Archives: Episode

051: Accessible Design = Better Design with Derek Featherstone

User Defenders podcast
Accessibility
051: Accessible Design = Better Design with Derek Featherstone
Loading
/

Derek Featherstone teaches us how designing for people with disabilities is really just better design for everybody. He shows us how people with disabilities aren’t different from us, they just use different tools to accomplish the same things. He encourages us to apply empathy to grow our skills in learning how to design for accessibility. He also reveals how taking small steps to incorporate something new into our design process could change everything.

Derek Featherstone is an internationally known speaker and authority on accessibility and inclusive design. He has been working on the web since 1999, starting as a web developer. He migrated to the field of accessibility and quickly discovered the need to move thinking about accessibility and inclusion into the design process. He founded and led an international team of accessibility and usability experts at Simply Accessible, which was recently acquired by Level Access, where Derek is now the Chief Experience Officer – focused on ensuring that accessibility and inclusion are seen as an integral part of user experience and service design, rather than as a simple checklist afterthought. Derek lives in Ottawa, Canada with his wife and their 4 children. He’s also a fitness instructor and 3 time Iron Man triathlon finisher.

  • Origin Story (5:53)
  • What Were Your “Aha” Moments? (12:02)
  • Why Do We Tend to Forget About Disabled Users? (17:15)
  • Tools Disabled Folks Use to Navigate (20:47)
  • Accessibility, Greater Than Aesthetics (31:37)
  • Has Designing for Accessibility Ever Made Things Worse for Majority of “Able” Users? (36:14)
  • Story of Biggest Triumph in Designing for Inclusivity + Accessibility (42:36)
  • What’s a Roadmap for Learning this Stuff? (44:56)
  • Contact Info (47:35)

Continue reading 051: Accessible Design = Better Design with Derek Featherstone

Mindful Technology with Liza Kindred

User Defenders podcast
Special Episodes
Mindful Technology with Liza Kindred
Loading
/

Liza Kindred challenges us to be more mindful in how we use and design technology. She offers us a value system on how to do just that. She encourages us to slow down and incorporate meditation and mindfulness practices into our daily lives. She reminds us to connect more with the real humans physically present with us. She also inspires us to design for the world we want to live in.

Liza Kindred is an author, speaker, and the founder of Mindful Technology. She has spent twenty years working in fashion and in technology, eventually specializing in wearable tech. The more Liza helped develop technologies to be worn on our bodies, the more she became alarmed about the lack of attention being paid to whether these devices were serving us… or the other way around. As a meditation teacher, a student of Shambhala Buddhism, and a reiki practitioner, Liza has had a front row seat to to the realities of how drastic the difference is between how we want our lives to be shaped, and what kinds of technologies we continue to build. Liza has worked with some of the top companies in fashion and in tech, including VOGUE Magazine, Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdales, Hearst Media, Time Inc, Microsoft, Cisco, Vodafone, and Amazon. Liza has been written about by The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Financial Times, Fast Company Magazine, InStyle Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, Wall Street Journal Market Watch and many more.

Fun Fact: She’s been an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church for 15 years. She was internet-ordained to officiate at her friend’s wedding and it has built from there. All five couples she’s married are still together to this day!

  • What is Mindful Technology? (6:50)
  • Benefits of practicing Mindful Tech? (9:23)
  • How do you mitigate FOMO? (24:46)
  • Smartphone addiction in the home (30:10)
  • Implications if we don’t practice mindful tech? (40:52)
  • How do we design for human connection? (47:39)
  • How can we inspire others to be more mindful with tech? (56:56)
  • What would your last words be to designers influencing tech? (67:20)
  • Liza’s “Eff This” book (71:35)
  • Jason’s mindfulness tip (76:17)

Continue reading Mindful Technology with Liza Kindred

050: We Can Be Heroes with Jason Ogle

User Defenders podcast
Culture
050: We Can Be Heroes with Jason Ogle
Loading
/

Jason Ogle shows us how we can all be design superheroes with the right mindset. He reveals how grit trumps talent, every day. He reminds us of the peril that bad leadership and ego can have on a team and organization. He challenges us to never stop fighting for our users. He also inspires us to be a catalyst for our community.

