UXpod - User Experience Podcast
A free-ranging set of discussions on matters of interest to people involved in user experience design, website design, and usability in general.
Wed, June 29, 2022
Farewell
Fri, October 29, 2021
Taking responsibility for our creations: An interview with Ellen Broad
Sun, September 05, 2021
Mags Hanley on Career Architecture
Sun, August 29, 2021
Voice Content and Usability - problems and opportunities. With Preston So
Thu, August 12, 2021
Preventing your product becoming a tool for abuse, with Eva PenzeyMoog
Sun, June 06, 2021
Doughnut Economics and Systems Thinking: An interview with Kate Goodwin
Fri, May 07, 2021
How to onboard: An interview with Krystal Higgins
Mon, April 19, 2021
Designing child-friendly cities: An interview with Tim Gill
Mon, April 12, 2021
Training Dev Teams in Accessibility: An interview with Allison Ravenhall
Sat, April 03, 2021
Product Research Rules: An interview with Aras Bilgen and C Todd Lombardo
Wed, February 17, 2021
Research Repositories: An Interview with Mark McElhaw
Sat, December 19, 2020
Running a virtual conference: An interview with Rory Madden
Fri, November 20, 2020
Presenting Design Work - An interview with Donna Spencer
Thu, August 27, 2020
Empathy for the future self: An interview with Amy Bucher
Fri, August 07, 2020
Figure it Out: An interview with Stephen P Anderson and Karl Fast
Sun, August 25, 2019
UX Writing: An interview with Torrey Podmajersky
Sun, August 11, 2019
Think like a UX researcher: An interview with David Travis and Philip Hodgson
Fri, July 26, 2019
Meaningful Work: An interview with Daniel Szuc and Jo Wong
Wed, July 17, 2019
User research in government: An interivew with Matthew McCallum
A nice case study of the value of a small number of in-depth interviews.
Tue, July 02, 2019
The Boss is away: An interview with Michelle Spencer
Michelle talks about the challenge and opportunity of running a large team remotely.
Fri, May 24, 2019
Questionnaire design: An interview with Annie Pettit
Sat, March 16, 2019
Competence, autonomy, relatedness: Celia Hodent on games design
Celia Hodent talks about neuroscience, UX and games design.
Sun, January 20, 2019
Managing a UX team: An interview with Cameron Rogers
Sat, December 15, 2018
UX in the Ubiquitous Bank: An Interview with Brett King
Brett King on the future of banking
Fri, July 27, 2018
Robots, AI and Ethics - An interview with Dr Christoph Bartneck
Thu, July 05, 2018
Making Cities Smarter: An Interview with Martin Tomitsch
Martin talks about the challenges and opportunities of designing for the connected, sensor- and data-enabled city of the future.
Mon, April 02, 2018
Designing better meetings: An interview with Kevin M Hoffman
Kevin Hoffman talks about how to design and facilitate good meetings.
Mon, March 12, 2018
Designing for the best death possible: An interview with Matiu Bush
Matiu Bush talks about designing for the end of life.
Sun, February 04, 2018
Mean Time to "I Love You" - Amir Shevat talks about Chatbots
Slack's Amir Shevat talks about bots, and why you can't just port existing services to a bot, and about the power of conversational interfaces.
Sun, December 17, 2017
How tech's lack of diversity affects its products: An interview with Sara Watchter-Boettcher
Tech firms that are not themselves diverse can't be effective in meeting the needs of diverse audiences. Sara Wachter-Boettcher talks about how we've built exclusion into our algorithms.
Sat, August 05, 2017
SEO, metadata and information architecture: An interview with Shari Thurow
Does metadata matter – and why? Shari Thurow talks about making your content usable and accessible for both humans and machines and the importance of information architecture.
Sun, July 16, 2017
Visual Communication: An interview with Alberto Cairo
Why everyone should learn to think like a professional, honest journal. What makes a good "infographic"? And how can we find the stories in our data, and tell those stories effectively?
Sat, June 17, 2017
Transhumanism, immanence and existential risk: An interview with Mark O'Connell
Thu, June 08, 2017
Connected Bikes in the Smart City: An interview with Irene McAleese
Wed, April 12, 2017
Designing The Designer: An Interview with Jesse James Garrett
Sun, March 26, 2017
Design for Life: An interview with Karen Holtzblatt
The author of "Contextual Design" on the importance of immersion, and how to engage the entire team in the design process.
Mon, March 13, 2017
UX Portfolios: An interview with Ian Fenn
Wed, February 15, 2017
Definitive Advice on Forms: An Interview with Jessica Enders
Jessica talks about good forms design. Layout, Flow, Language - and why not to use placeholder text
Sat, December 10, 2016
Stories from the field: An interview with Steve Portigal
Ethnographic researchers share their experiences in Steve's new book, "Doorbells, Danger and Dead Batteries: User Research War Stories."
Mon, November 21, 2016
Dogs, Doublethink and Deconstructing Beliefs: Liminal Dave Gray
Dave Gray describes "Liminal Thinking" and why it matters.
Fri, November 11, 2016
An animated interview with Val Head
Zoom on over to uxpod.com to read the transcript.
