Understanding Users: The UX Podcast

“If I think about five years from now, I would say that UX as we know it today will be radically changed....Things that deal with rote tasks are definitely going to be something of the domain of AI in the future.... [but] I think the space that we [as designers] work in is around intuition, empathy, emotion, and that's much much harder for AI. You know, it's a scary time for everyone, right? Everybody's a little nervous. But the reality is that a lot of what we do already is still very valuable in this future world that's already here." Chris Reardon was formerly Head of Product Design, Responsible AI @ Meta and is now Design Director - AI Envisioning Studio, Technology & Society @ Google. This is the third of my series of four revealing AI-related conversations with Chris as he discusses his own career journey at the cutting edge of designing artificial intelligence products, his views on the impact of AI on design as a discipline, the roles and responsibilities that will be needed for design leadership in AI, how AI might influence individual design careers.   In this episode we talk about career planning for designers and researchers working on AI-based products.   Chris is hugely experienced, impassioned and persuasive, and he shares plenty of nuggets of his hard-won wisdom that anyone in any organisation considering working in the AI space should reflect upon. I hope you enjoy this episode and find something thought-provoking to consider in the context of your own work.  Thanks for listening.  Mike Green

“Design is really going to be the practice of ethics in AI...Designers bring into reality these esoteric concepts, and so while an ethicist sitting next to you is helpful in the sense that they can help you think about these things, the designer's role is actually going to be how you implement those things..  We will also start to build UX AI tools that will help us iterate at a much larger scale...So imagine being able to create numerous scenarios where you can test your model against them in real-time, iterate and fine-tune...” Chris Reardon was formerly Head of Product Design, Responsible AI @ Meta and is now Design Director - AI Envisioning Studio, Technology & Society @ Google. This is the second of my short series of revealing AI-related conversations with Chris as he discusses his own career journey at the cutting edge of designing artificial intelligence products, his views on the impact of AI on design as a discipline, the roles and responsibilities that will be needed for design leadership in AI, how AI might influence individual design careers.  In this episode we talk about the importance of ethics in building AI-based products and services.    Chris is hugely experienced, impassioned and persuasive, and he shares plenty of nuggets of his hard-won wisdom that anyone in any organisation considering working in the AI space should reflect upon. I hope you enjoy this episode and find something thought-provoking to consider in the context of your own work.  Thanks for listening.  Mike Green

“I think the biggest thing is that with AI, you are definitely going to create net new roles in the in the team that you had never thought of before. And there's not going to be a playbook for that, and the HR person and the recruiter is not going to know how to help you with that and you're gonna have to figure those things out together as a team…Design will be less about UI in the future and more about different methods of communicating…” Chris Reardon was formerly Head of Product Design, Responsible AI @ Meta and is now Design Director - AI Envisioning Studio, Technology & Society @ Google. Over the course of the next four episodes I talk to Chris about his own career journey at the cutting edge of designing artificial intelligence products, his views on the impact of AI on design as a discipline, the roles and responsibilities that will be needed for design leadership in AI, how AI might influence individual design careers.   In this episode we talk about his career and how AI is likely to impact the makeup of product teams.  Chris is hugely experienced, impassioned and persuasive, and he shares plenty of nuggets of his hard-won wisdom that anyone in any organisation considering working in the AI space should reflect upon. I hope you enjoy this episode and find something thought-provoking to consider in the context of your own work.  Thanks for listening.  Mike Green

"Something that's colliding is definitely that sense of artificial intelligence and particularly generative AI, and what that means for creativity... I'm much more in the kind of William Morris view of the world, I think we need more thinkers and crafts people. And my positive view of AI is that it will get rid of some of the drudge work we do and it will free up time for people to be more imaginative and more creative. As a result of that we can spend more time with the people we're trying to solve problems for, coming up with more imaginative ideas.." This time I'm chatting with some of the speakers at UX Brighton 2023 in advance of the event. They talk to me about what insights they plan to share, what they hope the audience will take away and share their views how creativity, innovation and artificial intelligence are starting to intersect. My thanks to: Elizabeth Churchill Alice Helliwell Stefanie Posavec Chris How Tricky Bassett  and Tom Kerwin.    Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoy the episode and find something thought-provoking here to consider in your own work.  Mike Green

