

This is HCD – Human-Centered Design, UX & Service Design Thinking Podcast
Gerry Scullion
Welcome to This is HCD – Human-Centered Design, UX & Service Design Thinking Podcast, the global show for designers, innovators, and changemakers who want to create better products, services, and experiences.
Hosted by Gerry Scullion, with over 1-million downloads worldwide.
Each episode dives into conversations with leading voices in service design, UX design, interaction design, customer experience, and design strategy. Together, we explore the methods, mindsets, and real-world stories that bring human-centered design and design thinking to life.
Whether you’re a UX researcher, service design practitioner, product manager, or design leader, you’ll find actionable insights, practical tools, and inspiration to elevate your practice and drive meaningful change.
Tune in and join the global human-centered design community — learn how to design with purpose, create inclusive solutions, and shape a more thoughtful future.
Hosted by Gerry Scullion, with over 1-million downloads worldwide.
Each episode dives into conversations with leading voices in service design, UX design, interaction design, customer experience, and design strategy. Together, we explore the methods, mindsets, and real-world stories that bring human-centered design and design thinking to life.
Whether you’re a UX researcher, service design practitioner, product manager, or design leader, you’ll find actionable insights, practical tools, and inspiration to elevate your practice and drive meaningful change.
Tune in and join the global human-centered design community — learn how to design with purpose, create inclusive solutions, and shape a more thoughtful future.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Feb 28, 2023 • 50min
Melis Senova ‘Exploring what we mean by Design Character’
If you like our content, be sure to sign up to our weekly The Design Compass Newsletter. Design Smarter. Lead Better.Leave a review (+ help us grow): https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdIn this episode I speak with Melis Senova author of This Human and soon to be published book, Design Character. On Melis’s website they say “I help leaders find a deeper source to fuel their potential for leading others to have great impact in the world.” And we speak openly about Melis’s own journey of self-discovery and journey that has led her to a Phd in Human Centered Design, Co-Founding Huddle and now running her community for designers, titled This Human.Before we jump in, I have a favour to ask. I've been creating content for This is HCD for over 5-years or so, all for the love of sharing knowledge to the global design community. One thing you could do is leave a review (preferably a 5-star one!), as it helps us grow our community - every little helps. Even if you don’t review, you can go one better by telling people you work with about the podcast.Creators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
Like what we do? Make a Tip.OrLeave a review: https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdSponsor links10x your service design offering with Smaply. Take 20% off your order with ''ThisisHCD20off'Sign up https://auth.smaply.app/sign-upCheck out This is HCD x Sutsu range. Gerry wears and endorses Sutsu ethical clothing. Get 10% off ScenarioCards.org when you used our link https://scenariocards.org/HCD10

Feb 23, 2023 • 32min
Hinrich von Haaren ‘Diving deep into Content Transformation’
If you like our content, be sure to sign up to our weekly The Design Compass Newsletter. Design Smarter. Lead Better.Leave a review (+ help us grow): https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdIn this episode I speak with Hinrich von Haaren, Co-Founder of Content Design Academy at Content Design London and now author of Content Transformation - a fantastic book that no doubt will find its way into the hands of the UX and Service Design community over the coming months. It’s an awesome book and we chat about this exclusively in this episode.The book sets out to enable a content alpha to occur in businesses, how to go about this, including setting it up and all the way through to measurement. Hinrich is awesome and we know you are going to enjoy this podcast - so let’s jump in•Buy the book:https://contentdesign.london/shop/content-transformation-by-hinrich-von-haaren-paperback•https://www.linkedin.com/in/hinrich-von-haaren-05768a15/?originalSubdomain=ukCreators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
Like what we do? Make a Tip.OrLeave a review: https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdSponsor links10x your service design offering with Smaply. Take 20% off your order with ''ThisisHCD20off'Sign up https://auth.smaply.app/sign-upCheck out This is HCD x Sutsu range. Gerry wears and endorses Sutsu ethical clothing. Get 10% off ScenarioCards.org when you used our link https://scenariocards.org/HCD10

Feb 21, 2023 • 53min
Ben Reason ‘The Velocities of Change with the Founder of Livework’
If you like our content, be sure to sign up to our weekly The Design Compass Newsletter. Design Smarter. Lead Better.Leave a review (+ help us grow): https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdIn this episode I speak Ben Reason, Founding Partner of Live|Work in the UK. Ben has co-authored Service Design from Insight to Implementation and Service Design for Business: A Practical Guide to Optimizing the Customer Experience released in 2016. In this conversation we chat about a few things, but mainly around Ben’s own journey through Design, starting out in Liverpool in the mid-90’s and his entry into the world of Service Design later that decade.We chat about the work Live|Work do and also a new framework titled Three Velocities of Change - what this means, where it originated and why this is so important to not only Ben, but to the LiveWork team.https://www.linkedin.com/in/breasy/https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7008020506171875328/https://liveworkstudio.typeform.com/to/KQpMlnmc?typeform-source=www.linkedin.comCreators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
Like what we do? Make a Tip.OrLeave a review: https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdSponsor links10x your service design offering with Smaply. Take 20% off your order with ''ThisisHCD20off'Sign up https://auth.smaply.app/sign-upCheck out This is HCD x Sutsu range. Gerry wears and endorses Sutsu ethical clothing. Get 10% off ScenarioCards.org when you used our link https://scenariocards.org/HCD10