Fri, October 28, 2016
Transforming & Measuring: An Interview with Gerry McGovern
Gerry McGovern talks to Gerry Gaffney about the empowered customer and the consequent need to transform organisations.
Sun, September 04, 2016
UX Careers: An Interview with Cory Lebson
Sun, July 31, 2016
A tasteful interview with Tom Vanderbilt
Thu, July 14, 2016
Machine I: An interview with Kayla Heffernan
Mon, June 06, 2016
The importance of invalidation: Tomer Sharon on Lean User Research
Tomer Sharon talks bout Lean User Research.
Thu, May 05, 2016
Customer as superhero: An interview with Donna Lichaw
Customer as superhero.
Wed, December 30, 2015
Explain yourself! An interview with Tom Greever
Articulating Design Decisions.
Sun, November 22, 2015
Reasonable doubt - Juries, the law and plain language: An interview with Prof James Ogloff
Can we expect a jury of lay-people to interpret, understand and apply the law?
Mon, December 08, 2014
Service design: An interview with Andy Polaine
What is service design, and how does it relate to UX?
Tue, September 30, 2014
Designing good five-second tests: An interview with Paul Doncaster
What you can (and can’t) find out in five seconds, and how to design good tests to do so.
Sun, August 17, 2014
Design for Kids: An interview with Debra Levin Gelman
Getting onto the floor for user research. Measuring PTR (Parental Threshold for the Revolting.) And designing products that engage, educate and entertain kids.
Mon, July 07, 2014
The Moderators Survival Guide: An interview with Donna Tedesco and Fiona Tranquada
Donna Tedesco and Fiona Tranquada, authors of "The Moderator's Survival Guide" talk to Gerry Gaffney about moderation. They discuss styles like Friendly Face, Down to Business, Inquisitive Mind and By-the-Book, the risks and pitfalls, Gerry's labcoat, and advice to moderators of all levels.
Wed, June 04, 2014
UX: A client perspective
Catherine D'Elia talks to Gerry Gaffney about how UX contributed to the design of a new Jury Management Service. She says that explaining UX and getting buy-in are crucial.
Sat, May 17, 2014
Where UI guidelines come from: An interview with Jeff Johnson
Jeff Johnson talks to Gerry Gaffney about user interface design guidelines, zombie processes, and why your first answer to the following question is typically wrong. A baseball and a bat together cost $110. The bat costs $100 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
Sat, April 19, 2014
Microinteractions: An interview with Dan Saffer
Dan Saffer talks about microinteractions, signature moments, and the importance of detail. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Tue, March 25, 2014
Eye tracking for UX: An interview with Aga Bojko
Wed, December 04, 2013
UX teams: An interview with Sarah Bloomer
Sat, November 23, 2013
UX, Disruption and Cultural Errors in Emerging Markets
Sun, November 25, 2012
Make It So: An interview with Chris Noessel
Fri, August 10, 2012
It's everyone's research: An interview with Tomer Sharon
Tue, July 10, 2012
UX stats for the faint-hearted: An interview with Jeff Sauro
Mon, June 04, 2012
The Participatory Museum - an interview with Nina Simon
Mon, January 30, 2012
Researching the airport of the future: An interview with Ben Kraal
Wed, October 12, 2011
UX leadership: An interview with Kim Goodwin
Tue, August 16, 2011
User research interviews: An interview with Steve Portigal
Gerry Gaffney interviews Steve Portigal about conducting interviews for user research. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Wed, August 10, 2011
Human transit: An interview with Jarrett Walker
Gerry Gaffney interviews Jarrett Walker. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Tue, August 02, 2011
Global UX: An interview with Whitney Quesenbery
Gerry Gaffney interviews Whitney Quesenbery. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Mon, June 20, 2011
Speech user interfaces: An interview with James Lewis
Gerry Gaffney interviews James Lewis. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Fri, April 22, 2011
Driver Safety: An interview with Dr Michael Regan
Gerry Gaffney interviews Mike Regan. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Thu, March 17, 2011
UX in the UK: Gerry Gaffney interviews Andy Budd
Gerry Gaffney interviews Morgan McKeagney. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Fri, December 31, 2010
Usability in Ireland - Gerry Gaffney interviews Morgan McKeagney
Gerry Gaffney interviews Morgan McKeagney. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Thu, December 16, 2010
Surveys - an interview with Caroline Jarrett
Gerry Gaffney interviews Caroline Jarrett. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Sat, October 16, 2010
Simple and usable - an interview with Giles Colborne
Gerry Gaffney interviews Giles Colborne. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Sat, August 14, 2010
Beyond the Usability Lab with Bill Albert
Gerry Gaffney interviews Bill Albert. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Fri, July 09, 2010
Promoting cycling culture, with Mikael Colville-Andersen
Gerry Gaffney interviews Mikael Colville-Anderson. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Tue, June 15, 2010
Adam Greenfield on Everyware
Gerry Gaffney interviews Adam Greenfield on ubiquitous computing. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Tue, March 02, 2010
David Hill on ThinkPad's evolution design strategy
Gerry Gaffney interviews Lenovo's David Hill. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Wed, November 18, 2009
What every intranet team should know - an interview with James Robertson
Gerry Gaffney interviews James Roberston from Step Two Designs about managing intranets. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Tue, November 03, 2009
Microsoft Surface and multi-touch interfaces - an interview with Shane Morris
Gerry Gaffney interviews Shane Morris about designing for Microsoft Surface and multi-touch interfaces. For a transcript of this and other episodes, visit www.uxpod.com .
