

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

Jun 15, 2021 • 35min
Dorota Gazy & Dr Qin Han 'Doing Remote Research'
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, Gerry Scullion and Dr Qin Han and Dorota Gazy of STBY - two world class design researchers who live and breathe design research every single day. They are running a session at the Doing Design Festival on June 18 2021 and also a 'Doing Remote Research' short course on June 23 (a link in the shownotes)In this episode we chat about the shift during the pandemic to full remote research, what this meant, how they adapted their craft and what this means for design researchers moving forward. 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

Jun 2, 2021 • 1h 3min
Rachael Dietkus 'Exploring what it means to be trauma-informed in 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/hcdBefore we jump into this episode, I wanted to alert listeners that this episode may contain content that is triggering to some people. In it we discuss sexual abuse and working with Design alongside issues of trauma.Today on the show we have Rachael Dietkus a phenomenal person and advocate for trauma led approaches in design.First and foremost, Rachael is a social worker, based 2-hours south of Chicago in Urbana Champaign in Illinois. We speak in depth about trauma as a societal problem, that is owned by all. We go into the details around working in this space and the affects it can have on change-makers, and how we, as designer and change makers are very much exposed to this reality. How might we protect Designers from likely vicarious traumas in this space? How can we prepare the next wave of change-makers to be ready? We speak about what Designers need to be aware of when approaching some of the most sensitive subjects known, such as child sexual abuse, domestic violence etc.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

May 31, 2021 • 38min
Kelly Ann McKercher 'Designing with, Designing for and Designing at'
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 the brilliant, the lovely, Kelly Ann McKercher - author of Beyond Sticky Notes and a wonderful designer to boot. We speak about DESIGN AT people - and go deeper into determining what this means for organisations. We speak about ways for teams and designers to help self-identify between DESIGNING AT and DESIGNING FOR people. We look at what this means whilst balancing DESIGN WITH and if this is the goal that we should be aiming for.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

May 21, 2021 • 34min
Christof Zürn 'The Power of Music Thinking'
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 chat the interrelationship between Design and Music and what Design can learn from thinking like a musician. As an 'ex' musician and songwriter myself, I see the world of Design very much within the same family as music.We drill a little deeper into Christofs Music Thinking framework and learn more about the value it can bring to teams and organisations.Lets get into it.https://www.creative-companion.comhttps://nl.linkedin.com/in/creativecompanionCreators & 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

May 20, 2021 • 50min
Tom Greenwood 'Is digital the great accelerator of the climate crisis?'
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 Website Carbon Calculator is a real go to tool for me when I want to find out how much CO2 a particular web page is creating. This, and many other great initiatives, comes from Wholegrain Digital, a company founded by Vineeta and Tom Greenwood in 2007. Tom has recently published an excellent book, Sustainable Web Design, from A Book Apart. I wanted to know how Vineeta and Tom got started so early in 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

May 10, 2021 • 37min
Renatus Hoogenraad 'Coaching for Designers & Changemakers'
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 Gerry Scullion and Renatus, Head of Coaching at This is Doing. We speak about What Coaching is, if it differs to Mentoring and what benefits it can bring to practitioners.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

May 7, 2021 • 35min
Shane Waring 'Exploring the rapid service experimentation model within local Councils'
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/hcdHello and welcome to another episode of Bringing Design Closer. My name is Gerry Scullion, and I’m a service designer, and founder of This is HCD and CEO of This is Doing - we provide live online design and innovation classes, providing training for people within the Design and change-making space.Today on the show we have Shane Waring from Dublin City Council and founder of Dublin City BETA - a wonderful initiative that is focused on making Dublin City more liveable through service experimentation. We speak with Shane about the process behind the scenes and what makes this initiative different to typical initiatives in normal Councils and Governments.We learn more about the background to some of Shanes work and go deeper into what the benefits are for Councils to approach this mindset of rapid service experimentation.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

May 5, 2021 • 38min
Adam Lawrence 'The Story of This is Service Design Doing'
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 the work that went into it by Marc, Markus, Adam and Jakob and all of the 200-300 practitioners around the world, some of whom are now part of This is Doing and generally about how it all came together.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

Apr 28, 2021 • 50min
Rachel Liu 'How to be Inclusive Pioneers'
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 conversation, Vimla and Rachel talk about multi-culturalism, how to have difficult conversations and how to build more inclusive workplace cultures. Rachel's humble and unique perspective gives an eye-opening account of how to design education around cultural needs and so much 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

Apr 27, 2021 • 35min
Lar Veale 'Embedding Jobs to be Done into banking'
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/hcdToday on the show we have Lar Veale, Lead UX Designer for Business Banking in AIB - one of Ireland’s biggest banks. We speak about the journey both Lar and AIB went on introducing Jobs to be Done, and what this actually entailed. I have little experience with JTBD, so I was extra curious and approached the conversation as someone curious about some of the caveats that come with introducing new ‘things’. 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