Feb 16, 2023 • 36min
Andrew Francomb 'Diving deeper into the transitionary period between university and work and it’s direct impact on mental health'
If you like our content, be sure to sign up to our weekly The Design Compass Newsletter. Design Smarter. Lead Better.Leave a review (+ help us grow): https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdIn this episode I chat with Andrew Francomb from the UK about their experience graduating from Lancaster University, and their experience of landing their first job. We chat about the impacts on Andrew’s mental health during this period of his life, and also how Lancaster help support their graduating students help find their feet.-https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-francomb-11a8a197Creators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
Like what we do? Make a Tip.OrLeave a review: https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdSponsor links10x your service design offering with Smaply. Take 20% off your order with ''ThisisHCD20off'Sign up https://auth.smaply.app/sign-upCheck out This is HCD x Sutsu range. Gerry wears and endorses Sutsu ethical clothing. Get 10% off ScenarioCards.org when you used our link https://scenariocards.org/HCD10

Feb 14, 2023 • 34min
John Foley 'Creating a business case to be hired'
If you like our content, be sure to sign up to our weekly The Design Compass Newsletter. Design Smarter. Lead Better.Leave a review (+ help us grow): https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdIn this episode I chat with John Foley, a service designer based in London working with Livework Studio. We chat about what the experience was like leaving University, working as a design researcher - and how John made his own luck. We chat about portfolios and also the interview process for Livework. It’s a good one - lets get into it.https://www.linkedin.com/in/designjfoley/https://www.liveworkstudio.comCreators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
Like what we do? Make a Tip.OrLeave a review: https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdSponsor links10x your service design offering with Smaply. Take 20% off your order with ''ThisisHCD20off'Sign up https://auth.smaply.app/sign-upCheck out This is HCD x Sutsu range. Gerry wears and endorses Sutsu ethical clothing. Get 10% off ScenarioCards.org when you used our link https://scenariocards.org/HCD10

Feb 9, 2023 • 27min
Emma Carpenter 'Exploring the craft of Service Design within South Africa'
If you like our content, be sure to sign up to our weekly The Design Compass Newsletter. Design Smarter. Lead Better.Leave a review (+ help us grow): https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdI caught up with Emma Carpenter, Head of Design Experience and previously Group Director Fjord Johannesburg, Associate Director atAccenture Song. Emma had been introduced to me several months ago, as I was keen to speak to someone in consulting space inAfrica, to get a better understanding of the social and technical implications for designing services.I am aware the blind spot in this conversation of two white practitioners of Anglo origins talking about Design in Africa, but nevertheless, I found speaking to Emma to be absolutely brilliant.They cover off some of the cultural implications around phone data, and how this perceived restriction drives potentially a more inclusive service. We chat about how western mindsets and tech organisations design for western behaviours and how this may inadvertently result in global information exclusion to African natives who favour less data intense services, which are more likely to be localised. I know you’re going to enjoy this episode...Connect with Emma https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmacarpenter/Creators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
Like what we do? Make a Tip.OrLeave a review: https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdSponsor links10x your service design offering with Smaply. Take 20% off your order with ''ThisisHCD20off'Sign up https://auth.smaply.app/sign-upCheck out This is HCD x Sutsu range. Gerry wears and endorses Sutsu ethical clothing. Get 10% off ScenarioCards.org when you used our link https://scenariocards.org/HCD10

Feb 7, 2023 • 30min
Rohan Walsh 'Making and breaking into UX & Service Design'
If you like our content, be sure to sign up to our weekly The Design Compass Newsletter. Design Smarter. Lead Better.Leave a review (+ help us grow): https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdThe Getting Started in Design podcasts are created for people looking to break into Design. We shine a light on that transitionary period between education and employment and try and understand what that experience is like for people trying to break into the industry. In my opinion it is every Designers responsibility to be that person we wished we could have met when we were looking for our first break.I caught up Rohan Walsh, a UX designer from Port Macquarie in Australia but now based in the Lebanon. We speak about Rohan’s journey to get where he is currently - including internships atAustralia Post amongst others. Rohan is an awesome designer, filled with so much potential and quality in all areas of his lifehttps://www.rohanwalsh.design/bioCreators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
Like what we do? Make a Tip.OrLeave a review: https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdSponsor links10x your service design offering with Smaply. Take 20% off your order with ''ThisisHCD20off'Sign up https://auth.smaply.app/sign-upCheck out This is HCD x Sutsu range. Gerry wears and endorses Sutsu ethical clothing. Get 10% off ScenarioCards.org when you used our link https://scenariocards.org/HCD10