Thu, July 23, 2009
Developing TramTracker - an interview with Robert Amos
TramTracker is an application that runs on iPhone (and other platforms) and gives Melbourne commuters real-time information on tram movements. Robert Amos talks about developing the application. Visit www.uxpod.com for a transcript of this and other episodes.
Sun, June 21, 2009
Every piece of content matters - an interview with Gerry McGovern
Gerry Gaffney interviews GerryMcGovern, author of "Killer Web Content". (This site is maintained for historical purposes only. Visit www.uxpod.com for a transcript of this and other episodes, and a searchable archive.)
Fri, May 08, 2009
Human behaviour in traffic - an interview with Tom Vanderbilt
Gerry Gaffney interviews Tom Vanderbilt, author of "Why we drive the way we do (and what it says about us)". (This site is maintained for historical purposes only. Visit www.uxpod.com for a transcript of this and other episodes, and a searchable archive.)
Mon, April 27, 2009
Selling usability - an interview with John Rhodes
Gerry Gaffney interviews John Rhodes about how to sell usability, and about John's book "Selling Usability: User Experience Infiltration Tactics". Please visit www.uxpod.com for a transcript of this and other episodes.
Sat, March 28, 2009
Immersion, and socially responsible design - an interview with Marc Rettig
Gerry Gaffney interviews Marc Rettig of Fit Associates on immersion, responsible design, and working with conscious organisations. You can read a transcript at www.uxpod.com .
Sun, December 21, 2008
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.0 - An Interview with Shawn Henry
Gerry Gaffney interviews Shawn Henry about the release of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines V2.0 (www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/). A transcript of this episode is available at www.uxpod.com . Note that the User Experience Podcast is now hosted within the Information & Design website (www.infodesign.com.au) - and it's searchable.
Wed, September 24, 2008
It's Only Words - an Interview with Janice (Ginny) Redish
Gerry Gaffney interviews Ginny Redish about the communication needs of web users, about whether those needs are changing, and about how to meet them. "It's not about the words," says Ginny, "it's about helping people accomplish their goals." She says that this has led to a change from command-based to task-based communication. Ginny's book is "Letting go of the words: Writing Web Content that Works" (tinyurl.com/3m5fee). Ginny mentions the forthcoming book by Caroline Jarrett and me - that's "Forms That Work: Designing Web Forms for Usability" (tinyurl.com/44muxd). In the interests of full disclosure, I must point out that both books are in the same series. Ginny also refers to "Christensen"; that book is "The Innovator's Dilemma" (tinyurl.com/4otvnq). "Older Wiser Wired" (aarp.org/olderwiserwired) is at the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). An article by Tom Tullis of Fidelity Investments about designing for older users (tinyurl.com/537ooa) is also online there. Gerry mentions a previous episode with Dave Grey of Xplane (www.uxpod.com/index.php?post_id=238707). (References to individual books on this website are links to Amazon.com - we earn a small commission on any purchases you make on following such links). Duration: 19:55 File size: 3.41MB
Mon, July 21, 2008
The Bizarre Myth of Customer Service - an Interview with David Jaffe
Gerry Gaffney interviews David Jaffe about customer service. David talks about the "bizarre myth that the head of customer service is responsible for customer service", and the problems that arise from treating customer service as a cost centre. He tells us that resolution, not handling time, is what matters. David asks: Why do companies spend millions of dollars on customer research but not learn anything from the day-to-day interactions they already have? He talks about how inappropriate measures result in the the wrong behaviour from front-line staff, and what happens when IT or Marketing departments have to take responsibility for the problems they cause? David also tells us about how Amazon melts the "snowball" of repeat contacts. David's very interesting book (co-authored with Bill Price) is "The Best Service is No Service" (tinyurl.com/68mtbu). His company is Limebridge (www.limebridge.com.au) The UK company whose customer service David praises is egg (new.egg.com) Duration: 27:19 File size: 4.69MB
Thu, June 26, 2008
Developing Usability Software - an Interview with Sam Ng
Gerry Gaffney spoke to Sam Ng from Optimal Usability in New Zealand (www.optimalusability.com). Sam is responsible for OptimalSort , an online card sorting tool (www.optimalsort.com). Sam speaks about the challenges of balancing user-centred design practices with the need to meet deadlines. Do small development teams really need to use personas? Sam says software can be "too convenient" if we rely too much on stats to "spit out" answers. Sam mentions some other products: Morae (www.techsmith.com/morae.asp) Axure (www.axure.com) LiveMeeting (office.microsoft.com/livemeeting) GoTo Meeting (www.gotomeeting.com) Google Analytic s (www.google.com/analytics) Crazy Egg (crazyegg.com) UserTesting.com (www.usertesting.com) BaseCamp (www.basecamphq.com) from 37 signals (www.37signals.com). Thanks to Jo Eaton for the photo of Sam. And apparently if Optimal Usability were a person it would be Jackie Chan (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Chan) Duration: 17:04 File size: 2.92MB
Sun, April 27, 2008
Usability - An Interview with Jakob Nielsen
Gerry Gaffney conducts a wide-ranging interview with Jakob Nielsen. Is web usability where it's at? Does usability have a say on climate change? Why is the keyboard so popular? Jakob talks about having data propagate to multiple devices, about why government agencies continue to apply an outdated "waterfall' model, and about how usability can make developing countries rich quickly and thus improve the environment. He talks about the need to make things easier if you want people to do those things, about future directions in user interaction, and about the need to start small if you're budget-constrained. Jakob Nielsen's website is useit.com (www.useit.com) His company is the Nielsen Norman Group (www.nngroup.com). Jakob refers to Microsoft's Ray Ozzie (www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/ozzie/default.mspx) and Groove (www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2000/10/24/ozzie_interview.html). He also refers to the anti-mac interface (www.useit.com/papers/anti-mac.html). Jakob's forthcoming event is usability week (www.nngroup.com/events/). Jakob's excellent books include "Usability Engineering" (tinyurl.com/4lsfdv) and "Designing Web Usability" (tinyurl.com/5ymz5t).