Jason Ogle is human, not dancer. He fails early, and learns often. He’s a growth-minded, avid reader and listener whose vehicle is a rolling university, and a biz-minded, strategic designer who loves to make life better for his users. He’s a passionate user defender who fights for the users who are victims of bad design decisions. He’s an influential podcaster who uses the enchanting magic of audio to inspire and equip an audience of hungry and ambitious designers. He’s an evocative (often contrarian) writer who believeth in the power of the written word. He’s a self-aware and highly empathic servant-leader who believes that humans are so much more than resources. He’s also a loving husband, father of seven (one’s in heaven), and thankful believer who has a personal relationship with the Creator of the Universe. Fun fact: He once had to get a manicure to be a hand-model for a tech ad, and he has a rare essay titled “Altars of Satan” given to him and signed by Eldridge Cleaver.

  • Secret Identity (6:49)
  • Origin Story (11:14)
  • Biggest Superhero (21:31)
  • Biggest Failure (28:51)
  • Awkward Testing Story (35:06)
  • Design Superpower (40:35)
  • Design Kryptonite (43:04)
  • UX Superhero Name (49:16)
  • Fights for Users (57:09)
  • Habit of Success (61:28)
  • Recommended Book (67:10)
  • Best Advice (69:58)

Continue reading 050: We Can Be Heroes with Jason Ogle

049: User Research War Stories with Steve Portigal

User Defenders podcast
User Research
049: User Research War Stories with Steve Portigal
Loading
/

Steve Portigal challenges us to enjoy the silence when interviewing people. He teaches us the importance of rapport-building, and offers sage advice on how to do it. He shows us how sticking with an interview even when it’s not going well can sometimes bring forth the best data. He also reveals how a little empathy can go a long way in field research.

Steve Portigal helps companies to think and act strategically when innovating with user insights. Based outside of San Francisco, he is principal of Portigal Consulting, and the author of two books: The classic Interviewing Users: How To Uncover Compelling Insights and the new, Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries: User Research War Stories. He’s also the host of the Dollars to Donuts podcast, where he interviews people who lead user research in their organizations. Steve is an accomplished presenter who speaks about culture, innovation, and design at companies and conferences across the globe. Steve hated Cats (the musical) – he’s okay with cats the animal, and he’s never seen Forrest Gump.

  • Secret Identity (8:08)
  • Origin Story (12:19)
  • What drives your curiosity? (24:53)
  • Roberta ‘call me Bert’s war story (29:28)
  • What’s Ethnography (the “E-word”) (38:32)
  • Rapport-building tips (46:51)
  • Brian’s war story (55:21)
  • UX Superhero Name (66:28)
  • Habit of Success (75:06)
  • Steve’s Corset War Story (78:39)
  • Best Advice (84:53)
  • Contact Info (88:33)

Continue reading 049: User Research War Stories with Steve Portigal

048: Pick Yourself with Cassie McDaniel

User Defenders podcast
Personal Growth
048: Pick Yourself with Cassie McDaniel
Loading
/

Cassie McDaniel inspires us to get away from the ‘pick me’ mindset, and to pick ourselves. She challenges us to be willing to kill our darlings so that something better can emerge. She teaches us the importance of knowing our values, but also embracing the fact that they are going to change. She also encourages us to not just do what we’re good at, but do what we enjoy.

Cassie McDaniel runs a small, ambitious, friendly design studio with her husband called Jane & Jury. As previous Design Director at the Mozilla Foundation, she led a team of designers on the organization’s advocacy and digital literacy fronts. She founded the interview series Women&&Tech and runs a creative event and workshop series called Paris Lectures. She grew up in Florida, jumped around in England, and is now based an hour outside Toronto in rural Ontario, where she is deeply invested in the roots she puts down into her community both locally and online. She’s both a national champion collegiate water polo player, and a published poet.

  • Secret Identity (8:27)
  • Origin Story (20:56)
  • Being Mozilla Foundation’s Design Director (24:09)
  • Biggest Failure (36:36)
  • Kill Your Darlings (40:24)
  • Design Superpower (52:54)
  • Habit of Success (62:59)
  • Invincible Resource (67:39)
  • Best Advice (70:33)

Continue reading 048: Pick Yourself with Cassie McDaniel