Feb 1, 2023 • 47min
Amy Hupe ‘Design System Evolution’
If you like our content, be sure to sign up to our weekly The Design Compass Newsletter. Design Smarter. Lead Better.Leave a review (+ help us grow): https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdI caught up with Amy Hupe, a content designer and design system consultant based in the UK.In this conversation we drill into what a Design System is and is not, and talk about the governance processes around managing Design Systems - leaning on Amy’s 7year experience whilst working at GDS in the UK and more. Amy is a total rockstar and I know you are going to love listening to herCreators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
Like what we do? Make a Tip.OrLeave a review: https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdSponsor links10x your service design offering with Smaply. Take 20% off your order with ''ThisisHCD20off'Sign up https://auth.smaply.app/sign-upCheck out This is HCD x Sutsu range. Gerry wears and endorses Sutsu ethical clothing. Get 10% off ScenarioCards.org when you used our link https://scenariocards.org/HCD10

Jan 17, 2023 • 1h 6min
Dr. Melvin Vopson 'The environmental weight of data'
If you like our content, be sure to sign up to our weekly The Design Compass Newsletter. Design Smarter. Lead Better.Leave a review (+ help us grow): https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdDr Melvin Vopson is a truly fascinating character and deep thinker. A physicist, he is the proposer of the mass-energy-information equivalence principle, has identified a technological singularity called the Information Catastrophe and has discovered the second law of information dynamics. Melvin is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the world's first Information Physics Institute. His current scientific interests revolve around theoretical and experimental studies involving all aspects of information physics. I started by asking Melvin about his theory that information has its own weight, a weight independent of the device it is stored on.Creators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
Like what we do? Make a Tip.OrLeave a review: https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdSponsor links10x your service design offering with Smaply. Take 20% off your order with ''ThisisHCD20off'Sign up https://auth.smaply.app/sign-upCheck out This is HCD x Sutsu range. Gerry wears and endorses Sutsu ethical clothing. Get 10% off ScenarioCards.org when you used our link https://scenariocards.org/HCD10

Jan 16, 2023 • 45min
Karel Vredenburg 'The evolution of Design at IBM plus the Future of Design education'
If you like our content, be sure to sign up to our weekly The Design Compass Newsletter. Design Smarter. Lead Better.Leave a review (+ help us grow): https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdI caught up with Karel Vredenburg, Karel is currently IBM Global Vice President, Client Insights and Research and responsible for leading the company’s global team of researchers and the insights they provide to product, services, and executive teams.Karel joined IBM in 1988 after having done graduate studies, research, and teaching at the University of Toronto. He introduced User-Centered Design at IBM in 1993 and assumed a company-wide role in 1995 leading IBM's community of designers, leading the development of design methods, languages, and technologies, and leading the design of the commercialization of the IBM Watson. In 2013, Karel help found a new IBM Design program together with General Manager of Design, Phil Gilbert, and IBM Fellow, Charlie Hill. Karel personally introduced the new design program which included Enterprise Design Thinking to IBM product development laboratories worldwide and introduced a tailored version of it to IBM consulting services and technology services organizations worldwide from 2014 through 2016. He next focused on the development and activation of Enterprise Design Thinking for client facing professionals worldwide and rolled that to IBM’s top client accounts in 2017 and 2018. We chat about lots of amazing areas, such as where Design needs to go in the future to be more affective, Design Coaching, Design Education and cover off some of the key insights from the work that Karel and Don Norman have been working towards with the Future of Design Education project. Karel is awesome and I know you will love this conversation - https://www.futureofdesigneducation.orghttp://karelvredenburg.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/karelvredenburg/?originalSubdomain=caKarels podcast https://www.karelvredenburg.com/lifehabitsmentoringCreators & Guests
Gerry Scullion - Host
Stef Murphy - Producer
Like what we do? Make a Tip.OrLeave a review: https://ratethispodcast.com/hcdSponsor links10x your service design offering with Smaply. Take 20% off your order with ''ThisisHCD20off'Sign up https://auth.smaply.app/sign-upCheck out This is HCD x Sutsu range. Gerry wears and endorses Sutsu ethical clothing. Get 10% off ScenarioCards.org when you used our link https://scenariocards.org/HCD10