Thu, March 20, 2008
Packaging Design for the Web - an Interview with Luke Wroblewski
Gerry Gaffney spoke to Luke Wroblewski, Senior Principal of Product Ideation & Design at Yahoo! about what web designers can learn from the world of product packaging, about 'unpacking' as a metaphor for registration, and about embracing the fact that your content will be clipped, cut, copied and embedded. Luke's forthcoming book is Web Form Design - Filling in the Blanks (www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/webforms). Luke's company is LukeW Interface Designs (www.lukew.com); his blog is Functioning Form (www.lukew.com/ff). Luke mentions Jumpcut (www.jumpcut.com). The design patterns mentioned are from Yahoo! (developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns), Jennifer Tidwell (designinginterfaces.com) and Martijn van Welie (www.welie.com/patterns/index.php). Gerry mentions a previous podcast episode (uxpod.com/index.php?post_id=122094) with Ken Carroll from ChinesePod (www.chinesepod.com), who spoke about edge competencies. We also mention CHISIG (www.chisig.org) and the VALA conference (www.vala.org.au). And the beer Luke discovered in New Zealand is from Mac's brewery (www.thebrewerybar.co.nz/shed-22-brewing-company). Duration: 20:54 File size: 3.54MB
Tue, March 11, 2008
Mentoring - an interview with Patrick Kennedy
Gerry Gaffney spoke to Patrick Kennedy from Step Two Designs in Sydney (www.steptwo.com.au) about mentoring. What are the benefits - and the pitfalls - in mentoring? The book Patrick mentions is The Tao of Coaching , by Max Landsberg (tinyurl.com/yt8kaj). (Our book links go to Amazon, and we get a small commission from books sold in this way). Check out Patrick's Point of View blog (www.gurtle.com/ppov). Duration: 17:05 File size: 2.93MB
Tue, February 26, 2008
User Experience at Google - an interview with Patrick Larvie
Gerry Gaffney spoke to Patrick Larvie, Google's Manager of User Experience Research. Patrick reveals Google's secret - rapid user feedback, early and often. He also talks about the influence of culture on technology. The book Patrick recommends is Karaoke Nights: An Ethnographic Rhapsody , by Rob Drew (tinyurl.com/2ewbft). There was also a reference to the Google Image Labeler (images.google.com/imagelabeler). Gerry concluded with a plug for Information & Design's usability training courses in Melbourne (infodesign.com.au/training/courseschedule.asp). Duration: 34:29 File size: 5.92MB
Sun, February 17, 2008
Exertion Interfaces and Engagement - An Interview with Florian (Floyd) Mueller
Gerry Gaffney spoke to Floyd Mueller about his work with exertion interfaces - where the world of video games meets the sweat of the sportsground, and where you can jog, box or play ball with people in distant locations. Floyd discusses the impact of the Nintendo Wii, and how the lessons to be learned from sports psychology can be applied to video conferencing tools. He explains that in virtual table tennis, the player puts meaning in the ball by imparting spin and force; the game carries meaning through the network; and the meaning is what matters for engagement. For interesting videos and more, check out Floyd's website (floydmueller.com), exertion interfaces (exertioninterfaces.com) and 'Remote Impact' at the distance lab (www.distancelab.org/projects/remoteimpact). Duration: 30:48 File size: 5.28MB
Thu, January 24, 2008
Accessibility - An Interview with Dr. Sofia Celic
Gerry Gaffney spoke to Dr. Sofia Celic of Vision Australia (www.visionaustralia.org.au) about issues faced by the visually impaired and others. Sofia says that a knowledge of accessibility should be "in any serious developer's toolkit". Two screen readers were mentioned - Jaws (www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_jaws.asp) and Window-Eyes (www.gwmicro.com). OzWAI (www.ozewai.org) is the Australian Web Adaptability Initiative. Sofia mentions the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) (www.hreoc.gov.au). Microsoft has case studies and videos online (www.microsoft.com/enable/casestudy/default.aspx). Sofia is also involved in the ongoing development of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT). Duration: 14:26 File size: 2.47MB
Fri, January 11, 2008
Usability Now - an Interview with Daniel Szuc
Gerry Gaffney spoke to Daniel Szuc in Hong Kong about the state of usability today. Although we were on the 22nd floor, in the background you can hear the sounds of the Hong Kong traffic. Daniel's company is Apogee (www.apogeehk.com) The Usability Toolkit is the one Gerry and Daniel co-authored (www.theusabilitykit.com). UPA is the Usability Professionals' Association (www.upassoc.org). Disclosure: Gerry and Daniel have various commercial connections. Duration: 18:11 File size: 6.24MB
Wed, December 12, 2007
Open Source Usability, and the Modified Delphi Card Sorting Method - an Interview with Celeste Lyn Paul
Gerry Gaffney spoke to Celeste Lyn Paul about the state of usability efforts in open source software, and about her card sorting method - the Modified Delphi. Celeste mentioned Open Usability (openusability.org) Gerry mentions a previous card-sorting episode of UXpod with Donna Maurer (tinyurl.com/3xzglj) Celeste mentioned Michael Gladwell's book 'Blink' (http://tinyurl.com/235vnd) The spreadsheet that Celeste spoke about is Joe Lamantia's on BoxesAndArrows (http://tinyurl.com/3742xt) Celeste's blog is weblog.obso1337.org Duration: 25:46 File size: 8.84MB
