SUX - The Sustainable UX Podcast

This time I had the honor to be joined by Maria Giudice. You probably know Maria for her books “Changemakers - How Leaders can Design Change” or “Rise of the DEO: Leadership by Design”. Maria and me met at the World Usability Congress in Graz last October and I am really happy to welcome her in the podcast now.. In our conversation we speak about how Design can and must actively drive change, but also why all leaders should have design skills. From there we dive deeper into what is good, into Narratives and why fear-based stories stick so much more to people than the positive narratives. And we speak about how the good will arise from the dark times we see at the moment and how we all can help driving this. As a little side note: We recorded this episode right before the election in Germany in February and we spoke briefly about this as well, just so that you do not wonder.Connect with our guest or us:Marias Channels:Marias LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariagiudice/ Web: https://www.hotstudio.com/ Marias Book “Changemakers”: https://www.hotstudio.com/library Masterclass “Become a sustainable UX Designer”Date: May 7, 5:30pm-10:00pm CESTLink: https://www.eventbrite.de/e/masterclass-become-a-sustainable-ux-designer-2025-tickets-1298940960379 Get 15% discount with the code "SUX_Friend"Our Channels:SUX Slack Community SUX LinkedIn SUX WebsiteThorsten's LinkedIn SUX Branding and Design: Isabel PettinatoIsabel's LinkedIn Music: Bavo Lodewyckx Bavo's Linkedin Email us at podcast@sustainableuxnetwork.com to share your feedback or suggest future guests.

Gerry McGovern, author of 'World Wide Waste' and an expert in digital sustainability, discusses the pressing issues of digital waste and the detrimental impact of big tech on society. He emphasizes that up to 90% of digital data is unused, shedding light on innovation's hidden environmental costs, particularly with AI. Gerry urges a reconnection with nature and advocates for sustainable practices over consumerism. His insights challenge listeners to rethink user experience design to balance convenience with ecological responsibility.

Welcome to this episode of the SUX Podcast. This time I had the honor to be joined by Laura Korculanin from Lisbon. Laura is a Design anthropologist, a systems thinker and a water advocate, running her own company called give a shit. We met for the first time I think 3 years ago and what really stuck to me was how Laura already back then had dedicated her design work to water, to nature and to regeneration. And therefore I am so happy that she joined me for this episode to talk especially about water and the impact to it by the digital world we design or use (and yes AI plays a huge part in that). We also speak about the importance of nature and why we need to recalibrate our societal value set. Laura for example made the great point, how insane it is that a forest is only of economical value when the trees are cut down to sell the wood. But we also touched the question of balancing online and offline time for ourselves and how that connects us to nature. And we speak about why designers need to be system thinkers to design sustainability and for regeneration.  Laura is a real inspiration and we could have talked for 2 or 3 hours (no worries - the episode is only one hour long) and she as well creates “punch-line” quotes throughout the whole episode. Just to give you a teaser: „The less time you are online, the more connected you are offline“  „How is it possible that the forest is worth money only once you cut down trees?“ Connect with our guest or us: Laura’s Channels: Lauras LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurakorculanin/  Give a Shit: https://www.giveashitnow.org/  Partner of this episode:  mittwald - your strong partner for premium hosting “We live the web. We breathe code. And: We love agencies and freelancers. With highly performant and flexible managed cloud hosting, we provide web professionals with the platform to launch their web projects to the next level. Smart workflows and innovative features, like measuring the CO2 emissions per website visit, make your work more efficient. Hosting has never been this fun!” A big thank you mittwald for supporting this episode of the SUX Podcast! 💚 Find all information about mittwald, their hosting offer and their efforts in sustainability here:  https://mitt.link/sux Our Channels: Thorsten's LinkedIn  SUX Slack Community  SUX LinkedIn  SUX Website Email us at podcast@sustainableuxnetwork.com to share your feedback or suggest future guests.

For this episode of the SUX Podcast we had the honor to be joined by Chris Cassens. She is the Director of Product and Design Operations at Too Good to Go, this wonderful company that is fighting food waste by creating a marketplace for surplus food. We speak about how to design a service that helps to reduce food waste and about the special challenges you are facing in doing that. But we discuss also how we here in Europe produce a lot of food waste by not using every part of for example an apple. And how this is done differently in Brazil, where Chris is originally from. And we talk about her personal journey all the way from Brazil to Denmark to an impact company like Too Good to Go.  So, join us in our conversation to learn more about food waste and how to fight it, but also about the differences in how food is treated in western Europe and in Brazil. One technical side note. We had some audio issues due to construction work outside of Chris apartment. Though we did some post-production editing you still might hear some low tone noise in the first 20min. After that we switched microphones, but you will notice a slightly change in the sound of Chris voice due to the other microphone. Connect with our guest or us: Chris’s Channels: Chris’ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinacassens/ Too Good to Go: https://www.toogoodtogo.com/  Our Channels: Bavo's Linkedin  Thorsten's LinkedIn  Isabel's LinkedIn  SUX Slack Community  SUX LinkedIn  SUX Website Email us at podcast@sustainableuxnetwork.com to share your feedback or suggest future guests.

Hannah Smith, the Director of Operations at the Green Web Foundation, dives into the urgent goal of achieving a fossil-free internet by 2030. She discusses the environmental injustice stemming from tech overconsumption in wealthier nations and the complex ecological implications of AI. The conversation emphasizes the need for a narrative shift in sustainability, the importance of unlearning, and personal strategies for mental well-being. Plus, Hannah shares her passion for outdoor travel, advocating for train journeys as a sustainable alternative.