"Speak to your users directly and ask them specifically what their challenges are. That was that was probably the biggest takeaway [from today] for me.... I think, certainly in my [small business] sector we tend to assume rather than ask, and I think asking directly what users have feedback about, or reviewing how they how they use services or how they don't use services specifically, is really [important]." "I'm just really enjoying being around other digital professionals and being able to talk about a lot of the things that are affecting us in our industry." This is the final episode in a three part mini-series about the Lion+Mason event at the Leeds Digital Festival 2023. Recorded on the day, you'll hear from a variety of event attendees as they they reflect on what they learned from the sessions and what practical tips they plan to take away to use in their own organisations. My thanks to all the attendees who agreed to share their thoughts, and to Alisha Moran and Jana Petrova from Lion+Mason for doing the recordings for me.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green  

Danny Hope is a Product Strategy Consultant and Founder of UX Brighton, a long-running annual one-day UX conference on the south coast of the UK.  The theme of this year's event is Creativity and Innovation, and in this episode I chat with Danny about the kinds of talks attendees can expect and what learnings they can hope to take away to try out in their own work.  "I've seen time and again the damaging effects on teams where innovation and creativity aren't recognised as important. I've seen the limiting effect that that can have on the quality of the output of those teams - and to some extent the happiness of the individuals contributing. Creativity and innovation are such important concepts, but the terms are so misused. I'd like to ask people to be able to talk about these things comfortably, and with a kind of sound framework of understanding..." Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green

"AI has existed for a long time. It's built into so many design tools that we use these days...It's just a case of exploring it, seeing what works for you and what doesn't - and obviously, getting a good understanding of, is this helping me or is it hindering me?" "In terms of AI, I don't know (and I don't want to know) how AI is going to affect people who write about funerals. Because you cannot replace that human empathy...I'm one of those content designers who doesn't like it and who really believes in the skill and the experience that we bring to our profession." "We're still learning how to use AI. And I think it's going to be really, really key to be able to work alongside it and just kind of understand how we can utilise these features to our benefit."   The Leeds Digital Festival is returning this year: an open, collaborative celebration of digital culture in all its forms held across the city. In association with Leeds Building Society local digital design agency Lion+Mason is hosting an informal in-person event to hear from leading specialists discussing some of the key digital challenges facing businesses - including how AI holds immense potential for enhancing product capabilities and how it can directly impact user experience. In this episode I chat with the speakers about what they will be covering in their talks and what relevant, practical tips they hope attendees can take away to use in their own organisations. The speakers are: Joe Deadman Senior Creative UX Designer at Leeds Building Society Marc Bowers User Experience Consultant at LION+MASON Helen Lawson Lead content designer at Co-op and Me!   More details about the event are here.   If you wish to attend, you can register here.  The blog post about AI which Marc mentions is here.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green

Andy Curry is Managing Director of product and design agency Lion+Mason. L+M are returning this year to the Leeds Digital Festival, an open, collaborative celebration of digital culture in all its forms held across the city. In association with Leeds Building Society, L+M are hosting an informal in-person event to hear from leading specialists discussing some of the key digital challenges facing businesses - including how AI holds immense potential for enhancing product capabilities and how it can directly impact user experience. In this episode I chat with Andy in advance of the event about the kinds of talks attendees can expect and what learnings they can hope to take away. More details about the event are here.   You can register for the event here. Listen to Andy's previous appearance on this podcast here, where he chats engagingly about his career in UX and his work.    Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green  

"We're not going to be replaced by AI, but we might be replaced by humans who know how to use AI." This is the final part in a series of bite-sized conversations with UX design and research leaders, recorded live at the UXDX conference in New York in May 2023. In this episode Chrissy Fleming, an independent product management consultant and Erin Eisinger, Founder and CEO of design studio Four By North, share their views on product management, approaching design problems in a user-centric way, and how a new generation of AI-based tooling could help us unlock the way product teams plan and conduct research with their users.    They also reflect on the role of AI in the design space, where we are with it and where we may be going... Thanks for listening, and enjoy the episode.   Mike Green

Claire White is Product Design Lead @ Exscientia, an AI-based Pharmatech research company.  She shares with me her experiences of moving into the rapidly-evolving world of AI-powered Pharmatech, her views on the importance of rapid, ongoing prototyping when designing products, and why User-Centred Design is not just UX Design.  Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy the episode.  Mike Green