Tue, November 27, 2007
Web Analytics - an Interview with Brian Donohue
Gerry Gaffney asked Brian Donohue from iQcontent (www.iqcontent.com) about when, why and how to use web analytics. Brian talked about avoiding 'zero insight', and how you can use analytics to understand users, improve your site, and validate success. A few books and resources were mentioned: Web Analytics Demystified by Eric Peterson (tinyurl.com/ys498j) Web Analytics: An Hour a Day by Avinash Kaushik (tinyurl.com/2bnc8d) Google Analytics Shortcuts by Justin Cutroni (www.gashortcut.com) Sitescan (sitescanga.com) Emetrics (www.emetrics.org) Advanced Web Metrics is Brian Clifton's blog (www.advanced-web-metrics.com/blog/) Occam's Razor is Avinash Kaushik's blog (www.kaushik.net/avinash/) Duration: 22:49 File size: 7.83MB
Fri, October 05, 2007
"This is who we are; this is what we do" - Social Media - an Interview with Tom Raftery
Gerry Gaffney interviews social media maven Tom Raftery. What does it mean to be a 'social media consultant'? In a wide-ranging discussion, Tom talks about: The meaning and relevance of social media Whether bus drivers in Cork will use social media software Why companies should embrace complaint Carbon-neutral data centres Tom's blog is Tom Raftery's Social Media (www.tomrafteryit.net/) You can follow the progress of Tom's carbon-neutral data centre - the Cork Internet Exchange (www.cix.ie/). Tom's presentation on reducing IT's carbon footprint is online (tinyurl.com/2u5bvz). Several venues and conferences are mentioned: Barcamp Galway (barcampgalway.wordpress.com/) Barcamp Dublin (www.barcampdublin.com/) Reboot Copenhagen (www.reboot.dk/) Le Web conference (www.leweb3.com/) Web 2.0 Expo (www.web2expo.com/) DLD Munich (www.dld-conference.com/) Duration: 23:17 File size: 8.2MB
Fri, September 28, 2007
Designing for Mobile Devices - an Interview with Jason Furnell
Gerry Gaffney asks Jason Furnell about designing for mobile devices. Along the way, Jason talks about the poetry of movement, the Agile development methodology, and how to navigate a career path in design. He tells us that without a vision, great minds can go to waste; and how high-fidelity wireframes can help communicate a simple vision. Jason's blog is 'the architecture of everything' . (jasonfurnell.wordpress.com) The William Gibson book is 'Spook Country' . (tinyurl.com/2a7mf9) Duration: 20:29 File size: 7.2MB
Wed, July 25, 2007
Visual Communication - an Interview with Dave Gray
Dave talks about giving ourselves permission to draw, about how the printing press led us to communicate in a particular way, and about how that can limit our communication in a digital environment, about how PowerPoint can be both inhibiting and comforting, and about how where we are with video today is where we were with PageMaker 20 years ago. Dave says 'You don't have to be an expert to start - you just have to start'. There are several references in this episode: Dave's blog is Communication Nation (http://communicationnation.blogspot.com/). His company is Xplane (http://www.xplane.com/). Edward Tufte's inspirational book is 'The Visual Display of Quantitative Information' (http://tinyurl.com/27dw8s). Betty Edwards' book 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain' can teach you to draw - even if you don't think you can (http://tinyurl.com/36jbxj). The culture map is Dave's representation of the culture at his company Xplane (http://tinyurl.com/3a27bp). Dave's 'ListMania' booklist is on Amazon.com (http://tinyurl.com/25jqas). I mentioned Lee Brimelow of Frog Design. One of his sites is the WPF blog - it contains his presentation to the Microsoft Remix conference. (http://www.thewpfblog.com/) (References to individual books on this webiste are links to Amazon.com - we earn a small commission on any purchases you make on following such links). Duration: 30:57 File size: 14.2MB
Tue, June 12, 2007
Web Accessibility Guidelines - an Interview with Gian Sampson-Wild
What is the current status of Version 2 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines? Gian Sampson-Wild tells us the story. She also explains how Flickr and Google have used Ajax without sacrificing accessibility. For more on the Maguire vs SOCOG case, see Joe Clark's reader's guide (www.contenu.nu/socog.html). A listener subsequently pointed out a USA case - National Federation of the Blind v Target , as described on the Disability Rights Advocates website ( http://tinyurl.com/djrfd ) - thanks elDavo. Gian's blog is The Kismet Heuristic (www.tkh.com.au). You can also read her peer review of the Samurai Errata . (samuraireview.wordpress.com) You might also want to check out the WCAG Samurai Group website (wcagsamurai.org). Gian mentions the work of Cameron Adams and Jeremy Keith. Cameron wrote 'AJAX: Usable Interactivity with Remote Scripting' (www.sitepoint.com/article/remote-scripting-ajax) in 2005. Jeremy Keith's book is ' Bulletproof Ajax' (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321472667/informdesign); you can read an interview with him on Digital Web magazine (www.digital-web.com/articles/jeremy_keith_2) ... and the giveaway: Andy Budd of Clearleft (clearleft.com) has donated a free ticket (worth 85 pounds sterling plus VAT) for dConstruct 2007 (2007.dconstruct.org) to a UXpod listener. To be in the draw, send an email to gerry at infodesign.com.au, with the subject line dConstruct, by June 28. Winner drawn on June 30, and notified by email. Ticket is non-transferrable, so please only enter if you or a colleague wish to attend. Duration: 16:40 File size: 11.5MB