Tom Greenwood, a pioneer in digital sustainability and founder of Wholegrain Digital, discusses his journey that began in 2004. He explores the challenges of advocating for sustainable design and the evolution of environmental awareness in digital products. The conversation shifts to AI’s dual role in potentially aiding or harming our planet, examining its energy demands and effects on human creativity. Tom emphasizes the importance of personal narratives and critical thinking in fostering a sustainable future, urging thoughtful engagement with technology.

In this insightful discussion, Don Norman, an influential author and co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, explores the evolution of design philosophies. He shares the importance of curiosity in creativity and redefines human-centered design, stressing its limitations and need for enhancement. The conversation delves into sustainability as a foundational goal and the challenges designers face in leadership roles. With optimism, Norman encourages us to embrace curiosity and collaboration, suggesting that even mistakes can lead to valuable insights in creating a better world.

You probably have heard of life-centered design or non-human personas. But, have you applied it to your work already?  For this episode we were joined by Damien Lutz from Sydney, Australia, one of the most prominent voices and drivers of life-centered design as well as the author of the “Life-centered design guide” and the “Non-human persona guide”.  We discussed the problems of nowadays design, how we need to change the way we design from being destructive to being sustainable and regenerative. We spoke about non-human personas and if apples mother nature video is a good thing or not. So, if you want to hear more about life-centered design, non-human personas and how to apply it. And if you want to learn about Damiens journey into the world of life-centered design, join us for this episode of the SUX Podcast. Connect with our guest or us: Damien’s Channels: Damiens Websites: https://lifecentred.design/ https://futurescouting.com.au/ Damiens Book “Life-centred Design Guide”: https://lifecentred.design/the-life-centred-design-guide/ Damiens Book “The non-human persona guide”: https://lifecentred.design/non-human-personas/the-non-human-persona-guide/ Damiens Book “Future Scouting”: https://futurescouting.com.au/design-guide-book/ Damien’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damien-lutz-36230515/ Sources from the episode: Book „Super Nature“ by Lyall Watson: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/525843.Supernature  https://ecograder.com/  https://sustainablewebdesign.org Articles by Monica Sznel: https://medium.com/@unpacking.design Book “Design for the real world” by Victor Papanek: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/190560.Design_for_the_Real_World Our Channels: Bavo's Linkedin  Thorsten's LinkedIn  Isabel's LinkedIn  SUX Slack Community  SUX LinkedIn  SUX Website Email us at podcast@sustainableuxnetwork.com to share your feedback or suggest future guests.

This is a special bonus episode: It is Part 2 of our interview with Xhensila Reci. In the previous episode we spoke with Xhensila about Purpose Driven Design and its relation to Sustainability (--> Link). In this bonus episode we do the friendship book and speak about Xhensilas way into UX and to LEGO and we play together her wonderful card game “Someone You” (--> Link) to learn more about each other.  It is the first time that we split an interview into two episodes. But since the whole conversation with Xhensila was just wonderful and super insightful, we decided that we did not want to cut anything out.  If you haven’t heard part 1 of the interview yet, we recommend you listen to it first: SUX EP 10 - “Purpose Driven Design with Xhensila Reci” https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/suxpodcast/episodes/SUX-EP-10---Purpose-driven-design-with-Xhensila-Reci-e2dpmeo  Connect with our guest or us: Xhensilas Channels: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xhensila/  Xhensilas Website: https://www.xhensilareci.com/ Xhensilas Card-Game “Someone You”: https://www.xhensilareci.com/shop/someoneyou  Xhensilas Talk about Purpose Driven Design at at WUC 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZAURrbVmM4&t=4s&ab_channel=WorldUsabilityCongress⁠ Sources from the episode: Book “The Atlas of the Heart” by Brené Brown: https://brenebrown.com/book/atlas-of-the-heart/ Our Channels: Bavo's Linkedin  Thorsten's LinkedIn  Isabel's LinkedIn  SUX Slack Community  SUX LinkedIn  SUX Website Email us at podcast@sustainableuxnetwork.com to share your feedback or suggest future guests.

Today we have something very special for you. Finally here it is: the lost episode. Last year we recorded this wonderful and extra long episode with Xhensila Reci from LEGO to speak about Purpose Driven Design. For several reasons, we did not manage to cut it and to decide if we should keep it this long, re-cut it, or make two episodes of it. Since the whole conversation with Xhensila was just wonderful and super insightful, we decided that we did not want to cut anything out. The SUX friendship book was super insightful and we also played Xhensilas wonderful game “Someone You”.  So, this interview became the first episode that consists of two parts. This part - Part 1 - contains the main conversation, where we spoke about purpose driven design, Xhensilas work at LEGO and how it strongly connects to purpose driven design.  Part 2 will be released next week as a bonus episode that contains the SUX Friendship Book and also the part where Xhensila and Thorsten play Xhensilas wonderful card game “Someone You”. So, if you want to learn how to do, achieve and drive purpose driven design, about working at LEGO and why a Banana played an important role in Xhensilas journey into UX and purpose driven design, do not miss this episode as well as the bonus episode. One little side note: we had a few minor audio issues with Thorstens audio track in the beginning. We apologize for that. And no worries, it will be gone after a few minutes.  Connect with our guest or us: Xhensilas Channels: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xhensila/  Website: https://www.xhensilareci.com/ Xhensilas Card-Game “Someone You”: https://www.xhensilareci.com/shop/someoneyou  Xhensilas Talk about Purpose Driven Design at WUC 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZAURrbVmM4&t=4s&ab_channel=WorldUsabilityCongress⁠ Sources from the episode: Book “The Atlas of the Heart” by Brené Brown: https://brenebrown.com/book/atlas-of-the-heart/ Our Channels: Bavo's Linkedin  Thorsten's LinkedIn  Isabel's LinkedIn  SUX Slack Community  SUX LinkedIn  SUX Website Email us at podcast@sustainableuxnetwork.com to share your feedback or suggest future guests.