

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

Dec 17, 2021 • 34min
Luke Craven and Elise Motalli "What it means to be a systems-conscious designer"
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’m your host Kelly Ann McKercher, author of Beyond Sticky Notes: Doing Co-design for Real. In this podcast we hear from Luke Craven and Elise Motalli about what it means to be a systems-conscious designer, where we can turn to for more expansive language about the worlds we want. https://www.linkedin.com/in/elise-motalli-44070b119/Nora Batesonhttps://batesoninstitute.org/nora-bateson/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

Dec 7, 2021 • 53min
Katie Singer 'The invisible, immaterial Internet is not what it seems'
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/hcdSome people live their ideas. Katie Singer is one of them. She writes about the energy, extraction, toxic waste and greenhouse gases involved in manufacturing computers, telecom infrastructure, electric vehicles and other electronic technologies.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

Nov 26, 2021 • 55min
Rachael Dietkus, Morgan Cataldo and Tad Hirsch - 'Practicing without a license'
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’m your host Kelly Ann McKercher, author of Beyond Sticky Notes: Doing Co-design for Real. Today we’re joined by community-design leader Morgan Lee Cataldo, professor of design Tad Hirsch and social worker turned designer, Rachael Dietkus. We explore the similarities between design research and psychotherapy, the dark side of rapport, the differences in transactional research versus community-led as well as the increasingly popular topic of what being trauma-informed might mean. 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

Nov 21, 2021 • 30min
Moodi Mahmoudi 'The rise of the service economy and rethinking how we approach service discovery"
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 Moodi Mahmoudi of Next, a business centred around helping organisations create frameworks for design and innovation within their businesses - we speak about the automation of the role of Designer and what this looks like - and I challenge Moodi about the risks associated with this. Is this something we strive for? Moodi explains this isn’t the intention, but it’s removing the mundane elements, and creating experiences that enable designers and innovators to focus more on the craft of DOING their work. We speak about the hyper addiction of orgs striving for more growth - and if this is the driver behind the business -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

Nov 5, 2021 • 41min
Sloan Leo - what community?
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’m your host Kelly Ann McKercher, author of Beyond Sticky Notes: Doing Co-design for Real. On today's podcast I’m joined by the exceptional Sloan Leo. Sloan is many things - a designer, community organiser, educator, friend and owner of Flox Studios. We talk about equity-centred design, about the inspiration that Sloan has taken from bell hook’s work, how Sloan came to design from frustration and what they are thinking about now.https://floxstudio.com/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

Oct 8, 2021 • 33min
Gender diverse in design with KA McKercher / Episode 2
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’m your host Kelly Ann McKercher, author of Beyond Sticky Notes: Doing Co-design for Real. In this podcast we hear from Ruby Quail and Hailey Cooperrider about gender diversity, what designers can learn from games and why we should slow down in our design work (a recurring theme across this series). https://www.linkedin.com/in/haileycoop/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

Sep 29, 2021 • 47min
George Aye 'Understanding Power and it's role within Human Centered 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/hcdWe speak about Human-Centered-ness in this podcast. Just what do we mean when we say HCD and we discuss the problems it faces when being applied - what is causing the term to lose its power and the role education and large consultancies play. We talk about what often gets missed when HCD work is undertaken, and also cover off the criteria for taking on projects at Greater Good Studio - and the role power plays in that selection process.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

Sep 24, 2021 • 40min
Pushing Practice with KA McKercher / Episode 1
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’m your host Kelly Ann McKercher, author of Beyond Sticky Notes: Doing Co-design for Real. In this podcast we speak with Euan Black and lauren anseline about networks for social impact - what they are, how to convene networks and what to avoid. Content warning: we talk about death and end of life in this podcast. While we talk constructively, the topic may be upsetting for some. 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

Sep 23, 2021 • 26min
'Understanding what it means to be agile within an Agile organisation'
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, you’ll hear from myself our wonderful agile expert at This is Doing - Daniela Decker - we chat about the common misconceptions about what it means to ‘Do’ and ‘Be’ Agile and cover off parts of where things get a little bit weird when it comes to the interpretation of Agile and Agility - let’s jump inCreators & 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

Sep 22, 2021 • 49min
Anneli Ohvril 'Let’s talk about digital hygiene'
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/hcdIf someone looked inside your computer or your Cloud account would they find a tidy, clean, well-maintained place? Or would they find a messy, chaotic dump. Imagine if old, waste content smelled. How smelly would your computer be? Anneli Ohvril is founder and CEO of Let’s Do It World, the international environmental organisation that engages leaders and organisations around the globe for a waste-free world. The biggest project World Cleanup Day have engaged in involved more than 50 million people from 180 countries.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