Sun, May 13, 2007
Usabilidad: Usability in Latin America - an Interview with Luis Arnal
Luis Arnal speaks about usability in Latin America, about poverty as the mother of creativity (imagine usability testing at stop lights), and about the importance of observational research. Luis is founder and president of In/situm (www.insitum.com). You can read his article 'No pregunte, observe' online (PDF, in Spanish) (http://tinyurl.com/35bcch) . Luis' 2003 article which I quote from during the interview is also online (PDF, in English) (http://tinyurl.com/2gmgr9). Luis mentions Spencer Tunick's latest and largest nude shoot (18,000 people at the Zocalo plaza in Mexico city). Here is a short link to photos of the event on Flickr: http://tinyurl.com/2bvaoe Thanks to Stuart Celarier of Portland Jugglers (www.portlandjugglers.com) for permission to use the image of the Toltec juggler as an illustration for this episode. Stuart is a software engineer who blogs at www.ferncrk.com/blog and points out that the ball over the juggler's head was not present in the original. Duration: 17:30 File size: 8MB
Tue, April 17, 2007
Designing Smoking Cessation - an Interview with Peter Benda
Peter Benda describes University of Melbourne's work on 'QuitCoach' - an online service to help people stop smoking. Peter works at Melbourne University's Department of Information Systems - www.dis.unimelb.edu.au He talks about some of the unique aspects of this research - such as participatory design as therapy, and the 'confessional' needs of the quitting smoker. The current version of QuitCoach is at www.thequitcoach.org.au The National Health & Medical Research Council of Australia is at www.nhmrc.gov.au The New Zealand STOMP (Stop smoking with mobile phones) trial is at www.ctru.auckland.ac.nz/research/stomp/index.html Florian 'Floyd' Muller's paper is 'A table tennis game for three players ' - http://tinyurl.com/3ylovs ... and the Northcote Social Club (Melbourne) is at http://northcotesocialclub.com/pages/giglist.php Duration: 24:25 File size: 11.1MB
Fri, March 30, 2007
Customer Support - an Interview with Joel Spolsky
What makes good customer service? Joel talks about fixing everything two ways, not outsourcing technical support, taking the blame, and about the puppet. Check out Joel's blog (http://www.joelonsoftware.com) I mention the Irish Guitar Podcast (http://www.irishguitarpod.com) Daniel Szuc and I wrote The Usability Kit (http://www.theusabilitykit.com). Duration: 23:10 File size: 10.6MB
Fri, March 02, 2007
Don't Make me Write! - an Interiew with Steve Krug
Steve Krug talks about clarity, about deleting Solitaire from his Mac, and about his admiration for Douglas Adams and Jakob Nielsen. He also considers how we can do things well with Ajax, and the importance of user testing. Steve's excellent book is "Don't Make Me Think" (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321344758/informdesign ). Steve also mentioned Jakob Nielsen's article on teengers' use of websites (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20050131.html) People ask me about the cartoons on UXpod. Most are done by Gina Ellis, but this one is by Naomi Tong. This episode is just over 23 minutes in length. File size is 10.5MB.
Mon, February 19, 2007
Ludic Design - an Interview with William Gaver
William Gaver is Professor of Design at Goldsmiths College , at the University of London . He developed the 'cultural probe' user research technique. (We covered this in a previous podcast episode with John Murphy - uxpod.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=108708) He also developed the 'drift table' and other items based around the concept of 'ludic' design. In this interview, he talks about ludic design, and about systems that can help us while we 'find our own ways of leading meaningful lives'. Sound quality, unfortunately, is not very good. The book Bill mentions is Homo Ludens , by Johan Huizinga (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0807046817/informdesign). Bill also mentioned Andy Crabtree (web.mac.com/andy.crabtree/iWeb/Site/Home.html). See the Interaction Research pages at Goldsmiths College (www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/interaction/exhibitions.html) The company that provided the aerial footage is getmapping (www.getmapping.com). Duration: 21:46 File size: 9.97MB
Wed, January 31, 2007
Intel Outside - an Interview with Genevieve Bell
Genevieve Bell is Director of Intel's User Experience Group . In this interview, she talks about what it means to build technology with the home in mind, about cultural influences in the use of technology, about the connection between religion and technology, and about sheds. Genevieve says that part of what people want is for technology to be invisible. "Computational power is important but what people see is the experience."
