when we are just acting like we’re doing user-centred design rather than actually doing it.
#266 Target size
From this summer, target size is going to become something we hear much more about. In this topic show, we look into what it is, what it means, why we’re going to start hearing more about it, and how this will impact design work (and design discussions).
#265 UX Coaching with Whitney Hess (UXP Classic)
Back in 2015 we were lucky enough to meet up with Whitney Hess during her summer vacation in Sweden. In this classic episode we talk to Whitney about her journey from “producer of wireframes” to coaching UX-ers.