Wed, January 17, 2007
Security and Usability
Security and usability are frequently in conflict. Workarounds are common, and there may be unrealistic expectations of what users would or should do. I mention that ChinesePod made Time Magazine's Top Ten Podcasts of 2006. (www.time.com/time/topten/2006/podcasts/10.html) The Usability Kit (Gaffney/Szuc) is available for purchase online. (www.theusabilitykit.com) This episode is 7 minutes 10 seconds in duration. File size is 4.1MB.
Mon, December 25, 2006
Design in India - an Interview with Apala Lahiri Chavan
I asked Apala about designing for low-income, low-literacy audiences. Apala also talks about cultural differences between India and China, and between India and 'the West', about the dangers of being overly-polite, about why foreign insurance companies may not do well in India, and about the use of rasas for measuring emotion. You can read more about Apala on the Human Factors International website (www.humanfactors.com/about/Apala.asp). See Wikipedia's entry on Rasas (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasa_%28art%29). (I referred to Paul Sherman's presentations at User Friendly 2006 in China - Paul's put them online, and there are pointers on his blog - www.usabilityblog.com/blog/archives/2006/11/my_user_friendl.php). This episode is 20 minutes 43 seconds in duration. File size is 11.8MB.
Mon, December 11, 2006
Personas and Outrageous Software - an Interview with Alan Cooper
I asked Alan Cooper (over a rather echoing connection) why he is outraged by bad software, and how he developed the concept of 'personas'. I was interested to hear the 'father of Visual Basic' say 'What I need is a computer that doesn't make me feel bad and a cellphone that doesn't make me feel stupid'. Alan's company is Cooper Consulting (www.cooper.com) The two books of his that I mentioned are: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672326140/informdesign) About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764526413/informdesign) This episode is 19 minutes 44 seconds in duration. File size is 11.3MB.
Sun, November 26, 2006
Voice User Interfaces - an Interview with Erin Smith
Erin Smith is a Senior Voice User Interface Designer and Usability Specialist with Syntellect (www.syntellect.com). Incidentally, people in the field use the word "vooey" - this is a pronunciation of VUI (Voice User Interface). Erin mentioned two books: "Voice User Interface Design" by Michael Cohen (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321185765 /informdesign). "The Art and Business of Speech Recognition: Creating the Noble Voice" by Blade Kotelly (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321154924/informdesign). Paul English's "get human" website is www.gethuman.com. And here's a link to the episode in which I interviewed Donna Maurer on card sorting : http://uxpod.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=126130 Optimal Usability is the New Zealand-based usability firm mentioned (www.optimalusability.co.nz). This episode is 16 minutes 36 seconds in duration. File size is 9.5MB.
Tue, November 14, 2006
Taxonomy, Folksonomy and Metadata - an Interview with Karen Loasby
Karen Loasby is the information architecture team leader for the BBC. I spoke to her about metadata, taxonomy and related topics. How do you manage metadata issues when you're dealing with millions of pages, and thousands of authors? Karen referred to two sites during our discussion. The BBC Feed Factory is http://www.bbc.co.uk/feedfactory/ and Etsy is http://www.etsy.com You might also want to check out Karen's article "Changing Approaches to Metadata at bbc.co.uk: From Chaos to Control and Then Letting Go Again" (http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Oct-06/loasby.html) and her presentation on "The Growing Pains of a Controlled Vocabulary" for the 2005 IA Summit http://iasummit.org/2005/finalpapers/66_Presentation.ppt (this is in PowerPoint and is around 260kB). This episode is 18 minutes 20 seconds in duration. File size is 8.6MB.
Sun, November 05, 2006
User Friendly 2006 - Usability in China
This podcast contains four short interviews from User Friendly 2006, the UPA China conference in Hangzhou. UPA is the Usability Professionals' Association. I spoke to Jason Huang, Giles Colborne, Daniel Szuc and Paul Sherman. UPA China 's website is www.upachina.org , and you can find links to the conference there. Giles' company is cxpartners (www.cxpartners.co.uk) Daniel's company is Apogee (www.apogeehk.com) Paul maintains the Usability Blog (www.usabilityblog.com/blog/) Flickr tag for photos from the conference is UF2006 (http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=UF2006).
Mon, October 23, 2006
Hong Kong's Octopus Card - A Highly Usable Product
Users of Hong Kong's public transport system will be familiar with the Octopus card, which I consider to be exemplary in terms of the user experience it offers. In this brief episode, I talk about some of the things that make it so easy to use. For information on the training mentioned at the end of the podcast, refer to the Information & Design website (http://www.infodesign.com.au/training/default.asp).
Mon, October 09, 2006
Ethnography - an Interview with Jared Braiterman
I spoke to Jared Braiterman, from jaredRESEARCH (www.jaredresearch.com). Jared has done ethnographic research many organisations. I asked him what's meant by ethongraphic research, and how it's applied. The Mobile China work Jared refers to is avaialble on his site (www.jaredresearch.com/mobilechina). The book on user research that he mentions is Mike Kuniavsky's Observing the User Experience (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1558609237/informdesign) - a book which I coincidentally described on my infodesign.com.au website as "the only 'must-read' book in the field published in 2003". (References to books on this webiste are links to Amazon.com - we earn a small commission on any purchases you make on following such links).
Mon, October 02, 2006
World Usability Day - an Interview with Elizabeth Rosenzweig
Elizabeth Rosenweig is principal of Bubble Mountain Consulting (www.bubblemtn.com). I spoke to her in her capacity as Director of World Usability Day (www.worldusabilityday.org). Why do we need a World Usability Day, and will it make the world a better place? How can you get involved? Find out from Elizabeth!
Fri, September 22, 2006
Market Research - an Interview with John Berenyi
I asked John Berenyi of Bergent Research (www.bergent.com.au) why usability people are sometimes disparaging of market researchers. John has some interesting thoughts about about good - and bad - market research. The book John mentions is Vance Packard's "The Hidden Persuaders" . (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671531492/informdesign). John is correct in his statement that Vance Packard died (in 1996). There's a reference to Paco Underhill in the podcast. His book "Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping" (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684849143/informdesign) is an interesting read. (References to books on this webiste are links to Amazon.com - we earn a small commission on any purchases you make on following such links).
Tue, September 19, 2006
Because We Can
This short podcast considers the fact that we tend to get dazzled by the 'bling' of new technologies.
Mon, September 11, 2006
Card Sorting with Donna Maurer
I spoke to Donna Maurer on the topic of card sorting. I think she has a very nice and practical approach to card sorting. Donna referred to the OzIA conference (http://www.oz-ia.org/2006/) which takes place on September 30 and October 1 2006 in sunny Sydney. You should also check out Donna's blog (http://maadmob.net/donna/blog/) if you're interested in Information Architecture. You can also keep up with news on Donna's forthcoming book on card-sorting (http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/cardsorting/).
Tue, September 05, 2006
Web Teams - an Interview with Jesse James Garrett
I asked Jesse James Garrett about his "Nine Pillars of Successful Web Teams" model. See Jesse's article (on the Adaptive Path website) for the graphical representation of his model, and his brief article on the subject. I highly recommend Jesse's book "The Elements of User Experience" , which is a model of clarity. Jesse's website is well worth a visit for his thoughts on information architecture, user experience design, and his visual vocabulary for information architecture and interaction design. (References to books on this webiste are links to Amazon.com - we earn a small commission on any purchases you make on following such links).
Tue, August 29, 2006
What's Going On? The Importance of Feedback
Good feedback is important at the User Interface and Process levels. This brief episode considers some of the elements invovled in providing good feedback. If you like the User Experience podcast, you might want to check out Tim & Tom's Design Critique podcast podcast. I met Tim at UPA in June, and he provided both encouragement and practical advice that helped get the User Experience Podcast up and running - thanks Tim.
Mon, August 21, 2006
Community is Not a Tech Thing
I spoke to fellow Irishman Ken Carroll of ChinesePod - a highly successful online language learning business based in Shanghai. A key component of the ChinesePod success is a very strong focus on user needs and the user experience. In this interview, Ken describes the philospophy that drives ChinesePod, and how it can apply to other businesses. The Hangzhou conference that Ken refers to is User Friendly , which will take place in November.
Thu, August 17, 2006
Forms Design - an Interview with Caroline Jarrett
I spoke to Caroline Jarrett, a UK-based expert on forms design, about how to design a good form. Caroline's company is Effortmark . She and I have a website (rarely updated) called Forms That Work - you'll find some articles and papers on forms design there. Caroline will be running training in Melbounre Australia in November. Visit the Information & Design website for details.
Thu, August 10, 2006
Errors
To err is human. This episode is a brief discussion of why people make mistakes, and what we can do to minimise errors. The two books mentioned are: Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think" James Reason's "Human Error"
Tue, August 01, 2006
Choosing User Research Techniques
Choosing the appropriate user research technique can be difficult - particularly if you're not experienced in doing so. This short podcast considers how you decide what types of activity you should undertake.
Tue, July 18, 2006
Usability in China
I spoke to Josephine Wong from Apogee - Usability in Asia about the state of usability in China. Josephine mentions the "User Friendly" conference. That's run by UPA China . Disclosure: Apogee and my company, Information & Design , work together from time to time.
Tue, July 11, 2006
Cultural Probes - an Interview with John Murphy (updated)
The Cultural Probes technique provides a way to explore the user's world when other methods are not available or appropriate. Gerry Gaffney discusses the technique with John Murphy, of Design4Use. Note that this interivew was updated on July 17 to provide some additional detail.
Tue, July 04, 2006
Rules of Thumb
We often encounter rules of thumb. This brief podcast discusses "3 clicks" "7 plus or minus 2", and the application of such rules.
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